


And Victoria Makes Three

by Unajet



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Marvel Cinematic Universe Fusion, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase Two Compliant, Multi, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-05
Updated: 2019-02-13
Packaged: 2019-08-19 08:14:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 115
Words: 510,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16530815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unajet/pseuds/Unajet
Summary: AU - Soulmate Marks; Steve and Bucky never found a match to their three-person soulmate mark growing up. Now, eighty years later they figure that their soulmate had to have died long ago. Finally finding Victoria alive and living in New York is quite a surprise to them. And after learning who they are, she is determined to bring a bit of fun into their lives. But for Bucky and Steve, a soulmate also comes with a heavy price...leverage to use against them. They'll deal with Rumlow and other villains as their lives start to spin out of control.Movie compliant story-line up till just after Avengers: Age of Ultron (but Quicksilver does live).No Black Panther movie or Avengers: Infinity War story.





	1. An Almost Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> I was curious as to what I could do with the idea of a soulmate alternate universe and this is what came out.
> 
> It is MCU compliant from CA:WS and A:AofU. After that, I changed a couple of things to make the story work a bit better for the plot. I do not use the Civil War or Infinity War movie plots. I've explained the differences in the first two chapters and after that it's mostly story. 
> 
> The story is written in multiple parts: the fun of the three of them getting to know each (includes sexy time) and then the bad guy(s) showing up (includes violence) which continues throughout till the end.
> 
> Since the work is completed, I will be posting multiple chapters at the same time.
> 
> FYI: Rumlow is hate-filled and cruel…just the way he should have been after what happened to him in DC. You'll see that when he finally shows up. Other Avengers will make appearances, not all (as it's not their story). I'm not going to spoil who else I pull into the story as bad guys, you'll just have to read to find out.
> 
> The story is fully complete and long. I previously posted it on FanFiction and decided to post it here also.  
> I hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think.

 

* * *

**An Almost Meeting**

**Early November, 2016  
**

* * *

"Steve...how much longer until Tony gets down here?" Bucky asked into the earcom as he made yet another circular lap around the polished lobby of Stark Tower. Or was it Avengers' Tower? It changed depending on what kind of mood Tony was in that day, causing multiple funny arguments within the entire group.

" _He's still working on some contraption, but Pepper is on the way to his lab to get him now. Why? Are the reporters getting restless_?" Steve replied from the common room many floors above his head, listening in on his own earcom.

"Not too bad, so I guess they are used to this type of treatment from Tony, but _I'm_ getting bored," Bucky said nodding once again to the ladies who worked the welcome / information desk.

Every time he passed by on his security sweep, they would give him little coy smiles but there was something about them that just annoyed him. Maybe it was their too high pitched laughs at the least funniest things that people said to them. He could remember dames like them from before, the kind who would fall all over him and totally ignore Steve. Had he really been interested in dames like that?

" _I warned you before you headed down there that it was pointless to do so until Pepper came and retrieved him. Tony hates having to do stuff like this_ ," Steve said to which he only gave him a grunt reply. Being down here was at least something to do, he figured. Even though FRIDAY was scanning everyone that entered the building for weapons and the regular security guards in the silly tailored suits were working, he needed to do something besides sitting upstairs waiting.

Sometimes being here at the Tower, he would get anxious, feeling like he needed to be somewhere or do something, not just sitting upstairs until a mission came around. It didn't happen often, but when it did…he just had to go, do something, anything…even laps around the lobby. He noticed that Steve would get the same way, a restlessness, and they would take a few laps around the park to help get rid of it. Sometimes, he would go to the park alone, or at least Steve liked to make him think he was alone. The Punk thought that he didn't notice him following him, feeling like he needed to watch and guard him. He just let him keep on thinking that until the day he had finally stopped.

The meandering reporters waiting for the press conference were mixing in with the usual flow of working people trying to come and go through the main lobby doors. For security purposes, the side entrances were locked off and would not be accessible until the conference was over…if it would ever begin. This meant that a lot of people were crossing paths and taking up a lot of floor area that was used to move around in.

Bucky was not dressed to fit in with the normal employees in the building, staying a bit more on the casual side with dark jeans, long sleeve shirt, gloves, combat boots, and a hat pulled down over his face. He realized that it was a bit pointless since he was not actually in hiding anymore but old habits die hard. It did seem to work at giving him a bit of peace though since none of the reporters had recognized him, and if they did, they were staying away. Just like he wanted. He had made it clear on numerous occasions that he did not like interviews, and the reporters, who wanted them, even less. Let Steve handle them. They loved Captain America who was always nice to them. Probably too nice.

Ever since coming to the Tower in January to live, he had tried to acclimate to the strange new life that Steve had. His training had tried to keep him up to date with most technology but the culture fell short. But his new 'job' of playing the part of hero…that was still too new for him, with all of the villain memories swirling around. Then, there were the times that it reminded him of during the war and following Steve across Europe going after HYDRA bases, and that helped to make it a bit easier.

If it wasn't for Wanda helping him sort through the jumble mess that was his memories, and being able to remove those evil trigger words, he probably wouldn't be here at all. He would have kept running, no matter what Steve would have wanted. But after the third time that HYDRA had tracked him down and almost retaken him, he knew that it was going to be impossible to stay hidden from them, so he did the next best thing: go to Steve and the Avengers, which would put him right out in the open where they couldn't get to him.

The others had been mostly accepting of him, with the largest strain still being between him and Tony, with good reason. Their association had started off with arguing, as in Tony yelling at him…moved to ignoring each other, as in him avoiding Tony…and now they were at the point where Tony would at least acknowledge him with a nod if they passed in the hall. Better than it had been when he got here, he knew, and definitely better than being captured by HYDRA again.

Steve had told Tony about his parents being targeted and assassinated by HYDRA after he and Natasha had found the information in the bunker with Zola. But the shock had been when Tony learned _who_ had killed his parents. His father's old friend thought long dead, as well as his new friend and teammate's soulmate.

The information dump that came from the SHIELD/HYDRA files had been classified and encrypted but with Natasha's help, most of the ones concerning him had been removed from the internet. The recovered paper files stored upstairs were very thorough about his time as the Asset, not just his missions, but his conditioning. Over and over, Tony had told Steve that scientifically he understood what had been done to him, but that emotionally he needed more time.

Hearing the sound of a raised male voice, Bucky turned towards the front entrance's automatic doors to see what was going on. Passing around the annoying reporters who did not even care about the disturbance, he was able to see that one of the suit-wearing guards had stopped a bicycle messenger that had entered the lobby.

He could instantly tell why. The normal side door that the messengers used to drop off packages and letters had been one of the doors locked off for security reasons until after the conference. Just outside of it was a secure area where they could leave their bikes while they went to the desk to get their required signatures showing delivery and dropping off their packages.

Right now, they were having to leave their bikes outside of the main door where they were not guarded from being stolen, so they could only be secured with a personal lock. It looked like this messenger had taken it upon himself to use a different form of protection against theft, as he had lifted the thin bike over his left shoulder and was attempting to walk it across the lobby to the desk to deliver his package. The guard did not look like he was going to allow that to happen.

"I don't care! You will take that thing back outside. Now!" the guard was saying as he got close enough to hear the details of their conversation. Bucky was also within range so that with Steve's hearing, he was able to listen to everything through the earcom.

" _Is there a problem, Bucky_?" Steve asked worriedly.

"Not really. One of the guards is being a bit of a prick," Bucky said still moving forward towards the two, just in case.

"No…I am going to do my job and drop this envelope off. If you have a problem with that then maybe in the future you'll think about not locking us messengers out during business hours. Now…if you'll excuse me," the biker panted out while trying to sidestep the guard.

Making sure that the messenger was not really a threat, Bucky took a good look at him. Tennis shoes, dark grey sweats with no bulges of hidden weapons, bulky hooded jacket, goggles to protect his eyes, a funny looking boxy hat with the company logo printed on it. Nothing that he felt that concern about, even considering he was carrying a bike.

"Not going to happen, buddy," the guard said before taking his hand and giving the yellow hat with white wings an upwards flick of his fingers in a show of abuse of his authority just a bit. Bucky knew that right then that the guard was just being a bully because he could. He should never have raised a hand at a civilian, even if it was a simple gesture.

"Really?" the bike messenger stated firmly, with a very strong snarky tone. With that, he then suddenly gave out four very loud, very quick whistles that would put anyone else on the New York streets trying to get a taxi to shame. The high pitch tones not only made Bucky wince, but he could hear Steve complaining from the earcom. The piercing sound finally managed to turn the head of every reporter in the lobby.

" _Bucky…what is going on down there_?" Steve asked concerned as Bucky then heard someone else in the lobby telling people to move out of his way.

"I'm not sure yet. Hold on," Bucky said as he turned to the new voice coming towards the incident. As the crowd parted, he saw Happy Hogan walking firmly toward the bike messenger and guard, commanding people out of his way.

"What's going on?" Happy asked arriving to stand next to the messenger and guard. Bucky quickly moved in a better position to see and hear, but held back just behind a banner suspended from an easel. He could see what was going on and was close enough to interfere if he needed to, but was not attracting attention to himself.

"I'm sorry, Sir, this _person_ refuses to leave. I was trying to get him out…" the guard began before being interrupted by Happy, who held up a single finger to silence him.

"I wasn't speaking to you," Happy said to the guard before turning to look at the messenger.

" _Person_? Listen here buddy…see this bike…see this bag…see this _silly little hat_ with wings on it?" the messenger said pointing to each item as it was listed off, "This _person_ is a messenger that you are preventing from doing their job," the biker said before turning to Happy while jerking a thumb in the guard's general direction and saying, "New guy?"

Bucky couldn't help but give a slight laugh at the comment about a hat with wings as he pictured Steve's costume.

"Yes. How have you been?" Happy said putting his hand on the messengers shoulder to guide him as the two of them began to walk away from the guard towards the information desk, leaving the guard standing in a stunned silence. Even Bucky was a bit confused as to what had just happened.

As they walked further away from where Bucky was hiding he lost their conversation due to the loudness of the crowd.

" _I heard that_ ," Steve said through the earcom.

"Which part?" Bucky asked.

" _The wings comment followed by your laughing_ ," Steve sounded a bit happier than usual. He knew it had to be from hearing him laugh. Even he knew that it had been a long time since he had done so, but even being here with Steve he still didn't feel whole. And Steve was always easy to read when it came to seeing him acting like his old self.

"Couldn't help it," Bucky said as he continued to watch Happy and the messenger talk as one of the girls signed for the package.

As they then walked back towards the main door, Bucky watched as the messenger focused his glare on the guard, who was also glaring back, then raised his two fingers in a V sign, one that he recognized as the British version of flipping the bird, which roused another chuckle from him. Had it really been so long since anyone had amused him?

Walking through the doors, the messenger then placed the bike on the ground, flipping the kickstand so it could stand on its own. But what he was not expecting was the messenger then taking a closer step towards Happy. At first he was expecting an attack, but then the biker leaned over and gave Happy a quick peck on the cheek, startling Bucky a bit, but eliciting a grin from Happy. They talked for a moment more before Happy waved goodbye as he turned to head back into the Tower.

As Happy then walked into the lobby, Bucky stepped out from his secluded spot and got Happy's attention by snapping his fingers, gesturing for him to come over. Happy was still with a wide grin on his face as he sauntered over towards Bucky.

"Hey there, Mr. Barnes," Happy said lifting his hand in a gesture of hello, keeping just out of arms reach. He knew that Happy was still hesitant around him but at least he tried to be nice.

As Bucky removed the comm from his ear, he asked, "Happy, did that guy just kiss you?", knowing what was going to happen.

" _What!_?" he heard Steve practically scream through the small ear device he was holding in his hand. Now that _that_ was over, he replaced the piece into his ear.

"What guy?" Happy asked looking around confused, but his eyes failed to fall on the bike messenger until Bucky gave a point with his finger in his direction. Happy then responded with a heart-felt laugh. Bucky thought that the reaction was a bit strange until… " _That_ is no man."

Looking back towards the door, Bucky watched as the bike messenger was removing the silly winged hat, which had been slightly misaligned due to the guard's finger tap of it, allowing a full head of long white-blond hair to fall past his…no wait…her shoulders and down her back.

Staring at the person, he reexamined his initial assessment of the biker. The shoes were of a smaller size than a man's, the bulky winter clothing could easily hide a slimmer frame, and the goggles would hide feminine eyes. How she got all of that hair under the small biking hat he didn't know, but as he watched her begin to give it a unique twisting motion, she was able to sweep it back up under the cap, making it disappear once again. It made him gain an appreciation for her ability with hair. He knew the struggle of dealing with the messy stuff.

"That's Vic," Happy said but as soon as the name left his mouth, he must have realized how it sounded. "Short for Victoria. She's worked as a bike messenger since near the beginning of the year. I met her when she first ran the route after starting with the messenger company. She's great."

Bucky watched as Victoria hopped on the bike and headed off, not bothering to look back at the building. He turned as he registered Happy's words.

"She's great? You hate everybody," Bucky said not believing what he was hearing.

"I don't _hate_ everybody...I just take into account that most people could be a security risk. Vic is cool," Happy said as he put his hand up to his own earcom, listening on another channel to the suit guards.

Bucky turned as the arrival of the private elevator was marked by Tony's favorite song, _Iron Man_ , beginning to play through the large lobby, his preferred way of announcing the arrival of 'The Tony Stark' to the waiting reporters, who collectively moved like cattle towards the now opening doors.

Once Tony had exited, Bucky watched as Steve emerged behind Pepper wearing his full uniform, bringing a smile to his face as he saw his cap. A silly little hat with wings on it. That comment had definitely made his day. And he couldn't wait to tell the others about it. It had been a while since he had been able to pick on Steve.


	2. Night Job

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to use background history either from the MCU or the comics, depending on which worked better for my story. Some elements will be familiar but there is also new history to try and keep it interesting.

**Night Job**

**Two weeks later**

* * *

"Come on…you have got to get over this shyness, Steve," Tony practically whined at him as their small party entered the crowded, loud strip club. Without checking to see that everyone was actually following him, and just assuming that they were, Tony proceeded across the room to a large free table a bit back from the stage, which was probably why it was empty. With a sweeping arm gesture and a large tacky grin that was pure Tony, he said, "If it makes you feel better…consider it a _burlesque_ club."

"That does _not_ help, Tony," Steve said following the leader of tonight's events but keeping his eyes aimed more at the floor than anywhere else.

Bucky slapped Steve on the shoulder as he headed away from the group to do a quick security sweep of the room, a habit he could not break him of. There was no way any HYDRA agents were laying-in-wait for them to randomly enter here. But if Steve thought that it would make Bucky comfortable, he would let him run laps in here.

Both Sam and Bruce followed him and Tony to the table, with Sam pausing to spit out some cheesy pickup line to a waitress with short pink hair in a skimpy outfit that fit her body very nicely, he noticed as he went by. At least Sam had good taste, Steve thought as he watched her just shake her head and roll her eyes at the comment before walking away without a word. He figured all of the waitresses were used to such things happening.

"How are you and your sidekick ever going to find someone if you hole yourself up in your place every night?" Tony asked raising his arm trying to get the attention of any waitress.

"Tony, we've been over this. The chance of finding any female for us, much less our soulmate, _especially_ in a place like this, is astronomical," Steve said as he took a seat, leaving the chair on his left open, looking back at Bucky now grinning at the female bartender. _Of course_ he would be smiling in here…

Bucky had adjusted to this modern time a bit quicker, unfortunately due to his HYDRA training, and when it came to their soulmate, they were both in agreement. The person was most likely long dead, having lived early in the last century when the two of them had been born. It was the most logical assumption.

They had known since growing up in Brooklyn that their soulmarks were a match, but not a complete match. There was a piece missing. The soulmarks upon their chest, at the top of the sternum, consisted of a section of a star surrounded by a black circle. Whereas Bucky's lower left-side section of star was red, Steve's right-side lower section was blue. The unique flowing dividing line showed the missing top piece was colored white with a bit of each of their colors on the bottom side of the missing piece. This would have been a definite indication so that the third person would have known that they were missing two sections, not just one. It was fate that ended up with both of them having the same symbol, similar yet different, to represent them…Bucky's arm's star and Steve's shield.

"Steve, I'm not here looking for your soulmate. I'm just trying to get you…" Tony began to say before being interrupted by Steve loudly stating, "Language, Tony," which elicited a round of laughter from the entire table, but barely a slight chuckle from Bucky who had been walking over to them and had been close enough to hear the last part of that conversation. Would he ever fully return to the carefree way he had been?

"I got the waitress on the way over now," Bucky said pointing at the beauty walking towards them as he sat down.

"Fine, Barnes," Tony said in his most bland voice towards him this evening as the waitress appeared. But at least Tony had acknowledged him. After the waitress had introduced herself, Tony exclaimed, "Let's start with a round of tequila shot for everybody."

The waitress headed off to the bar to get the drinks started as a dancer came out on stage, causing a roar of cheers to come from the other guys in the place. With her arrival the music became louder, the crowd a bit more carefree. The group began to watch as she crossed the stage, except for Steve who politely averted his eyes, scanning the rest of the place…the strip club…the burlesque club…so that he had something else to concentrate on. Bucky caught his eyes, seeing that he was not watching and giving him a shake of his head in disbelief.

He thought back to how they had met all those decades ago as Bucky happened to be nearby as some bullies were trying to take his lunch money from him as he headed to primary school. He had tried to fight back but back then he had always been too weak.

Luckily, Bucky had come up behind them, turning the tables as the bullies were not prepared for someone who knew what they were doing. A couple of swift punches had stopped them, making them run away, before he began helping Steve up off of the ground where he had been knocked down.

As Bucky helped him collect his books, he noticed that on the cover of his notebook, Steve had drawn a full version of the soulmark. Being too young to understand the implications of having multiple soulmates, he had quickly shown Steve the section of the soulmark that resided on his chest, asking where he had seen it. With that, Steve had then unbuttoned his own shirt, revealing the almost complete match.

That day, after telling their parents what they had discovered, the two of them had been sat down for a long, long discussion about keeping a secret. There was a stigma about having a soulmark that indicated having more than one partner. This type of soulmark had been frowned upon for centuries, even to the point of death back during the dark ages. Then there was the fact that two same-sex partners with matching soulmarks were sometimes killed, even as little as the beginning of the last century when they had been born, which made some hide their partnerships for years.

He and Bucky may have been best friends, but even with their soulmarks telling them that they were destined to be together, they had never felt drawn sexually towards each other. They knew early on in their platonic friendship that it was the missing piece of the soulmark, the female that would complete them, that was required to satisfy that need. But they had been inseparable from the day they met forward, until the war.

With Steve becoming a war hero, the government had forbidden his soulmark from becoming common knowledge for fear of it being used against Captain America. With Bucky being a partial match, it had automatically included him in the secret with only a select few officials knowing the truth. When they both had been listed as either missing or killed in action, the government held onto the secret, never revealing the shameful truth about the two men missing a third soulmate.

There had been numerous cases over the years of people trying to alter their own at the chance of becoming famous and rich. Even now, famous or wealthy families would not allow soulmark designs to be displayed in public. Tony was one such person. It was not until well after he had met Pepper that they had discovered their match.

They had tried using modern technology to search for a match but none could be found. There were numerous websites that helped to match soulmarks without having to wait for that random encounter that took place more often than not. There were also clothing lines that made custom garments that exposed a soulmark for all to see in hopes of finding a connection. Both Tony and Natasha had tried using their skills to search on the internet but still nothing had shown up. They had tried to console the pair by telling them that maybe their other just had not signed up, but they had another idea as to why she was not found. And with how their lives had been 'delayed' by close to a century, they both held out little to no hope of finding her.

As the night began to carry on, the group continued to drink, some more slowly than others. Bruce held back heavily, always afraid of losing control, with Sam being a close second. Between Steve and Bucky, there was no chance at getting drunk on anything available to them, so they both participated in the revelry that was Tony Stark on a night out in the town, who seemed to be trying to single-handedly pay for every dancer's college tuition.

"Sweetness, let's go for a round of Jager-Bombs this time," Tony said pounding his open hand on the table, giving the waitress a start as the sound, but making it clear that this was a demand, not a request, of any of the guys sitting with him.

"Tony, it's starting to get late," Steve said glancing around the room trying to find a clock but realizing that there was not one. No windows to the outside, no clocks. That was one way to keep a captive audience. He was not even sure how long they had been inside of here.

"Come on, Captain Tightpants. Loosen up a bit. Hell, _Barnes_ is being a more enjoyable guest, and that's saying something coming from me," Tony said saluting Bucky with his empty bourbon glass.

The waitress showed up quickly with the requested drinks, passing them out around the table.

As the other guys were downing the shots, Steve held it in his hand, took a cleansing breath and then downed his own drink, wishing for this night to end so he could go home and sleep. As his head came back down into a forward position, he was looking across their table to the one next to them where a different waitress was reaching to clear away dirty glasses and bottles.

That was when Steve suddenly gasped and began to choke on the liquid that was trying to finish going down his throat. He began to cough as he stared ahead, not truly trusting what he was seeing in the dim light. Everyone at the table began to laugh, catching the attention of the waitress, who was now looking right at him.

"That's a dollar that you owe me, Sam. I told you that Cap wouldn't be able to hold his drink," Tony said raising his hands triumphantly over his head as the others laughed at the event.

Once he was finished coughing on the burning liquid, Steve made eye contact with Bucky.

"I need to speak with you…now!" Steve said, leaning towards him and talking in a firm low tone that the others at the table would not be able to hear, before standing up and walking away. Bucky left his own empty glass on the table before following him to the dark corner where he had ended up.

"What's wrong? I've _seen_ you drink so I _know_ that you can hold your liquor," Bucky said moving strategically so that his back was up against the wall, giving him a view of the room and so that nobody could come up from behind him.

"Do you see the waitress with the bright pink hair?" Steve asked turning his head in the direction of the indicated woman.

He realized it was the same waitress that Sam had tried to hit on when they walked in. Bucky barely had to look to find her, her short bobbed hair was practically glowing under the black-lights from the stage. Around her eyes, makeup was brightly splashed with pink glitter and black sweeping lashes that had to be fake. Her lips were a perfect matching pink to her wig and eyes. She wore some kind of iridescent powder with sparkles over the rest of her face, giving an ethereal appearance.

"What about her? HYDRA?" Bucky asked, his mind automatically going on the defensive and thinking the worst, Steve recognized.

"No, Buck. She has the soulmark!" Steve calmly stated in his firmest voice.

After a few seconds, Bucky actually began laughing out loud. It was a sound he had not heard in a long time.

"Buck, I'm serious!"

With that statement, and seeing the sincerity on Steve's face, he finally calmed down and they both began to focus on the woman. She was wearing the same skimpy outfit that all the waitresses were, short black pants and a black tank top with the place's logo on it, but she stood out for two reasons. Whereas the other females wore high heels, she was wearing black leather riding boots. Also, now that they were looking closer, they could tell that the pink hair was _definitely_ a wig whereas none of the other waitresses' hair were fake. Why was she the only one wearing a wig?

"Steve, are you sure?" Bucky asked, now not taking his eyes off of her. "What did you see?"

"She was cleaning the table next to us as we did the shots. When I looked back down, she was leaning over to get a glass on the far side of the table, which made her shirt drop low enough for the soulmark to show," Steve explained, beginning to pace back and forth on a three foot line in front of Bucky.

"Are you really sure? We've talked about this."

Steve could only look at the woman moving around the room, taking drink orders, walking to the bar, cleaning tables. He _knew_ without a doubt that what he had seen was the missing piece. He had drawn it so many times over the years, that there was no denying it.

"Yes, it's her! She's our _soulmate_!"

* * *

Bucky seemed to consider this possibility while never letting his eyes leave the woman. The guys at the table started calling over to them so they headed back to their seats. When their own waitress came over once again, Bucky motioned for her to come around so that he could talk to her. Luckily, she stood between him and Steve.

"What time do you close?" he asked, starting with an easy question she had probably heard many times before.

"We're open till four a.m.," she answered with a smile he though was a bit too easy, probably just hoping for a better tip.

"Are the waitresses also dancers?" he asked the one question he knew was probably also on Steve's mind. Tony may think of Steve as shy, but he knew better. They had grown up being just a bit more respectful of women in general than modern men were used to doing. But if their soulmate was a dancer also, he knew they would not be able to get around the idea at other men having seen her naked.

"Not really. There are occasionally some that do, you know, better tips. But usually not," she said casually before addressing the entire table. "Do you need another round?"

"No thank you, ma'am," Steve said firmly, letting Tony know that the evening was now over, who threw his hands up in defeat as the waitress walked away. They had gone out tonight since it was about a week after their raid on a HYDRA base and everyone was now over their minor injuries. They had invited Natasha to tag along but she had turned them down saying it was not her turn to babysit Tony. But it looked like he and Steve just got another mission.

"Party pooper," Tony said pulling out his wallet to follow their waitress who was headed over to the bar to get a total for him. Tony mumbled as he walked away, "One coughing fit and everyone has to go home."

"That's not it, Tony," Steve partially yelled over the loud music but it only got him a wave of dismissal from Tony as he walked away from the group.

"Everything all right, Cap?" Sam asked trying to stand without using the table or chair for support.

"Yes. Bucky and I will be back at the Tower later. Think you and Bruce can get Tony home safe?" Steve asked as he scanned the room again, probably looking for the pink hair. Steve may have lost her while talking to Tony, but he knew exactly where she was, taking the order of a table on the far side of the stage.

"No problem, Steve," Bruce replied pushing his chair under the table. He had barely joined in the shots, with Tony drinking any that he refused to. They all understood why he didn't and none of them were stupid enough to push him into doing something reckless.

As the rest of the group left the club, with their waitress giving a squeal before hugging Tony, most likely for giving a generous tip, he and Steve made their way back over toward the corner, taking a small empty booth so they could work out a plan.

"So…first we need to verify what you saw. It's not that I don't believe you, Punk, but I _have_ to see it for myself," Bucky started the conversation with the obvious.

"It would seem creepy to just ask to see it," Steve said thoughtfully. "We need to find out her name, who she is, where she lives, that kind of information."

"People who work in places like this don't give out private information like that, Steve," Bucky said watching her take another round to a table. This was when he noticed that she pulled something out of her pocket to look at. "Do you see that?"

Steve turned his head enough so that he was able to see what had caught Bucky's attention. The girl had pulled a pocket watch on a chain out of the front pocket of the small shorts she was wearing. Turning to face each other, they could both see the stunned expression on each other's face.

"What are the chances of a girl in this era using a pocket watch?" Steve asked.

"I'm going to guess that she's the only one," Bucky responded looking back at where she had been, but finding her gone. Looking around the bar, he finally saw her heading toward a door leading to the back of the place, where the dancers had changing rooms. Pulling an item from his pocket, Bucky handed Steve one of the team's earcoms. "Here, take this. I'm going to head out and watch the back door. You stay here to see if she leaves by the front."

"You just _happen_ to have these with you?" Steve asked putting the device into his ear.

"Always," Bucky replied as he stood up and headed for the front door.

The club was situated on a corner so it did not take him long to find the side door of an alleyway that the club used as a rear entrance. Using his training, he silently made his way up a loading dock's stairs that was close to the exit. From there, he was able to have a good view but be hidden in the shadows.

"See anything Steve?" he asked softly, hoping that the loud music didn't interfere with them being able to hear each other.

" _Yes, she came back out right after you left, did something at the bar with the bartender then disappeared into the back again. I haven't seen her since_ ," Steve told him.

Bucky kept watch on the door, wondering if it would open soon. He didn't know why he was so hopeful. They had agreed numerous times that searching any more was pointless and just going to depress them. But, he now found, there was still a sliver of hope inside of him.

" _You do realize that this could be considered stalking_ ," Steve said into the earbud.

"It's not stalking…it's surveillance," Bucky stated firmly, "We need information so that we can then formulate a plan…a mission."

" _Please don't use that word, Jerk. Not for this,_ " Steve groaned into his ear. That was when the back door of the club opened to reveal one of the large bouncers. He looked around the alleyway before stepping outside and allowing a form to emerge from the door.

Taking in the small form that was now pushing a bicycle through the door, Bucky quietly said, "We have movement back here."

" _On my way_ ," Steve responded while sounding like he was trying to run inside of the place.

The two figures seemed to be talking as the female dealt with something being pulled from a backpack she had hanging on the handlebars. She had changed from shorts to what seemed to be sweatpants and was putting on a hoodie, items he thought much too light for the growing cold weather. From the light by the back door, he could see that her hair was still pink in color, but he wondered why she had not removed the wig yet. As she gave the bouncer a fist bump as a goodbye gesture, he went back inside while she began to mount the bike. Once the door was shut, she walked the bike a few feet towards the end of the alleyway, which he knew Steve was close to.

" _I see her. I'm across the street and have a good view_ ," Steve's voice whispered in his ear.

Instead of leaving the alley, she glanced around as if making sure she was alone. Satisfied that she was, the target…no, possible soulmate…then pulled the pink wig off of her head allowing her natural hair to fall free, depositing the wig into the backpack before pulling out a ball cap from it. They both could see the very light colored long hair that had been hidden under the crazy colored wig.

" _Wow…look at that hair_ ," Bucky heard Steve say at the sight. But for him, the scene was a bit of déjà vu...even to him. There was something way too familiar about this. But when she began to gather the hair in her hands and uniquely twist it around before pulling it up and hiding it under the cap, Bucky's jaw dropped.

"Damn it! There's no way…" Bucky said more to himself than to Steve.

" _What is it_?" Steve asked concerned.

Without answering a reply, he watched as she finished her task, pulled to the end of the alley and began to head down the dark street without even realizing she was being watched. " _Buck, answer me_!"

"Steve, I know who that is! And technically…so do you. Follow her, Punk!"

* * *

 


	3. Heading For Home

* * *

As Victoria peddled her bicycle down the street, she could not help but get the feeling that someone was watching her, again. It was past two in the morning, and there were no cars directly behind her. The entire ride from the club, she had kept looking backwards and all around, but she never noticed anyone out of the ordinary. In fact, there was nobody in the streets at all, so where was this feeling coming from?

Her place was only a few more blocks up, with the sensation continuing, but when she finally stopped in front of the building, Vic took a _very_ thorough look around. Nobody was still in sight, just the sounds of cars a street over, dogs barking, the subway passing underneath the street. It all seemed exactly the same as it should. Maybe she was just becoming paranoid, she guessed, after what had happened months ago.

Picking her bike up and placing it on her shoulder, she began the trek up the concrete steps to the front door, finding that, of course, the lock was still not working. That did not really surprise her, it had been broken for most of the past year since she moved in after arriving in town.

Heading up the interior staircase to her third floor apartment, she went slowly to make sure that her bike did not hit the walls and wake anyone else up, but more importantly, she did it to protect her bike from damage. It was her pride and joy, right next to Riddick, her motorcycle that was stored away below in the building's 'garage', patiently waiting until the weekend. Unfortunately, in about a week, she would be handing the bicycle over to Mikey from work, who had agreed to purchase it for almost the price she had gotten for it earlier this year. Bike messenger was definitely one of the most fun jobs she'd had in a long time. It actually helped her to use most of the energy she always seemed to have stored up. Too bad it still didn't help her sleep at night.

Finding work as a bike messenger had been easy, most riders don't last but a couple of weeks to a few months, but for Vic, she didn't mind the long hours of weaving in and out of traffic to get where she needed to be. Learning the streets and quickest routes between office buildings had been easy. Back and forth all day, with a quick stop for Chinese every day, it was a simple routine but she liked it. The routes made her deal with people a lot more than she really wanted to. Not as bad as it could be, she supposed…at least it wasn't retail. She had dreaded the idea of working retail in New York and luckily she had been able to find other work without having to fall back on it.

Finally making it up the three flights of stairs to her door, Vic reached into the side pocket of her bag to retrieve her keys. Opening the door, she flipped on the light before pushing the bike inside. Locking all three locks on the door behind her, Vic then lifted the bike up onto the hooks that she had installed over her bed to get the bike up off the floor to give her more space in the small apartment. It was extremely cramped, needed a bit of work done on it, but it was cheap, her main requirement.

The 'studio' apartment consisted of a den/kitchen/bedroom area with a single window, a closet and a bathroom that had only a standup shower. Not finding a reason to need any real furniture, she had purchased the best double sized air mattress she could and threw her sleeping bag on the top, letting it work as a couch as well as a bed.

The four thick pillows were more of a necessity than a splurge. She had always wondered why trying to sleep without something surrounding her was difficult, to say the least. Growing up she had never had the opportunity to surround herself with her 'walls'. One for her head, one between her legs, and one on each side of her, walling her in. At least they helped her with the constant waking up that kept happening while she tried to sleep.

Walking the four steps necessary to enter the kitchen area to get dinner going before doing anything else, she pulled a pack of instant noodles from on top the fridge and began to fill a pot with water before setting it on the burner.

Taking down a white milk-glass lidded bowl, she reached into her pocket and removed the wad of cash tips she had received, adding it to the rest of her cash savings. Tonight's money from the strip club had been decent. It usually was, especially like tonight when a group like the one that had shown up with the guy waving money around like crazy had been there. Other groups would sometimes try to compete for being the _big spenders_ to get the strippers attentions.

It only benefited her, she thought. Too bad they had not chosen her table to sit at, then tonight's tips would have been excellent. She then pulled out her ledger book from under the mattress, adding tonight's cash to her list, dividing it up into the expense columns she had listed.

With that done, she pulled the backpack off and opened the single closet so that she could set it inside. Taking off the ball cap, she was finally free to shake out her long hair after such a long day. It was such an unusual white-blond color that it stood out, even in New York. She was used to twisting it or braiding it up to get it out of the way while working during the day, but found that the guys at the bar left her alone more if she wore the funny wigs and extreme makeup.

Taking out her pocket watch, she hung it over the nail on the wall inside the closet door. She had always been annoyed at the feeling of something around her wrists after a day's work, so she had given up on normal watches years ago.

Removing her tennis shoes, then hoodie before pulling the sweats off, Vic then began to remove her second set of work clothes from today, folding them over a hanger before closing the door. Now, only wearing a sports bra, boy shorts and socks, she felt much more comfortable. She hated the thought of having to wear bulky clothes around for months at a time, which was why she usually stayed in the more southern states around this time of the year. Why she had felt the pull so far north-east she didn't know, but overall, living here for the past few months hadn't been too bad. Chicago had been worse when it came to weather during the winter, but at least she had lived in walking distance to work.

The one thing about living up north was once it started to get cold, it only got colder quicker, but luckily it hadn't started to snow yet. If only it could hold out for a week longer. Being such a small apartment, she turned on the small space heater plugged in under the window that warmed up the small place fairly quickly. Luckily it had retained some of the heat left over from the time between jobs when she was here. From the milk crate next to her bed, she picked up her Nano so that she could listen to some music while resting finally, clipping it to her sports bra strap.

Putting on her earbuds and finding the water boiling, Vic stood at the stove for the few short minutes it took the noodles to cook, swaying with the music. She would love to sing but being this late at night, it would disturb the neighbors. Maybe next time she might be able to find a small standalone house to rent. That way she could sing at night and also wouldn't have to listen to other people's conversations through the walls.

When the noodles were ready she poured them into a bowl and grabbed her favorite pair of chopsticks, one of the few items she actually loved owning. Holding the hot bowl with a potholder, she carefully sat down on the mattress and sleeping bag, crossed her legs and began to eat dinner.

Vic knew that she had work to do. She had already given notice to the landlord at the beginning of the month that she would be leaving. Between her savings account, which had been building very nicely for the past couple of years, and the cash she always kept on hand, she could go anywhere she wanted.

Now…if only she could just make up her mind as to _where_ to go. Usually by now she was itching to move on to a new city, but she was not getting the familiar overwhelming urge to leave it. All she knew was that she was going to head south and maybe a bit west, before the snow started and she got stranded here with nothing to do.

Opening up a tab on her computer screen, for the third time this week, Vicoria pulled up a map of the nation, making sure it showed city names as well as interstates and main thoroughfares. This time she was determined that she was going to make a decision. She was leaving here permanently in a week and she still hadn't made up her mind where to go.

Vic knew that she needed to head somewhere where she wouldn't have to deal with snow. A bit of a warmer climate would also be nice. Something with scenic roads that she could ride Riddick around on when she didn't have to work. Somewhere that tourist went so that she could find a good tipping waitress job. The hardest part was finding somewhere large enough that she hadn't already lived in. Studying the map, she mentally scratched off the cities that would not work for her. Then she spotted one that did, smiling as she thought about heading there.

New Orleans during winter sounded nice. A Cajun Christmas. She lifted her arm in the air, giving her best Freddie Mercury impression at finally making a decision.

* * *

"Is it there? I was right, wasn't I?" Steve asked, looking at Bucky instead of peeking through the window into the apartment like he was. He still could not agree that this still fell into the surveillance category and not the stalking one he had been considering for the last few minutes. They had easily been able to keep up with her by crossing over the rooftops at a distance. They had both began to scowl as she entered this part of town, known for cheap rent and dangerous neighbors.

As soon as the girl Bucky had told him was named Victoria had begun to get undressed, he had averted his eyes, but not Bucky. He was determined to find out if she indeed had the matching soulmark upon her chest.

"Steve…it's there," Bucky said turning to join him by sitting back against the roof's ledge of the building across the narrow alleyway. He watched as Bucky just seemed to stare straight ahead while contemplating the possibilities. They were barely half a story above her, so there was a decent view down into her cramped apartment. "It's really her. I can't believe it. After she took her top off, she stepped over to the window to do something and it's sitting right there. You were right."

"Pervert," Steve mumbled, gaining Steve a light punch to the shoulder for the comment.

"She's not fully naked. She's still wearing more than some of those _swimsuits_ I saw this past summer. Or about as much as Natasha when she's training when Bruce _is_ around. So, what now? We can't just knock on the door and say hello. Hell, _I'm_ almost worried about walking around this neighborhood. And that place she is in makes our old Brooklyn apartment look like Buckingham Palace," Bucky voice sound a bit more depressed than it had in quite a long time.

"You said that I _technically_ know her?" Steve asked, which got a chuckle from Bucky.

"Yeah, remember the bike messenger that made the comment about the silly hat with wings?"

"What about it?" Steve said giving him another simple punch for telling everyone in the group about it. Those remarks had been coming up steadily every single time he was in uniform since they were made, even from Bruce.

"That was her," Bucky stated with a grin on his face. Steve groaned at the memory of Tony using the comment during the last mission to taunt him, but then chuckled as he thought about it coming from his soulmate.

"We need to know more about her. Where she comes from, what else she does for a living besides waitress and messenger if anything, why she lives in this dump of a neighborhood," Steve rattled off as a list of things to accomplish, ticking them on his fingers as well.

"Cool it, soldier," Bucky said putting his hand on his shoulder. He found it funny that Bucky was the one trying to be calm about this situation. "Let's do this. It looks like she is getting ready for bed, so you head back to the Tower. Happy knows her and he will be there in only a few hours. Find out what he has since you know how Happy loves his security files. I'll stay here and keep an eye on Victoria and follow her if she leaves. It's a weekday, and she'll probably be heading out soon for her messenger job. I can blend in better than you can. We can keep on the earcoms and then we will go from there," Bucky said staring through the window at the girl…their soulmate.

"Sounds like a plan," Steve said standing up and having to see her one last time.

Seeing her, Victoria, sitting on the mattress and sleeping bag, eating noodles with chopsticks, slightly swaying as she listened to music, it brought a smile to his face. He could barely make out the symbol since he was looking at her sideways, but every once in a while, she would turn just enough towards her computer to catch a glimpse of it. He couldn't see what she was doing or looking up on the device, but after a while, she seemed to be very happy with something, raising her fist above her head triumphantly, as if she had accomplished whatever it was she was working on.

Victoria then stood up, bouncing a few steps while taking her bowl over to the sink and washing it, along with the chopsticks. Who washes chopsticks? Was she really _that_ poor? She then headed into a doorway, probably a bathroom, emerging only a couple of minutes later. He could see that she had removed the outrageous makeup from her face. Without all of the stuff covering her, he could see that she had been hiding a natural beauty that she had. Her skin looked smooth, her eyes were bright, and her lips seemed to always be in a smile. She was lovely.

As he had watched at her seeming to get ready for bed, he couldn't help but admire her body. Biking as much as she did every day had toned her body very nicely, her stomach flat with ample breasts resting above, making him feel a bit warm as he looked at her, but he couldn't look away. Her pale hair was a lovely unique shade he didn't think that he or Bucky had ever seen before.

Now that he thought about it, it was not much different than the white color on her soul mark. Was that something she had done or a coincidence? Could a color like that be found naturally? It was the lightest shade of blond he had ever seen.

As she moved towards the door, he smiled as he thought about meeting her, being able to talk with her, before she turned off the only light in the place, throwing the room into darkness.

Feeling another punch to his arm, he looked over at Bucky who was grinning ear to ear at him.

"Captain America, the pervert," Bucky teased while nodding his head, barely dodging in time to avoid the swing aimed at his flesh right arm.

"You mention this to anyone and you will find that arm painted to match Tony's suit," he threatened but not meaning it...too much. At least Bucky was joking with him. It was more than he had done for most of the past year.


	4. Information Gathering

* * *

When Happy finally arrived at his office to start the day, he found Steve pacing, circling his desk over and over. He didn't bother to tell Happy that he had also been wandering the building since four in the morning waiting for him to arrive. Steve had first asked FRIDAY to give him access to his security files, but Happy loved his security and had a password required to open his files. FRIDAY was not as helpful as JARVIS had been, so without Victoria's last name, she could not even help him do a search on the web for information about her. Even having FRIDAY use the address of her place didn't help since it seemed the building was month-to-month renters.

"Morning, Captain. Anything wrong?" Happy asked dropping his briefcase on the floor by his desk.

"I… no, we…Bucky and I, I mean…," he managed to spit out before having to stop and take a calming breath. "We need some information about someone that you know," Steve then managed to calmly answer, turning his head and tapping his ear so that Happy could see that the earcom was in place with someone else on the other end.

"Has someone broken security protocol?" Happy asked, taking a stern look to his appearance. Steve knew that he loved that sort of thing. Happy and his security measures were the running joke in the Tower. He was good at his job but sometimes over protective.

"No, it's nothing like that, but I need all the information you have on a female bike messenger named Victoria," Steve said, finally stopping his travels now that Happy was taking his seat. Hearing her name, Happy paused as he sat, surprised at hearing her name.

"Vic? Did she do something wrong? That doesn't seem like her," Happy said as he finished sitting, starting to click away at his keyboard, logging into the system.

"No. She hasn't done anything wrong, but Bucky and I just need anything that you have on her. And without anyone else knowing, right now," Steve added thinking about the field day Tony was eventually going to have with this. Happy gave him a look of interest but didn't say any more about the request of privacy. He was probably one of the few people in the Tower that he could trust to actually _keep_ a secret.

"Here you go, Cap," Happy said turning his monitor so that he could see it. A few moments passed before he heard a voice in his ear speak up.

" _Read it out loud, Punk! What does it say_?" Bucky demanded loudly.

He had been following Victoria for the past two hours since she left her place at six-thirty a.m. and getting grumpier every hour. She had first headed to the messengers office and clocked in before heading out toward Midtown, so she was not far from where they were at the Tower. From there she had begun the back and forth routes for paperwork from different companies that hired the messenger service she worked for. He had heard Bucky complaining under his breath more than once already about being worn out from following her around. Steve had suddenly been glad that it had been Bucky's own suggestion for him to take that part of the assignment.

"Fine, stop yelling," Steve said moving back to the top of the screen. "We already know some of this, residence, work, occupation. Here we go: full name Victoria Lilith Roth. Background. Born in Springfield, South Carolina…never heard of it. Education: high school only. Criminal record: none, that's good. Wait...that's it? Where's the rest of it?" Steve asked Happy while glancing over the screen again.

"It's just a background check for a bike messenger, not an actual employee. The only reason I have this was for the criminal check so that she could carry secure documents for the higher-ups. Why, what do you need it for?" Happy asked curious as he got up to leave.

"Nothing right now, don't worry about it," he said absently to the man as he began walking out of the door and down the hallway, occupied with trying to figure out what to do next.

" _So, what now? That was not as helpful as I thought it would be_ ," Bucky said in his ear, echoing his own thoughts while Bucky sounded like he was running again.

"Buck, I think that following her all day the way you are is pointless. She will be fine. We know that Victoria will be working until this afternoon, and we never got any sleep last night. Come on back to the Tower. We have a few hours," Steve said entering the elevator to take him up to the floor that he and Bucky shared. Tony had designated a couple of levels for everyone to have a place to stay and so far it had been a great thing. Living a few floors away from where they prepped for a mission was a major benefit. Heading to the annex in the upstate for down time or training was also nice from time to time.

" _Fine, but I have a small tracker on me. I'm going to tag her bike since she doesn't seem to go anywhere without it, then I'll head back_ ," Bucky reported over the earcom sounding as if he was in full mission mode.

" _Why_ do you carry all of this gear around on you?" Steve asked as the elevator doors opened onto their floor.

" _Are you really going to complain about it right now_?" Bucky asked, his voice a bit lower than it had been a minute ago.

"Absolutely not," Steve said bringing his laptop out of his bedroom and into their living area, setting it down on the island and taking a seat on one of the three stools. Logging in to the program that the trackers worked with, he set it to scan for a new signal until one appeared.

Within three minutes, a blip popped up on the screen, near Central Park. Victoria was rounding it, again it seemed, from the updates on her movements that Bucky had been telling him. He wondered exactly how Bucky had been able to get that close without her noticing, but then, that was what he had been trained to do, unfortunately.

Leaning back carefully, he began to think about the overall task that needed to be accomplished, an actual face to face meeting with Victoria, Bucky and him. Just showing up on her door was not an option. Do they try and make a random encounter? That may end up being awkward later on since they would not want to hide the fact of how they had really found her. Do they use what they know and have Victoria come to the Tower? Eventually she would probably have a delivery that would bring her here, then they could have Happy escort her up, but how do they explain how they know? _Hi there, I just happened to look down your shirt the other night and noticed your soulmark_ , he pictured the scene and groaned.

Nope, not an option.

Steve was not sure how long he watched the computer screen, following the red dot along its path before the elevator behind him opened up and Bucky stepped out. He walked directly to the couch and collapsed onto it, face first.

"I never had any HYDRA instructor that pushed me anywhere near what I just did this morning trying to keep up with Vic," Bucky said turning his face so that Steve could understand the words he was slurring, shocking Steve with the comment a bit. Bucky tried to avoid talking about his past, and now, he was making a joke using it? He could see how tired he looked, his eyes much darker than normal. Neither of them had slept yet. Maybe it was just Bucky's exhaustion getting to him.

"And, she is still at it," Steve said turning the laptop towards the fatigued man so that the screen faced him so that Bucky, who could barely lift his head, could get a look at it.

He watched the dot move across the line indicating the streets and grumbled. "Next time, you follow her, Punk."

"We are _not_ going to keep stalking," Steve spoke as he suddenly was interrupted with, "surveilling," being yelled at him from the couch, "Victoria. We are going to regroup, think this through and figure out the best way to introduce ourselves to her."

"Have you thought about the fact that she _will_ probably recognize us from the strip club last night, especially _you_ with that choking scene you caused?"

Upon hearing that, Steve slumped down onto the countertop, his head resting on his crossed arms. He had not considered _where_ they had been, he was more focused on worrying about _how_ he spotted the soulmark. He had even made eye contact with Victoria. Buck was right. She was _sure_ to recognize him. From a _strip club_ of all places. "Damn it."

"Language, Steve."

"Zip it!" Steve said, glancing at the moving dot before looking over at Bucky who was about to fall asleep where he lay on the couch. "We need help, Buck."

"Agreed, but who?"

* * *

At two o'clock, Pepper Potts found herself staring across her desk at the two super-soldiers, who looked a lot more nervous _now_ than they did before heading out on a mission. They had called her earlier that morning wanting to meet with her today, saying that it was important and private, but refusing to give her any more information over the phone.

They were dressed a little better than normal, not just the workout clothes she usually spotted them in. In a strange way they matched, both wearing jeans with boots and long sleeve shirts, but she knew that Bucky almost always were long sleeves in public because of his arm. The way the two of them had been fidgeting since being shown in to her office told her that something was going on, and she just hoped that it wasn't something bad. Neither one of them seemed to have gotten much sleep recently. Both of them actually looked like they may have just woken up.

"So, who wants to tell me what's going on?" she said putting on her best smile for the guys, grasping her hands in front of her as she leaned on her desk for support. Hopefully, if she didn't seem nervous, then they would calm down a bit. The two of them then began to look at each other, mumbling at each other and trying to make the other one speak. She only let them do that for about ten seconds before she raised her hands and stopped them. "All right, Steve, you talk. Now!"

Steve then took a deep breath as he then began to tell her the whole story of what happened, starting with the lobby incident, with Bucky filling in most of those pieces. They then got to the part with the strip club, again with Bucky chiming in with how Steve had looked down her shirt to which he turned beet red right there in front of her. Finally the events ended with them deciding that Pepper was the most qualified person to help them figure out how to actually meet Victoria. By the time that they finished talking, she was sitting there with her mouth gaped open at the story.

"First, no more _stalking_ or _surveillance_ on this poor girl. I would say that you were lucky that she did not catch the two of you, but I know how good you really are," she said looking pointedly at Bucky, who turned his eyes downward at her glare. "Other than everything you just mentioned…is there anything else that I need to know?"

"I put a tracker on her bicycle before coming back here," Bucky said after a few moments of hesitation, knowing the lashing he was probably going to get.

Instead, Pepper just put her head down on her desk and wondered how the two men in front of her could suddenly have become worse than dealing with Tony. Steve was the _responsible_ one of the group. And Bucky was usually so _withdrawn_ that you forgot he was there. And now, after only a few hours...they had become this!?

With her head still down, she called out, "Is there _anything_ else?"

"No, that should be it," Steve answered, sounding a bit more guilty now for probably not telling Bucky to hold off on the tracker. Hopefully.

Pepper lifted her head towards the ceiling, took a deep breath and then looked at the two grown children sitting before her.

"I understand that finding a soulmate is a very exciting time. Especially for the two of you, after so long and with your histories. But, I'm just going to say the phrase 'inappropriate behavior' and drop that part of the topic for now. As to what you need to do, my suggestion would be to setting up a meeting with her, inviting her _nicely_ to meet the both of you, and in a public place, that way she feels safe. Nothing fancy, somewhere casual," she said racking her brain trying to think of a location for them. This was not something to leave up to the two of them. Where, she thought, picturing a map of Manhattan in her head, then it dawned on her.

"Invite her to meet you at the Ladies' Pavilion in Central Park. It's open but not usually overcrowded like some other spots. From there, if she agrees, you can walk to the oak bridge. It's not far away, but will give you all some time for introductions. If you all agree to it, the path continues on, winding through the park for a nice walk and would give the three of you plenty of time for getting to know each other. After that, just see what happens."

The two men were staring at her, their eyes wide, as if they didn't expect Pepper to come up with a solution.

"That sounds like a great idea," Steve said turning to look at Bucky.

"Yeah, some cover from the trees so we would not be exposed, the rocks would give protection in case of attack…" Bucky began before she had to stop him.

"Alright, stop right there!" she said pointing directly at Bucky. "Do not go into this meeting preparing for an ambush. It will put you on alert and Victoria will probably sense that something is off. Think…," Pepper searched for the right words… but there were none.

Giving an exasperated sigh, Pepper finally told them, "Just have fun!"

* * *

Leaving Pepper's office almost a half hour later, Bucky kept thinking about everything that she had told them. Not only was Vic going to meet a soulmate, she was meeting _two_ soulmates, who had been the best of friends for years, and if they were not careful, they could accidentally exclude her without meaning to. But then they also needed to take in the fact that they were Avengers. Not just regular guys off of the street. She could be a bit intimidated by their status.

They had all agreed that the best way to get the invitation to her was have it delivered to her work, at the messenger service, since it seemed like her main job, due to the bicycle. Not to mention that it may seem creepy to have it sent to a strip club. Then there was her living situation. Vic knew what kind of place she lived in, and unless they told her, she would guess that they did not know where she lived. Being in a poor, bad part of town, she may be embarrassed for them to come to her place, so if she turns down an offer of walking her home, immediately drop it.

Also, they were not to overwhelm her with high-end places such as restaurants. Vic may not be used to that kind of food or atmosphere, but then Steve pointed out that they weren't either. They were instructed to suggest somewhere casual or let her suggest where to eat, if the topic came up. With her choosing the location, she may feel more comfortable.

Steve was instructed to write the invitation, by hand, on stationary that Pepper would have delivered to their floor later, and it was up to Bucky to deliver it. That he did not have a problem with, that way he could recon the messenger service. Also, the invitation should be made for some time soon, since there was no immediate missions they would be leaving for. Not to mention that they could barely contain their eagerness. And because they were suggesting the place, let her set the day and time, since it was Vic's schedule that needed to be worked around. On the card, Steve was to give his phone number so that she could text without having to verbally communicate, as the first time they talked should be in person, and mention that texting her response was fine.

At the end of this conversation, Pepper had even suggested a couple of 80's movies to watch that dealt with topics that similar to this. She said that FRIDAY would have a list prepared in a couple of minutes if they decided to.

He could not believe all of the useful information that Pepper had given them in such a short time. They had just hoped that she just had a suggestion, but instead, now they had a real plan…one Steve had not made for a change.

"So…you actually found her?" he heard a feminine voice say from somewhere off to his side as they passed a hallway on the way to the elevators.

"Natasha," Steve said sighing heavily in defeat. They both should have known that she would easily find out about their meeting with Pepper, as well as Vic.

"Think you can remember how to _keep_ a secret?" Bucky said watching a smile form on her lips as she looked at the two of them.

"I was going to offer my services, actually," Nat said moving to join them as they kept walking.

"No. I'm sure you heard Pepper…no surveillance," Steve said pushing the button for the elevator, which opened immediately for them to step onto.

"Only for the two of you. Well…if either of you change your minds, just let me know," Nat said as the elevator doors shut, keeping her on the other side.

"How long do you think we have?" Bucky asked, dreading the answer.

"A matter of hours, at best depending on Nat's mood," Steve responded. "Let's get this invitation ready so that she can get it this afternoon. We may just beat the horde that will be knocking on our door later tonight."

* * *

 


	5. The Invitation

* * *

Victoria looked at the card stock lying on the floor of her apartment, waiting for it to attack her. She had made it about half way through before it really registered with her as to what she was reading.

Vic had dropped it as if it had been on fire.

She had been handed the envelope at work, deciding to not open it there since she had just wanted to get home, and now she was glad that she had not. How do you explain receiving something so shocking? _Nobody_ at work knew about her soulmark.

Picking the stationary up, she started over from the beginning again, slowly reading it, not wanting to miss anything.

_Victoria,_   
_After two chance encounters over the past two weeks, we discovered that you_   
_possess the missing piece to our soulmate design. We would like to meet with_   
_you at your earliest convenience to discuss the possibilities._   
_May we suggest a short stroll in Central Park._   
_We will meet you at the Ladies' Pavilion at your suggested day and time._   
_A simple text with your answer to the number on the card will be fine._   
_Sincerely, Steve and James_

"Two guys?" Victoria stated sounding guys. An invitation from _both_ of her soulmates to meet with her. Her matches were two guys. Steve and James.

Somehow, over the past two weeks she had met them, seen them, passed them? But why didn't they say anything at that time. She racked her brain trying to remember meeting anyone new, but there was nobody that stood out. She did not remember anyone by those names.

How did they see her piece of the design? She always made sure that it was covered, even on hot days she would wear a high shirt to hide it. She had gotten sick of all the accusing looks through the years after people saw and understood what it was they were seeing…a design for three soulmates.

How had she not seen their soulmarks then? She always looked if there was a chance at seeing a soulmark. There had not been any even close to being a match. They had to have had theirs covered. Alright, she thought, what did she know?

The invitation had been sent to the messenger service office where she clocked in every weekday. So, Steve and James knew she was a bike messenger and which company she worked for. That meant there was a good chance that one or both of them had seen her while working in Midtown. Still, nobody that she remembered seeing for the first time recently stood out. These were questions for a first meeting.

So…moving on. Should she meet them? That was an easy yes.

Victoria figured that she would never be able to find one of her soulmates, much less both of them. Both of them. Here in this city. Together. They know each other. Did they work together? What about her jobs? What would they think of them? Did they live together? What would they expect from her? Would they eventually want her to move in with them since she was their match? Would she want to move in with them if they asked? Did the two of them being in New York have anything to do with her not having the normal urge to move on?

What about all the strange hobbies and likes that she had? She had always heard that soulmates had similar likes and interests, but she knew that hers were all over the place. She always figured that was because of having two soulmates, but was that true? Well, she was going to find out.

Reading over the invitation again, she knew exactly the spot they wanted to meet in. She had even stopped there and eaten lunch up on the large stone at the edge of the lake once. It had been a hot summer day and lying on top of it made her feel like a lizard in a terrarium. She hadn't been that warm in years.

They wanted _her_ to set the time for when to meet. Did that mean they could easily change their schedules if she chose a time that was not good? What did they do for a living? When should she meet them? She had no idea. It had to be during the day, but when? She worked every weekday, so it would have to be over the weekend. Saturday, then. Two days away. Before lunch or after. The note didn't mention eating, so what did they expect. To meet, talk and then leave, most likely. She wanted to get to know them, but guys were always talking about girls being too clingy. Would that be her?

Why had they given her the hard part? All they had to do was choose the place. It was probably so simple for them. _Hey, look there she is…lets meet her later, we're busy right now_. Was that why they hadn't said anything before now? How long had they known? Days? A week? At least two weeks ago, she guessed based on the note. Had it taken them that long before deciding to meet her? Had she made a bad impression on them in some way that had made them hesitant about meeting her?

Victoria found herself actually becoming upset thinking about meeting them after letting her mind wander towards all sorts of possible scenarios. Her breathing was becoming heavy. She was starting to give herself one of her small panic attacks. Moving from where she had been sitting on her bed, she rolled off of it so that she was lying on the bare wood floor. Raising her arms over her head, she stared at a water stain on the ceiling, concentrating on it to help calm herself.

"Just breathe," Vic told herself. "This is fine, you're fine, people meet each other all the time."

These were supposed to be her soulmates. The ones supposedly perfectly matched to her.

But…what if it was all a lie? What if the universe had a warped sense of humor and thought it would be funny to give her this stupid soulmark to not just one guy, but two…both of whom who would hate her?

She needed to stop doing this to herself. Focus on the water stain. Had it gotten bigger since last week? Was it always that yellow color? Similar to her work hat's color. Where she had somehow come into contact with her soulmates. Who had taken two weeks to make up their minds to contact her.

"Dag-nabbit…this is not helping," she grunted, she needed to distract herself.

No! What she needed to do was answer that note. Now! Without thinking about it any further.

Picking up the card, she grabbed her cell phone from off of the milk crate nightstand. Entering the number as a question mark since she didn't know whose it was, Steve's or James', she typed in: This Saturday, 10:00 am. Now, just hit the send button. Her finger moved only slightly closer towards it.

"Hit it."

"Hit it."

"Tap the fracking button!"

Closing her eyes, she held the device away from her as far as possible and made her thumb fall downward to strike the send button. Sent. She felt like the elephant that had been sitting on her chest had finally stood up.

Now, she _had_ to meet them. If she stood them up, that would be a horrible thing to do to them.

But what if _they_ stood _her_ up? What if they were pricks? What if they were evil like her parents said they would be? What if they were happy together, and figured that making her stand out on a rock waiting for soulmates to come while actually watching from a window was a funny story to tell their friends?

Frack it, Victoria thought. She was already holding the phone in her hand so she scrolled down the short phone number list till she came to the strip club's number. Dialing, ringing, ringing…

"Hey, this is Vic. I'm not going to be able to make it in tonight," she said to whoever had answered the phone. "I will still be in tomorrow night. See you then."

Vic quickly hung the phone up before even hearing a response. She didn't give the person a chance to tell them that she had to come in because they needed her. She had seen them do it plenty of times to others.

Opening up her ' _find your phone'_ app, she logged in and waited until the dot appeared on the screen. Laughing at its location, she then went to the keypad and clicked on the only number that she had on speed dial …Wade's. Clicking dial, she waited only two rings before it was answered.

" _Your calendar must be off, darlin'…it's not Christmas yet_ ," the gruff, deep voice on the other end said instead of a normal greeting.

"Very funny. I talked with you twenty days ago…don't even, _"_ she pointed out, used to his comments. "What the heck are you doing in Memphis?"

" _What I do best. Besides…I've never seen Graceland done up for Christmas_ ," Wade told her.

She could hear loud country music playing in the background.

"Working?" she asked.

" _Yep, always. So, getting back to my question, darlin', what's the early call for_?" he asked.

"They found me," she simply said.

" _Well…hell. Took those runts long enough," he said._

"Twenty-six years, one month and three days," she rattled out the exact time.

 _"So, tell me about them_ ," he said with as much glee in his voice as she had ever heard, not even phased by her comment.

"I haven't met them yet. At least…I don't think I have," she said, before explaining the letter and how she just agreed to meet them.

" _Still in New York? You realize this probably means the runts are damn Yankees_ ," he laughed just before she heard the sound of glass smashing in the background. " _Fucking hell…I have to go but you let me know after you meet them if I need to set them straight. Talk later, little darlin'_."

"Go have fun bashing heads," Vic said, hating that their call was being cut short. She hadn't even had time to tell him about all of her worries about meeting them.

Well, right now she still felt the need to hit something, and there was only one place she would go and do that. Quickly changing her clothes, she grabbed her bike, locked the door behind her and began the trek down the stairs. Making it to the street without touching the bike to the walls, she placed it down on the sidewalk. Heading to the right, she began the trip to her favorite nearby spot for when she needed to hit something...Mike's Gym.

* * *

Natasha had been watching and listening since the moment Victoria had entered the small apartment. Probably from the exact same spot that Steve and Bucky had been sitting at hours ago, now that she thought about it. She wasn't really trying to hide too much, but she wanted to make sure that she got a good look at the soulmate of her teammates.

Victoria was stunning, Nat decided, once she got a real good look at her as she began to change her clothes. Her hair was a lovely pale color, between blond and white, reaching down past her shoulder blades, and she was actually tall, five-eight she would guess, which worked out well with the height of the guys. Thinking back to what they had told Pepper, she gathered that they were more concerned with her existing in general than worrying about how she looked. They were interested in her overall, not just because she was beautiful. That brought a smile to her face.

Nat had spent about an hour in the small apartment before being alerted that Victoria was headed back home from work on her phone. She had activated the tracker that Bucky had placed on her bike to give her a warning if she got doubted that the guys would even think of everyone having access to it _if_ they opened the program and scanned the city.

Vic, as Bucky liked to call her, had a very minimalist lifestyle. She did seem to have a thing for wigs though, not that Nat could blame her. She had a collection of her own, but Vic's was a mixture of normal and outrageous colors. A mostly empty closet of minimal clothes and not a single dress or heals. Mostly work clothes, consisting of normal tight bicycling clothes and a waitress uniform, and not a lot of heavier clothing items that would be useful in this colder region.

An air mattress since getting a bed up here would be too difficult, not that there was room for anything more. Vic did like her pillows, Nat decided. A good quality brand of firm ones, a few more than she figured was necessary. They took up most of the mattress.

Simple food to cook, instant noodles, pasta, rice, canned vegetables, but some fresh fruit in the fridge. No sweets or snacks. By design or necessity, she wondered. A single fork, spoon and knife, but a really nice pair of chopsticks, very interesting. She was a bit surprised at the amount of cash she had found saved in the white glass container. A bit more than what someone in this neighborhood should ever have on them.

Her laptop had been a good source of information. Who deletes browser history when they live alone? No porn...curious. Vic did do research on soulmates…a lot. Stories of first meetings, but she seemed to focus too much on the ones that went bad, Nat decided. A couple of different site to learn how to do math problem, science experiments, mechanical manuals for cars and motorcycles, and a language learning site. Other than that, there was a lot of recent history for maps and different city information, as if she were planning a trip.

But Nat had seen that she was not registered on any of the soulmate finding sites that she had tried to match the guys on. In fact, she had not registered on _any_ of them. Of course, not all sites had a way to register for soulmarks that were comprised of multiple partners, like theirs were. Maybe Victoria was holding out for that random encounter that seemed to happen. She just didn't know yet that it had.

Victoria did have a strange variety of taste in music, Nat found as she browsed her purchased songs. Modern rock, metal, classical rock, a lot of Elvis, a bit of opera, jazz, classical, techno, speed metal…a mass jumble of genres that made no sense for just one person to have, she considered. She could only guess that it was a bit of what she liked, what Steve liked and what Bucky liked. She was going to make sure they went out to a nightclub soon. Knowing how the guys liked to hold up in their place, seeing them out in such an outlandish modern type of environment...she would pay _Tony_ money to see that.

As the proximity alarm started going off telling her that Vic was heading this way, Nat had closed the computer back down, locked the door back up and made her way to the rooftop to get a look at this soulmate before she made it to the building.

Nat watched as she opened then dropped the invitation, and after witnessing the beginnings of a small panic attack, Nat knew that was exactly what she was worried about. She was just as nervous about meeting the two of them as they were about meeting her. They would _definitely_ get along fine.

Once over the panic attack, she had to keep from laughing as she watched Vic force herself to text Steve. That was the only logical thing that made sense to the strange actions she was taking while talking to herself.

Then Vic called to cut out of work before calling what could only be a good friend. She couldn't really make out the voice on the other end of her phone call, but it was easy to tell that it was male due to the deep resonant voice that echoed through the bug she had hidden. She found it interesting that she didn't call some kind of family. It was possible that the man was, but the familiarity seemed more like a friend. And what was that length of time she mentioned?

But when she got changed and headed out to go somewhere…that action she had no idea about. By the time that Vic had made it to the street carrying her bike, Nat was already sitting in her car waiting to follow her. She only went a few blocks before she pulled up to a local neighborhood gym, Mike's. Rolling her bike inside, she could see Vic through the window waving to an elderly gentleman before giving him a hug. Placing the bike near the counter, Vic headed towards the back.

Getting out of the car, she headed over to a hot pretzel stand that was on the corner, ordering one. Walking casually toward the gym, she bit into the salty treat. The windows of the gym had a small ledge, which was perfect for her to sit on and finish eating. But more importantly, it also gave Nat an unobstructed view of Victoria, now with boxing gloves and earbuds on, beginning to strike a hanging punching bag.

For the next couple of minutes, she could see Vic's mouth moving, as if she were talking to herself, sometimes looking happy, sometimes looking angry, which meant the bag was taking a beating at that time. Her form was not bad but it seemed to depend on her mood, but she also wondered if she had a previous hand injury. Her strikes were sometimes slightly off, as if she'd had boxer's fractures on both hands. She had surprisingly good rhythm when she focused, probably matching a song's beat. Nat would help her work on that later. Picking up her own phone, she texted to Steve and Bucky.

 **Nat** : _So, when is the meeting_?  
**Steve** : _How did you know Victoria responded? Where are you Nat?_  
**Nat** _: When?_  
**Steve** _: Saturday_  
**Bucky** _: Stay away Natasha_  
**Nat** _: Spoil sports_

It was almost an hour later before the door opened and a worn-out Victoria emerged. Stopping off for a slice of pepperoni pizza and a soda, she stopped at a school's playground to eat, while sitting on a swing. Whatever problem Vic had been having difficulty with seemed to have been worked out of her system.

Nat knew she was just scared to meet them, but if Vic knew how scared _they_ were, it would probably help. She seemed like an interesting female, and she didn't really do female friends, Laura, Pepper, and Hill being the closest she had, but she was not going to meet Vic just yet. Let the boys get meet her first, at least…then they could talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Victoria's hair, think somewhere between Nordic blond and Khaleesi's hair from Game of Thrones, first season when it was much whiter.  
> Also, I know the name Wade is familiar, but no...it is not Deadpool, so sorry to disappoint. He is an OC that I based off of another fictional character (not Marvel related).


	6. Running Late

Victoria finally gave up at seven a.m. on Saturday morning with trying to get any useful rest. She had fallen asleep multiple times during the night, only to wake up after what seemed to be every few minutes. Usually a full day of work, both day and night jobs, she was tired and could get some sleep. But, being anxious about this morning, she had hardly slept for the past two nights now, as if barely getting three hours of sleep on a normal basis wasn't bad enough.

"Who needs a good night's sleep anyways?" she muttered, rolling from the mattress directly to the floor, lying there staring at the ceiling for a few minutes. In just a matter of hours, she would finally be meeting these two guys, claiming to be her soulmates. But she kept getting that nagging feeling in the back of her mind that this may be a trick of some kind. What about if someone had found out about her soulmark and set this up as a practical joke?

No...she needed to at least try and be positive. Should she try and call Wade again? He would have just been getting to sleep a little while ago probably. She did _not_ feel like listening to a nagging speech this early in the morning about waking him up again. Vic decided that she may as well get this over with, eventually rolling over, getting up and heading for the bathroom. A shower would at least help. It sure couldn't hurt. Afterwards, she could see what the bakery down the street had this morning...hopefully those good pecan cinnamon rolls.

After washing her hair three times, just because she could, Vic took her time and prepped herself by shaving as if this were a date. Well, it was a date, not _that_ kind of date, but feeling prepared would hopefully ease her nerves about this meeting. She had already planned her outfit last night, which didn't take long considering the limited clothes she had. She would at least _try_ to seem everyone else's standard normal for the meeting, and not her normal self that everyone back home had disapproved of.

However, she had planned to take Riddick, her motorcycle, out today before the note had arrived, so why change those plans? A light touch of makeup on her eyes to mask the sleepless circles, but not much else she realized looking into the bathroom mirror. She gathered up the tennis shoes she used for work, folded a plain cotton button down shirt, and put them into her backpack. That was about as normal as her clothes came. Almost everything else was for work, consisting of tight and small clothes...totally inappropriate for today.

She then pulled out her riding boots, black leather jacket, and over her sports bra, a tight, dark purple cotton and leather mixed tank top, one of her favorite shirts, and put everything on. She had already chosen a light brown wig that was just to her shoulders to wear. Once she put the other items on with the wig, she figured she would look averagely normal, which was what people were looking for.

Picking up her phone, it signaled to her that she had missed a call. Richie, the notice said. Pressing redial, it only gave one ring before he answered.

"Hey, sorry I missed your call. I was in the shower," Vic said, dropping down on the mattress so that she could lace up her boots.

" _Nah, I'm sorry for calling so early, but Paulo woke up sick this morning. Are you free_ _for a gig_ _tonight_?" Richie asked, with a mix of hopefulness and desperation in his voice.

"Yeah, no problem. My plans today are for in the morning," Vic said, leaving it at that. She had never told the band about her soulmark. "Where and at what time?"

" _The Pit. We start at eight, so be there about seven_?" Richie asked.

"No problem. Paulo still cool with me using his set?" Vic asked, standing up almost ready to go, an hour and a half before the meeting time. She could get a short ride in after breakfast...maybe along the waterfront.

" _Who do you think told me to call you_?" Richie laughed.

"Can you text me the list right now?" Vic asked, turning on her laptop.

" _Yeah, made it up last night. Classic covers_ ," Richie said, as she could hear the beeping of him hitting keys. A second later, her phone beeped with the notification.

"Got it. We still good to use the alleyway behind the Pit to park in?" Vic asked, looking over the song names.

" _Yep. Thanks for doing this on such short notice_ ," he said before adding, " _By the way...think you can do that same makeup and hair thing from last time on Halloween? The guys really seemed to like it_."

Vic laughed before answering, "Yeah, I can do it again."

Richie gave a triumphant, " _Alright_." She could practically hear the fist pump in the air.

"See you in a few hours," Vic said, already making up the playlist to listen to.

" _Later_ ," Richie said before hanging up.

It only took her a few minutes to make up the list and move it to her Nano so that she could re-familiarize herself with the songs. She knew all of them, but it had been a few weeks since she had actually played. She would need at least one hour undisturbed to listen, but she should have plenty of time after the meeting...with her two soulmates...for the very first time. If they actually showed up. Frack, she was getting nervous again. She just needed to think of one thing at a time.

Heading back to the closet, now she began the easy process of pulling out the outfit for tonight, her makeshift Halloween costume, tossing the clothes on the mattress for later. Coming home to do her hair and makeup would cut in on her time riding, especially if these guys showed and were likable. But if they got along, she wouldn't mind skipping riding to talk with them. She just really hoped they showed up. And _nothing_ like her parents claimed they would be.

Grabbing her backpack, she headed out in search of breakfast.

Less than ten minutes before she was to meet this Steve and James, Vic found herself heading down _another_ residential side street from Central Park looking for just enough room to park her motorcycle. She had already been down three streets before ending up here. Up ahead she spotted a guy backing in his own bike in a car-sized spot. Maybe she would get lucky and they could share.

Pulling up next to the spot, she waited until he had finished parking and lifted his head towards her, indicating that had noticed her there. He was wearing black cargo pants with his riding boots, but she couldn't help but notice how his leather jacket stretched very nicely over his chest.

"Hey there. I'm having a bit of a hard time this morning to find a spot. Mind sharing the space?" Vic asked, pulling herself out of the naughty thought by nodding to the open space next to his bike.

"Go ahead, but I have a friend meeting me so if you could leave space between us for his bike," he said, lifting his leg over and off the bike.

"Absolutely. Thanks, I've been circling for twenty minutes already," Vic then began to scoot her Sportster backwards leaving plenty of space between her bike and his modified Ducati XDiavel for a third motorcycle. She had never worked on that exact model, and she wondered how it rode with the expensive upgrades she spotted. It had even been modified to ride two.

"Nice bike," he said, taking off his helmet, allowing the long brown locks of hair to fall into his face. Vic stared at him for a long moment, glad for her sunglasses, before clearing her throat and looking back at her own bike, trying to find something to do to distract her from him.

"Thanks," she reached for the key, removing it and slipping it into her pocket. Why did he have to remove his helmet? She was nervous enough as it was thinking about what was about to happen. She couldn't handle talking with a cute guy right now.

Reaching up, Vic carefully pulled her own helmet off, making sure to not take the normal looking brown wig with it. Glancing toward the park, she kept her glasses on since the sun was heading up the sky from the direction she needed to walk.

"It looks like an older model," Cutie said to her, being polite while pulling out his phone to check something, and starting to text fast.

"Yeah, it's a '95 Sportster. Yours is sweet too," Vic said, hooking the helmet to the handlebars. She pulled a small lock out of her pocket and attached between them so that nobody could walk away with it.

"Thanks, but I actually borrowed it from someone," he said, looping the helmet similar to hers.

"That must be a _really_ good friend to let you borrow a Ducati," she admired the bike while trying to ignore that handsome face.

"Not exactly. I'll let him know I borrowed it once I return it," he said, as she made the mistake of looking at him, and receiving a coy smile, while he adjusted his own leather jacket.

Victoria could not help but laugh at that, as she took the backpack off and slung it down onto the bike's seat. She should _not_ look at him again, she decided.

"So…does that mean you are brave, reckless, or crazy?" she asked, pulling the sneakers and shirt out of the bag to put on.

"Is there something wrong with being a bit of all three?" he responded with a gentle upturning of his lips.

 _Not fair_ , she thought, _so_ _stop_ _looking at him_.

"Not really," Vic said, taking off her jacket and folding it carefully so that it would fit into the pack.

From the corner of her eye, she watched the guy check his phone again, seeming a bit agitated. She then began to put the white shirt on and button it up. When she was finished, she sat down on the curb and began to remove her riding boots. Hearing him mumble something, Vic looked up at him from where she was sitting to find him looking down at her curiously. He was probably not used to people changing clothes in the street.

"I have a meeting that I need to look normal for," Vic explained as she slipped the tennis shoes on, lacing them up.

"And you didn't look normal just now?" he asked, moving to the sidewalk himself.

"Well, this meeting is important and I _know_ how judgmental some people are so I just want to make a good impression," she said, finishing with the laces and standing up, giving her outfit a once over to make sure it was presentable.

"This may sound cliché, but shouldn't you just be yourself?" he asked, standing there as if he didn't have a care in the world, checking his phone once again, texting somebody. Since the device seem to be distressing him, maybe there was at least one care.

"Yeah...I've had _that_ backfire on me before, and I can't mess this meeting up. It could be too important," she said, pulling out her pocket watch to check the time. Between finding a parking space, changing her outfit, and the walk to the pavilion, she was going to be running behind. "Elmer Fudd, I'm going to be late."

Vic tossed her boots into the bag roughly, having to give the items a few punches so they fit in, then she began to zip it up as she began walking down the sidewalk towards the park. Throwing the bag over her shoulders, she turned around to look back at the guy.

"It was nice meeting you…?" she said, letting him fill in his name since she had never gotten it.

"Bucky," he said, finally looking back up from his phone.

"Cool name," Vic responded, about ready to run.

"And nice meeting you too…?" he called out loudly toward her as she started moving away.

"Vic," she yelled to him, throwing a wave over her shoulder before turning and breaking out into a run to get to the meeting spot. Dang the city for having such bad parking.

* * *

Less than five minutes after their last communication, Steve pulled down the street where his phone was telling him that Bucky's signal was coming from. After splitting up to try and find parking, Bucky had texted him the street where he had finally found a spot. He had also been texting Steve about how the tracker on the bicycle still showed it being at her place and he was worried that she was going to stand them up. Steve had to point out to him that maybe she was taking the subway to get to the Park.

And then…Bucky had gone silent.

About half way down the street he saw Tony's bike that Bucky normally 'borrowed' parked in a spot along with another bike. Then he saw Bucky, sitting on the curb with his arms outstretched propped up on his bent knees. He looked haggled, as if something bad was going on.

Pulling his own bike into the spot between the two bikes, he turned it off and quickly got off it.

"Buck, what's wrong? Are you feeling ok?"

Bucky then turned his head up and his friend gave him a grimace as he stood up.

"Steve, I'm _fine_ ," he responded with finality in his voice. Steve knew that he was tired of hearing that question, but he couldn't help but worry, even with Wanda's assurance. "But we do have a bit of a problem."

Bucky began to walk hurriedly toward Central Park before speaking, barely letting Steve catch up with him. Steve listened to his account of what had happened before he arrived, the run-in he'd had with Victoria. Bucky had told him about how Victoria had looked with the brown wig hair, what she had done with changing her clothes to look normal, as well as what she had said to him.

As they crossed the road to enter the Park, they quickly discussed what to do. He would meet her first, giving him a few minutes to try and reassure her that everything was fine before Bucky would join them.

Dropping back, Bucky stopped where the path that led to the pavilion split with another. He would be less than half a minute away. Steve continued on, heading for the meeting. He had dressed simply, khakis with a button down shirt, and his simple brown leather jacket that was not necessary to keep the slight chill away. The two of them didn't exactly seem to match, Bucky going for more of a biker look, but this was what he was comfortable wearing.

The path had only a slight turn to it as it reached the simple white wooden structure. There were only a couple of people in the immediate area, taking in the view before moving on down the path opposite of where they had come from. It was not hard to find Victoria. At least it wasn't now that Bucky had told him what she was wearing and how different she looked.

Victoria was sitting on one of the two benches looking toward the large boulder that skirted the lake, out toward the direction where the sun was rising into the sky. Her right leg seemed to have a small, steady bounce to it. Taking a breath, and still not sure what to say to her, he just walked over to where she was sitting. Victoria didn't take much notice in a single guy walking towards her, barely glancing at him, since she was expecting two, he guessed.

"Victoria," he calmly spoke with a gentle smile, letting her know that he was there for her. She turned her head and looked at him, a moment later the shock registering on her face when she grasped why he was familiar to her. He still didn't think that she realized he was Captain America. Most people had a _different_ shocked look on their face for that one. He did know that his own face was turning a red since she _did_ recognize him from the strip club. "I'm Steve."

Victoria stood up, her eyes were covered with sunglasses, but he could tell that they were not leaving his face for a moment. That was when he noticed that her own face was turning a bit red, as if she were embarrassed about something.

"Uh...hi there, Steve," she said, holding out her hand so they could shake. He obliged while adding a gentle smile.

"James will be here in a little while, but I wanted to talk with you first for a moment, if that is alright?" Steve asked, sweeping a hand towards the bench to indicate that they should sit. Victoria sat back down and he took the spot to her right, that way he could look up the trail to where Bucky was waiting. Thanks to the fall leaves mostly being on the ground, as Bucky paced, occasionally he came into view through the thinning bushes.

"Yeah, I mean…yes, that is fine," Victoria said, casually at first before changing tone to be a bit more formal, maybe a bit rigid.

Bucky had been right, Victoria was _not_ comfortable about this meeting...she was very nervous. He gave her a reassuring smile. He wondered out of the three of them, who was the most scared.

"You don't have to worry about trying to impress either of us, Victoria. We know a little bit about you and there is nothing that you need to change. Not how you speak, not how you dress," reaching up to touch the brown wig, "and definitely not how you look. We are the ones who are worried about meeting you. It's been so long we never thought we would get the chance to do so," Steve said, casually leaning onto the back of the bench, putting his arm across the back.

"So, you and James have known each other for a long time?" Victoria asked staring at him, the slight blush which had crossed her cheeks when she first looked at him had yet to leave.

"Yes, we've been best friends since grade school. Fate has somehow found a way to keep the two of us together, and now, it has led us to you."

Steve felt that the statement was simple, short, and silly, but it was spoken _honestly_ , and that was what Victoria needed right now. She sat quiet for a moment before reaching up to take the glasses off that were hiding her eyes. Now that he was up close, he could see that they were a blue, almost a mix of the blue which his and Bucky's were. The three of them matched, he thought.

Dropping the glasses into her lap, she then reached up again and grabbed a hold of the wig, gently pulling it off, allowing her beautiful light hair to fall down over her shoulders. He wondered how she managed to get all of it up under that ugly wig. Putting the wig over the backpack that rested on the bench, Victoria began to fluff her hair out after being squashed down under the item, a simple wave over all of it. Steve could only smile as he looked at his soulmate.

" _That_ is the soulmate I wanted to meet," Steve said, reaching out to offer him his hand once again in a greeting handshake, his smile only getting bigger every second. She took his hand and he didn't want to let it go. Victoria returned the smile, the tension seeming to melt away from her as her body relaxed.

"So, I know that you can do a pretty good whistle. Can you do a 'come over here' one for me?" Steve asked, dropping their hands from the air, so they rested on his leg but not ready to release her hand just yet. He definitely liked the feel of her skin on his.

"I'll try not to deafen ya'," Victoria said with a small laugh, before giving the three-tone sound. Afterwards, she said, "You know, that kind of made it sound like I was calling a dog."

Steve could not help it, but gave a heartfelt laugh at her comment; thinking of how many times someone had used that term to describe Bucky with his messy hair.

It wasn't until he heard Victoria utter in disbelief, "Son of a biscuit," that he looked towards where she was staring...at Bucky.


	7. An Interesting Talk

* * *

Vic had been so focused on watching Steve laugh at her comment, which she had not thought was _that_ good, that it wasn't until she realized someone had suddenly appeared standing next to the two of them that she looked up at the newcomer she guessed was James. But the moment she made eye contact with him, and it registered in her mind who she was looking at, she couldn't stop herself from speaking her fallback curse phrase.

"Son of a biscuit."

How had she not considered that he may have been one of her soulmates? Because...he was way too good looking, just as Steve was. James/Bucky had even mentioned that he was waiting on a friend to show up. Why had she not put together his comment with it being so close to their meeting time? Now her mind quickly went back to _everything_ she had said to him...especially focusing in on her worries about this meeting...and that explained why Steve had recognized her and said what he had to her, to try and make her be not so nervous.

Pulling her hand free from Steve's grasp, she put her elbows on her knees, before covering her face with her hands, trying to figure out if there was a better way to hide right now. She could always go jump in the lake...

Breathing in and out, steadily starting to count, she hesitated at looking at the _two_ gorgeous men who were now before her, claiming to be her soulmates. Was this a trick?

Wait a minute…maybe they _were_ tricking her, like she had been suspecting for the past two days. There was no way they were meant for her. Her parents had always told her that her devil-inspired soulmates would be wretched and hideous. Lifting her head, she began to scan between the two men, trying to decide if they were lying to her.

"No, this can't be right. There is no way the two of you…" she said, pointing between the two of them, "Not for someone like me."

"What's wrong?" Steve asked, taking her hand back into his. Drat, his hand felt nice.

"Just the fact that someone hired the two of you to play a trick on me," she said, standing up and this time angrily yanking her hand away from Steve's. She had not even taken a step before James, or was it Bucky, placed himself before her so that she couldn't leave.

Without a word, he grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled it firmly down, exposing the red section of star with a bit of white on it. As she stared at the soulmark, she realized that Steve had stood and was now pulling down on his own shirt, showing the blue section of star with a touch of white. She had tried for years to crudely draw the two items now perfectly displayed for her. They looked just like how she had always imagined they would. They were just attached to two bodies who looked nothing like what she had expected.

"They're real? I mean, as in, this is not a trick?" Vic asked, her eyes moving between the two handsome faces, now very intently watching her. She had been so focused on the soulmarks that she only just realized that the three of them were standing in a very tight triangle, all of their shoulders touching. She was actually standing with her soulmates...fracking heck.

Knowing that they needed to see her own, to know the truth, she unbuttoned the white shirt, dropping the pointless item behind her on the bench before using her finger to pull the tank top down enough so that they could verify her own soulmark.

She knew the three of them standing there, all exposing their soulmarks for all to see, must have been a sight, but she honestly didn't know, or care, if there was anyone else nearby right then. They stood like that for a few moments more, satisfied that they were all in agreement that this was really happening. Releasing her top, she picked up the shirt from the bench before sitting back down, starting to wring it a bit.

"Ok…so maybe this _isn't_ a trick," she said, picking up her bag from the bench and opening it, roughly shoving the knotted shirt inside.

How was she supposed to be their soulmate? This was not what she had been fearing or expecting for the past few years. Both of them were nice, even Bucky when he had not known who she was. The two of them looked down at her before each of them took a section of bench on each side of her, sandwiching her in. The body heat coming off them, as their legs just barely rested against hers, was wonderful against the slight late morning chill still in the air. That felt so nice.

"Victoria Lilith Roth, but I _only_ go by Vic or Victoria."

"Steve Grant Rogers," he said, taking her right hand in his since he was on that side.

"James Buchanan Barnes, but I usually go by Bucky," he said, taking her left hand in his.

How were the both of them so warm? It wasn't warm out here today. Then she realized there was something familiar about Steve's name, a pattern that she recognized.

"You have the same name as Captain America," she said, giving a snicker at the coincidence. Expecting them to make a joke or laugh, she watched as the two of them stared at each other around her, as if thinking about something. The seriousness of their looks then began to get her worried. "What?"

"I don't _just_ have the same name as Captain America," Steve said, giving her a warm smile and gently squeezing her hand.

His height, the body. The words, "Holy canned tuna, you're Captain America!" flew out of her mouth as it finally dawned on her what he meant. She had seen pictures of him, but all in uniform, she couldn't even think of any without the mask right now. Never had she seen him in person, even when making deliveries at Stark Tower. Where he lived. Where the Avengers lived. Where the Winter Soldier now lived. Who was his **childhood friend**.

With that small bit of knowledge resurfacing and remembering what Steve had told her, the rest of the puzzle came into place. Slowly turning her face from Steve's, her eyes found their way to the other side of her. From where Bucky was watching her very carefully.

"Awe, Fudge." This was some twisted sense of humor fate had. Very funny, Fate. How the in the world did she end up with two, not just one, but _two_ Avengers as soulmates?

"I think that she's figured it out, Steve," he said, looking over to him as if needing help. She could see a sadness creep over his face as he spoke to his friend, his cute lips turning downward. What was wrong with him?

"You don't have to be frightened," Steve said from behind her, giving her hand a firmer squeeze trying to get her attention, but she could only look at Bucky. Wait, what did he say?

"What? Why would I be frightened?" she asked, really not understanding and looking over at Steve.

"But your exclamation…" Steve started hoping for her to clarify.

"Was because you're _both_ Avengers," Vic said, now looking down over Bucky's body, carefully examining his left arm, the one furthest away from her. It was covered with a jacket as well as a riding glove. Was it really him? Heck, were they both really who they said they were? Even if the soulmarks were real, how could she get them to prove it? Obviously, Steve was without his shield, but Bucky...

Putting a careful smile on her face, she nodded her head toward his hand, and asked, "If you are really him, care to prove it?"

Bucky looked at her, his expression changing from gloomy to now one of doubt. But, letting her hand go, he slipped the riding glove off of his left hand, allowing her a clear view of the gleaming metal that was now shining in the mid-morning sun. They were telling the truth. Reaching out towards it, she felt the cold, smooth metal on the back of his hand as her fingers glided over it gently.

"Wow," she said, sliding her fingers over the intricate plates. None of the mechanical items she had ever worked on had such high quality detail. There was no way someone would be able to fake something like this. They both were who they claimed to be. "So ya'll really are who you say ya'll are..."

When the panels on his hand calibrated, she pulled her hand away quickly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you," she said looking back up at his face, hoping that he wasn't angry with her.

"You didn't hurt me, Vic. That happens sometimes when I flex," Bucky asked, slipping the glove back on. "But, it doesn't scare you?"

"No, why would it?" she asked looking at him, and then over at Steve wondering if he knew the answer. Instead, both of them were just staring at her, not giving her an answer. "Am I _supposed_ to be scared of it?"

"Most people are," Bucky said, taking her hand back into his right one now that the left was hidden away again.

"Well, I've always been told I'm not like most people. Weren't you the one a little while ago who told me to be myself?" Vic said, giving him a reassuring smile, which after a moment he finally returned. Damn, he looked even better when he smiled with his cute little lips. Alright, so this was really happening. Taking a calming breath, she asked, "So, which one of ya'll wrote the note?"

"I did," Steve answered.

"Ok, then Mister Strip Club, care to explain the two weeks wording in that note?" Vic asked twisting her body to look at him better, slightly leaning on Bucky's arm for support. She heard a chuckle from behind her as she held her own laugh in. Steve gave Bucky a very pointed look with a hint of red face. Looking over her shoulder at Bucky, she asked, "Does he always look like that when being teased?"

"Yeah, the Punk does," Bucky said with a small smile. Steve gave an exasperated huff at the comment, shaking his head at the both of them, probably.

"You had a delivery to Stark Tower two weeks ago, during a news conference. Bucky saw your confrontation with the security guard. He was in the lobby. But he didn't see your soulmark. Then, the other night, we were all out at the...club, where I saw you. While you were cleaning off the table next to ours, I was able to see the soulmark," Steve explained with a reasonable, simple explanation, which she nodded in understanding at.

That explained quite a bit, she realized. Thinking about why she had recognized Steve, she remembered that she was bending over the table to clean it when he had started having a coughing fit. At the time, she had figured it was just from the small show she had accidentally given him. Now, she really knew why. And she couldn't pass up such a great opportunity like this.

Before responding, she gave Bucky's hand a quick squeeze while turning just enough to give him a wink to try and prepare him, she said, "So, then, you were looking down my shirt? I guess that I should be flattered."

And there it was, Steve dropped his head, his face now beet red with Bucky heavily chuckling behind her. She thought she would have gotten more of a response from Bucky at that tease, _that_ had been a good one. Vic dropped Steve's hand, reaching up to touch the side of Steve's face, having to after seeing him looking so adorable while having to deal with her jest. His face was smooth, like he had just shaved this morning, which he probably had. Bucky looked more like he was on day three without shaving. As Steve lifted his head back up, she could see the resigned happiness across his face at her comment. She guess that Captain America was not used to being teased.

"Sorry, but it's not too often you get a good shot like that one, Steve," Vic said, rubbing his cheek with her thumb. Thinking back to the series of events, she asked, "So then you wrote _and_ delivered that note the very next day?"

"Yeah, once we had some help trying to figure out how to meet you, I mean, _really_ meet you," Bucky said, rubbing his own fingers across her own hand.

"Why would you need help?" she asked, glancing between the two of them. This was going to give her whiplash, talking with both of them.

"Honestly, we were nervous," Steve said, reaching up and taking her hand back into his. "We've been waiting a very long time to meet you. We figured that our soulmate would have been born at the same time we were and would have died decades ago."

"Well, _that's_ a pretty depressing scenario, but I can see why you both would think that," Vic said, thinking over her high school history lessons, grasping both of their hands firmly trying to reassure them in some way. It was another twisted piece of fate.

Then she thought of something else, asking, "So...the big spender you were in the club with was Tony Stark?"

"Yeah, he kind of drags us out of the Tower sometimes," Bucky answered. She then looked over at Steve.

"So, does Captain America usually hang out in strip clubs?"

That earned her a groan and red face from Steve and finally getting a real laugh from Bucky. Steve then looked over at his friend, his own expression a bit shocked for some reason. There was definitely _something_ going on there that would be a later discussion.

"No, that was a first," Steve admitted, before adding, "And hopefully the last."

She decided that Steve needed a break before she broke him.

"Your note mentioned a walk, but first I need to do something. Can you hand me my bag?"

Bucky reached next to him where it was sitting, picking it up and handing it to Vic. She opened the pack, pulled out her riding boots, quickly slipped the tennis shoes off, and shoved them inside the bag with the wig going next, zipping it closed.

"I normally only wear those when I have to bike," she explained.

Slipping her feet into the boots, she maneuvered the quick-laces up with precise work. It was getting a bit warmer so she didn't need her jacket anymore. As soon as she was done, both of them clasped back down onto her free hands.

"So let's walk. Sitting here trying to look between the both of you is going to give me whiplash."

"I'm not letting go," Bucky said standing and indicating his hold on her hand.

"I'm not either," Steve replied also standing without letting go, but also picking up her backpack and tossing it over his right shoulder.

"Whiplash it is then," Vic sighed, standing between the two men. No, not just men, but her soulmates.

Heading down the path from the way they had all come, they walked for a bit in quiet, just holding hands. Vic decided to break the ice first.

"I know how much Happy loves his security, so I'm sure you probably know some things about me, but beyond history class years ago I've only seen a small bit about the both of you on the news. I can't even guess how many background checks have been run on me before ya'll decided to meet me."

"First, we always wanted to meet you," Bucky answered with another squeeze.

"Second," Steve started, "we didn't really do a _good_ background check as some of us wanted to make sure we didn't invade your _privacy_ ," giving Bucky an annoyed stare.

"I'm sensing a story here. Spill it," Vic said, shaking both of their hands.

"Well...after seeing you in the club the other night, we _kind of_ followed you home...but only to make sure you got there safely," Bucky admitted to her but without being able to make eye contact.

"I remember that night. It felt like someone was watching me but I never saw anything. How did you follow me?" she asked, curious knowing that there had not been any cars in sight and she definitely had not heard any motorcycles in the area. She was usually very cautious when traveling late at night, especially after the second hooligan.

"The rooftops," Bucky responded.

"But what about when I crossed over the streets?"

"We jumped," Steve answered.

"Jumped? Nobody could…wait, I guess the both of _you_ could. Never mind…stalkers," Vic jokingly sighed while shaking her head as she thought about the two of them being able to leap that far. Checking the rooftops was not normally something that she would do, but maybe for two super-soldiers, it seemed to be the best location for tailing somebody.

"See...told you," Steve stated firmly, pointing a finger at Bucky's chest. Bucky looked away sheepishly, like he had been caught with a hand in the cookie jar.

"Told him what?" Vic asked as they rounded to the right, following the path where it now ran next to the street. There were a lot more cars out now then earlier when they had arrived, more people walking also, but they didn't seem to be drawing attention to themselves. She didn't know how not with the two of them next to her. Luckily, she was five-eight, only about two inches shorter at than Bucky, not bad, and Steve was only a few inches taller than him.

"That you would think it was stalking. That's exactly what Pepper said," Steve smugly replied.

"But...weren't you there too?"

"Yes," he sighed a bit at that.

"Then I'll let it pass as creepy and sweet rolled into one," Vic said, bumping shoulders with both of them with the comment. "Besides, given your histories, as well as your day jobs, I can get why ya'll may be a bit protective, and I don't mind."

More like she was used to it but Vic didn't think that now would be the time to explain Wade and all of his safeguarding measures she'd had to put up with for the past few years. She would give them some time to decide if they wanted to try and make a go at some kind of relationship. Then she would explain Wade. They would get along great with him, probably.

"You _should_ mind, but after finding you, we had to make sure you would be safe. It won't happen again," Bucky's smile at her was very sweet. "But we don't really know that much about you, just some basics."

"Is there anything you want to ask?" Vic looked between them again.

"Why did you think that we were playing a trick on you?" Bucky asked in a very serious voice, tilting his head slightly to look at her face better.

"Because growing up, I was always told that having a soulmark meant for two others was evil, and that my matches would be hideous and ugly. Not, you know...you," she said, trying to lift her arms to indicate their bodies.

"Evil and hideous?" Steve's voice was playful but had a strange tone to it.

"Well…" Bucky began before Vic stopped him with a firm yank on his hand, saying, "Do not even go there. I only know a small bit of what happened to you, what made the major news, which I don't normally keep up with too much. How you would not be held accountable or face charges. I thought I remember hearing that someone was able to help you with what happened."

"Wanda is helping to fix my memories back into place, but that doesn't mean I don't feel guilty about what I did," Bucky answered in a bit more of a sad tone.

"What you were made to do, if I'm remembering right. From this point forward, you are not allowed to feel guilty or depressed around me. I've had enough of those in my life and I'll not have you sulking around me. Promise?" Vic asked with a firm grip now on his hand.

"Promise," Bucky said with a sigh, but seeming to have a weight lifted, as if he had been worried about her acceptance of his past. Steve then gave Victoria a firm, thanking squeeze with his hand, while soundlessly mouthing 'thank you' to her. She smiled back up at him, the three of them following the path to the right, where a bridge awaited.

"Here we are," Steve said, "the oak bridge."

" _This_ is as far as we're going?" Vic asked curious.

"This was as far as we had planned out," Bucky responded. "We weren't sure what you would want."

"Compared to what I'm used to doing on a daily basis, that walk was nothing," getting a chuckle from Bucky.

"Do you want to keep walking and talk some more?" Steve asked sounding very hopeful.

"Maybe around then entire park a couple of times?" Bucky then asked with a playful tone. They both definitely wanted to spend time with her...that was good.

Pulling out her pocket watch, she calculated out the time for finishing the gig prep, changing clothes, doing her hair, then getting to the club so she had a few hours to spend with them if she cut out her ride, plenty of time. She put the watch back into the small pocket of her jeans.

"Yeah, I have some time before I have to start getting ready for tonight," to which she received dual curious looks. "Work, kind of. How about we take a long walk to the Boathouse and get some lunch? Can ya'll handle a walk like that?"

"This Punk once made a couple hundred men walk over thirty miles," Bucky said, jabbing a thumb at Steve. "The Boathouse would be nothing."

"Hey now, to be fair, we were behind enemy lines…" Steve started to defend himself as they started walking, still hand in hand in hand.

* * *

 


	8. Lunch Time Guest

* * *

Steve could not believe his relief at how well Victoria and Bucky were interacting. He never would have voiced it aloud to anyone, but even with them being soulmates, he had been terrified that she would shun him for his past. Or even have been frightened of his arm, which she had actually found interesting.

As he really thought of it, he could not find Victoria acting differently at all with her attitude between the two of them in any way. Once she had gotten over the initial shock of who they were, she had yet to bring that up at all, as if it didn't really matter. The questions that she was asking were more about them in general, likes, dislikes, hobbies, not stuff Avenger related.

There were still a few who brought Bucky's history up after mission details were released to the public, especially when Bucky was part of them. The amount of rude articles had gotten much lower over just the past few months, but they had not died away completely. But there were some reporters out there who had taken their time and researched HYDRA and what they had done to Bucky, and _they_ were the ones who helped defend him.

Bucky had proven himself on missions to the group numerous times since coming to the Tower. Eventually Tony had relented after a very long, loud discussion about him moving in and becoming an Avenger. It was finally the threat of Steve moving out to an apartment which they could share that was the tipping point of the conversation / argument. He claimed that he was not letting Steve live alone with a volatile assassin who had 'really tried his best' to kill him. But besides Sam, Tony was one of Steve's best friends, even if the man would not say the actual words to Steve's face. Tony may not voice his beliefs when it came to friendship, but he didn't hold back when it came to bitterness towards someone. Even now, it still annoyed Steve the way he usually refused to even acknowledge Bucky's presence sometimes.

Then there was the fact that he was still worried with the constant fear that something, the wrong words spoken or an action that was meant to be innocent, could always trigger Bucky. He had thought that had happened earlier, when he had found him sitting on the sidewalk. Every mission, he tried to stay with him, by his side, to make sure that he was not slipping into his Asset mentality. Not once had he even seen a hint of him falling away…so why did it keep nagging at him?

Because he didn't want to lose Bucky ever again. That's why.

Wanda was helping him sort out the memories, but it could not bring back the personality that Bucky had before the war. But right now, for the first time in a long while, he seemed a bit more like his old self, with just a hint of the carefree ladies' man that he had grown up knowing, before the war and everything that had come with it. Seeing Bucky actually enjoying himself, not only smiling, but he had laughed, he knew that somehow it was Victoria's presence helping to bring out some of his old friend that he had been looking for over the past eleven months. How Steve hoped that everything continued to go great today…

"So, why are both of you so warm? I'm not just imagining it, right?" Victoria asked as they walked through the wooded area near the lake, still heading for the Boathouse. There were so many paths in this area that they hardly came across anyone else. So far, he had not noticed anyone out of the ordinary, meaning Natasha.

Nevertheless, he figured that the little Spider was out here somewhere, watching them. Let her. Right now, he found that he didn't really care. He was enjoying himself.

"No, we both run a bit warmer than normal. Both of us had different versions of a super-soldier formula. It altered our physiology so that a warmer body is just one of the side effects," Steve said, glancing around the woods as if he expected her to pop out of them, but that wasn't exactly Nat's style.

"That must be useful in winter. I couldn't stand the extremely cold weather from earlier in the year," Victoria said. "I hate the cold."

"I think that is something _all_ of us can agree on," Bucky said, smiling over at her. "But New York does not have _extremely cold weather_ , Vic."

"Considering that I can count the number of times I have seen snow on one hand," she held up her hand that was intertwined with Bucky's, spreading her fingers, "with one of them being the beginning of this year, to me, last winter _was_ extremely cold."

"How do you work as a bike messenger with all the snow on the ground?" Bucky asked.

"I didn't get to New York until later in the winter, around late March, and most of the snow had already melted by then. I didn't find the messenger job till about a month later."

"So does that mean you don't ice skate?" Steve asked, slightly altering the conversation to a different area.

"Never done it. But I _really_ like to watch hockey, it's my favorite sport. It's like a fight waiting for a game to break out," she said, smiling with glee in her voice. This sounded like something that she really did enjoy. He found it amusing that her favorite sport was such, what he considered, a violent sport.

"We'll watch almost any sport, but baseball was our thing growing up," Bucky said, leading them when the path made a t-intersection.

Steve knew that Bucky had been to the park a lot more than he had and trusted his judgement on getting them to the Boathouse. Central Park was one of the places that Bucky liked to go when he needed to get out of the Tower for some private time. Bucky had spent hours wandering all of these paths. They had come out to the Park plenty, talking about things they had done growing up, as well as remembering the fun times with the Howling Commandos.

But the first few times Bucky had gone out for some 'alone time', Steve had carefully followed at a distance, worried that he may try leaving again, as well as making sure Bucky and the general public didn't have any conflicts arise.

But after the fifth time of following him, he began to wonder if he really was being overly paranoid. So the next time Bucky had headed out on his own, he just hoped for the best and waited nervously in the Tower. But nothing ever happened. Not a single incident. It had taken months, but his paranoia finally subsided just a bit when it came to Bucky's walks.

Now they were talking about some of the baseball games that they went to when they were young, Victoria listening and asking questions. She seemed to enjoy listening about their lives before the war. He was just glad that Bucky had most of his memories righted so that he could join in and not feel lost.

Wanda had tried to describe what it was like helping Bucky but all she could come up with was that his memories were like a twisted ball of Christmas lights that needed to be untangled. They would eventually form a straight line but right now, something from his childhood could meet a mission from his past with a connection being anything, a color, a sound, a name, a memorable word.

In no time at all, it seemed, their group rounded a turn in the path and the Boathouse came into view. Carefully inspecting the tables outside of the café area, Steve unfortunately spotted what he was looking for. Natasha was sitting at a four-person round table with a foamy drink, casually 'reading' a book. A simple clearing of his throat got Bucky's attention so that he could point her out. Instead, he got a nod like Bucky had already spotted her himself, which he probably had.

"So, ya'll want to tell me what is going on?" he heard coming from Victoria.

Looking slightly down at her, he saw that she was looking between the two of them as they had tried to silently communicate to each other. He guessed that he was not as subtle as he thought he had been. Giving a heavy sigh, Steve tried to decide how much to tell her. But there was no way they were getting out of what was about to come. Nat would just reappear somewhere else.

"You may as well tell Vic. I'm surprised she stayed hidden _this_ long," Bucky said, shrugging his shoulders in defeat. Victoria looked from Bucky to him now, as if he was the deciding factor.

"Let's just say that we have a friend who is a bit _too_ nosy for her own good," Steve uttered, as they got closer to the café.

"The way I see it, there are different levels of nosy," Victoria started as they continued to walk towards where Natasha was very patiently waiting for them. "There's nosy, prying, concerned, interfering, stalkerish…"

As they both looked at Victoria, they could see the wide smile on her face as she teased the both of them, making him chuckle at the jest. He actually heard an amused groan from Bucky. Steve remembered all the times that he had been on the receiving end of Bucky's taunts growing up. It had been _his_ job to annoy Steve, not the other neighborhood guys, and Bucky would make sure of it.

"Besides, the way I see it, all good friends should technically be a little bit nosy," Victoria then said as she scanned the crowd of people, trying to find whom they were talking about. He heard her give a reply of, "Cool," when she spotted Natasha, with her red hair shining in the overhead sunlight. "I've seen her on the news."

"Come on, we might as well get this over with. If we don't, she'll just keep following us around the Park all day," Bucky said, leading them over to the table Natasha had occupied that happened to be just big enough for them to all sit at. She didn't even bother to put the book down as they came to a stop at her table. "I would say _what a coincidence this is_ , but it would be pointless since we know you better than that, Natasha."

Nat gracefully put the book on the table, not bothering to mark the page since she had not really been reading it anyways, Steve noted.

"Your right. That would be pointless," she said, with a sweet smile that Steve knew to not always trust to be sincere, but somehow, he knew that this time it was. Nat actually looked happy at seeing the three of them together. "Especially since the lunch order I placed for the four of us will be out any minute. Hi there, I'm Natasha Romanoff," she said, standing to greet Victoria on equal ground.

"Nice to meet you. Victoria Roth, but with the way they're talking, you already know that. Loved the speech you gave at the Hill meeting by the way," Victoria said, shaking the hand that Nat had offered. Since Nat had already ordered their food, they may as well join her, which would seem a bit rude to Victoria if they didn't.

Nat then pulled out the chair to her right and offered it to Victoria, meaning that only one of them would be able to sit next to Victoria. He wasn't sure how Nat would behave so he took the chair across from Victoria so that he would be close to Natasha if he needed to stop her from saying something bad. Bucky sat a bit hesitantly, obviously irritated by their lunch time guest, but there was no arguing right now about it. They would both yell at Nat later for interfering.

"So, does Natasha being here fall into the stalker category or protective category?" Victoria asked, getting comfortable by resting back in the metal chair, smiling at the two of them.

While Bucky answered "stalker," he answered "protective."

"At least we are in agreement," Nat smugly answered. "I didn't place any drink orders since I didn't know what the three of you would want. Why don't the two of you go get them?" Natasha said, pointing her finger at him and Bucky. Making eye contact with Bucky, who was more than likely about to speak his hesitancy at the suggestion, but it was Victoria's voice who was able to speak first.

"We will be fine while ya'll are gone," she said to them, nodding gently with a sly grin. He guessed that she understood their problem with leaving her alone with Nat, at least a little bit, but he doubted she really understood what Nat was capable of accomplishing. "I'm good with ice water."

"I'll have the same," Natasha said, expectantly looking between the two of them and waiting for them to go.

"Come on, Buck," Steve said, pushing his chair back and standing up.

Bucky was a bit slower to respond, giving Nat a final cold glare indicating for her to be on her best behavior, but he eventually found his way next to him as they headed for the door.

"I don't like this, Steve," Bucky very lowly said after they were far enough away to not be overheard.

"It's not like Natasha is going to attack her or anything like that," he pointed out, noticing that he could see the table in the reflection. The two women were just sitting and talking, like anyone else on a day like today would be.

"She better not," Bucky answered before starting to grumble something in Russian under his breath. Bucky may be worried about a physical attack, whereas he was worried about a mental one, in the form of one of Natasha's famous interrogations. He was not going to point that out as a possibility if Bucky had not already thought of it.

Reaching the door, he had to put his hand on Bucky's back and push him in through the door he was holding open for him, as Bucky was so focused on the table.

As the door was closing behind them, he looked back and saw the two women casually laughing at something, but his gut was still worried.

* * *

"So, if I guessed that it was _you_ in my place, would I be correct?" Vic asked her once the doors had closed, making sure there was no way for them to hear the question.

"How did you know?" Nat asked curious, quickly running over the one-time visit she had made to check her out. "I'm very good."

"I'm sure you are, but when you checked out the music on my computer, you sorted by genre and forgot to change it back," Vic answered without a trace of anger to her voice. If anything, she sounded more entertained. "I never sort it that way."

"That must have been when I got the message you were on the way home," Nat knew that her face was showing a bit of anger at the silly little slip up. "Damn. Sorry, but I wanted to make sure that everything was good before the boys met with you."

"That's fine and I get it. Especially considering with what ya'll do for a living. You need to be cautious, I'm guessing. They already told me about their own _stalking_ incident. I just wanted to ask once they were out of hearing range in case they didn't know. I don't want them to get all defensive and cause a problem for you. But I also just wanted to make sure that I wasn't going crazy. So, was everything cool or is an interrogation necessary?" Vic asked her with a genuine smile, not sounding or looking angry in the least.

Nat had expected Vic to freak out and start yelling, or even throw a fit, but here Vic was, casually giving her _permission_ to interrogate her. That was definitely a first for her. But since everything had already seemed to check out, she decided to go easy and see where a bit of leading went.

"I see that you like your wigs about as much as I do," she answered, turning a bit so that she would be able to see the guys when they were on the way back out with the drinks.

"Yeah. Working at bars, the outlandish ones will throw guys off their game some, and I get left alone a bit more. With already having such an unusual color of hair, it kind of sticks out and sometimes it's easier to blend in, and for that, I have the normal looking ones," Vic commented with a bit of sadness in her voice. "Then there are times when it's fun to stick out a bit too much."

"I know the feeling," she replied, leaning forward in the chair to rest her arms on the table. "Just so you know, and have a bit of a fair warning, everyone in the Avengers already knows about you."

"But it's only been two days," Vic sounded shocked at her comment. "And we only just met an hour ago."

"Exactly. If you knew us better, you'd be more surprised that it took that long. We've become a very protective, meddlesome group," she said as a waiter brought out a tray of food. He sat down two salads with chicken and fresh fruit mixed in front of her and Vic, while he put the two large plates of bacon double cheeseburgers and fries at the other two spots for the guys.

"Are they really going to be able to eat all of that?" Vic asked amazed at the quantity of food.

"Without hesitation. They told you about the serum?"

"Yes, but only a little bit. We didn't talk about it in relation to food," Vic glanced at the door checking, both of them waiting for the guys' return before starting to eat. "So, how do you like being the most famous spy around? That's a bit of a paradox, isn't it?"

"I'm still figuring it out, but working with the Avengers is not a quiet matter anyways. Speaking of which, have you thought about what will happen once the three of you become public knowledge?"

Nat could see the changes on her face until they stopped at apprehension.

"Why would it become public knowledge?"

"You've seen how the paparazzi handle movie stars and rich people when they find a soulmate? It's going to be the same, unfortunately, maybe even a bit worse since _both_ of them are involved," Nat stated as Vic's awareness of the subject became obvious all across her face, which was gaining a slight frown. It was obvious that Victoria had not _really_ taken into account _who_ her soulmates were, just that they were hers.

"We are good at keeping our private lives in-house when we can, but eventually, you will be out with either one or both of them and someone will recognize them. To give the three of you some time to get to know each other, I'll see what I can do about having something set up to monitor social media sites and removing any little things that someone posts online. It's not foolproof and eventually something will get out. But when it does, you will have all of the Avengers at your back for support."

Watching as Victoria seemed to think about the idea that she had planted, she knew that it had not occurred to Victoria either, that the three of them will become cannon fodder for reporters. The guys had not mentioned it either, but they all needed to think about how to handle the topic when it came up, and it ultimately would. Having such public superheroes with a multiple partner soulmark was going to be a big story; there was no way around it.

"Don't mention this to them yet, please. I don't think that they have even considered this as a possibility. They're used to publicity in general and it probably won't even register to them about being hassled about our relationship until it actually happens. Knowing them the way that you do, would you consider them the 'mother hen' type?" Vic asked staring at the door now, probably hoping to resolve this before they got back.

"Yes, after knowing what Steve went through to get Bucky back, definitely," she answered honestly.

"Then, I'll pull a Scarlett O'Hara and think about it tomorrow," Vic said, nodding her head towards the door where they guys were emerging with their hands full of disposable cups. She had put a smile back on her face, not a trace of the worry that it just had on it, as she looked at her two newfound soulmates. Nat was a bit impressed at her ability to compartmentalize, and amazed at how _she_ was now trying to protect _them_.

* * *


	9. Plans For Tonight

 

Bucky figured, as they stood up from the table an hour later, that having their _almost_ unexpected guest for lunch could have gone worse. The girls eventually ended up talking about stuff that he and Steve never would have brought up as a topic. In a way, having Natasha there helped them to get to know Vic just a little bit better. Even if it would have been nice to give them at least twenty-four hours before barging in, he figured.

Both he and Vic had found Natasha's story of her and Steve on the run together in D.C. amusing, and luckily, she did not go into detail about how he had shot Nat or killed so many people that day. He and Vic had especially liked hearing about the part where Nat had made Steve kiss her to avoid detection. But when Vic asked Nat how the kiss was, and she told her that she would not be disappointed, Steve looked like he was going to be ill from embarrassment. He knew why Steve hadn't brought it up, but not how Nat had been able to restrain herself from telling everyone, especially Tony. The fact that Vic was not jealous of them kissing was amazing because he already knew that he was not liking the idea of her going back to work at the strip club, where she would be ogled by the male patrons.

The girls were in the process of swapping phone numbers with each other, and then giving a hug and agreeing that they should meet up eventually for lunch. At least Nat had behaved herself and not gone into the fifth degree with her. He hoped that Nat would not scare her off, but there was no doubt that she could easily make Vic afraid of her if she wanted to. Nat's training had taught her how to be sociable, but for all that he had seen over the past year, it could all still be an act. He hoped that Natasha really did like Vic, but it really didn't matter if she didn't, as long as she behaved sociably around her.

"Ready?" Steve asked, after Nat had walked away, strolling down the walkway opposite from the path they needed to take to get back to their bikes. Maybe her curiosity had been satisfied for today.

"Sure," Vic answered, holding out her hands for them to take a hold of. Standing up from the table, he had ended up on Vic's right side. He was a bit hesitant about holding Vic's hand with his left, but he did as she silently indicated, while Steve took her left hand. As they began to head down the path, he kept adjusting the pressure of his hold to make sure it was even as her fingers moved over his, though he knew he was not gripping her too tight. They had not gone down the path very far before Vic asked them to stop.

"Ok, that's not right. Can you two swap places?" she requested. They swapped sides and he knew that whatever the reason, he felt better being on that side. "It didn't feel right that way. And I don't mean the feel of your hand, Bucky…I felt you twitching," she smiled softly, while bumping him with her hip. "But I'm guessing that due to carrying his shield on his left side, that Steve, you're right handed and therefore need it free to hit with, while I'm guessing that you prefer your left, and would also want it free?"

Bucky looked over at Vic, reflecting on her assessment of their situation, completely agreeing with her. He saw Steve giving her an odd agreeing look at the statement also. Why would she even have thought about something as strategic as that?

"That's about right," Steve then granted, and so Bucky concurred with a nod. "Not trying to seem forward, but after how today went, do you think that you would be up for meeting with us again? Maybe next time _without_ Natasha inviting herself."

"This week is a bit strange right now, so how about tomorrow, unless that's too soon?" Vic suggested as they wound their way back through the paths. "But I'm guessing that planning too far in advance may not work out with your jobs."

"That's putting it mildly," Steve answered, seeming to be thinking about something. "Didn't you mention that you were working tonight?"

"Yeah, Paulo got sick so I'm going to step in for him tonight. If I'm not sounding too forward now, if you want, ya'll can come by the club?" Vic said as they emerged to the street section of path. They were unfortunately most of the way back to the bikes already, having taken a much shorter route.

"At the strip club?" Steve asked hesitantly. Bucky knew that he had not wanted to go there to begin with, but being invited there by a soulmate probably was throwing him for a loop. But Vic gave a cute laugh at Steve's expression before she responded.

"No, not the strip club. It's a rock club called The Pit," she said, as they cross the street to leave the park. They both gave her blank stares at not recognizing the name of the place. It could only be a step up from the strip club, he guessed. "If you look it up, it's pretty easy to find. Be there close to eight o'clock. After the gig, which will be about an hour, I'll be free for the rest of the night and we can take it from there and discuss what to do tomorrow."

"Sounds like a plan," Steve said, smiling down at her. They had been moving down the sidewalk and had already made it to the bikes. How was this day going by so fast?

"Since Natasha has already given you her number, I'm guessing we can do the same?" Bucky asked, a bit annoyed that Nat had somehow managed to do that before they had.

"Of course," Vic said, pulling out her phone. They each gave her their numbers, while she did the same. The last time he had done something like this was over seventy years ago, and girls had _never_ given Steve their number.

"How about a hug goodbye, that way we can save first kisses for somewhere a bit more private?" Vic had a devious smile on her face as she asked.

"Now _that_ sounds like a plan," Bucky responded with a real grin finally crossing his face.

Vic returned his grin and reached up to wrap her arms around his neck as he planted his chin in the curve of her neck. He had not been this close to her yet, and now, he realized that her hair smelled like a Pina Colada, coconuts that were white like her hair.

Breaking the hug after a couple of extra moments, Vic then stepped over to Steve, who had to bend down a bit more than he did so that she could get her arms around him. He saw Steve inhaling also, finding the same scent that he had.

Vic then took her backpack that he had been carrying for her and took out her jacket, tossing it on and then the pack. He had noticed that it was fairly beaten up, like she'd had it for quite a while.

"The Pit…at eight," she stated, probably to make sure that they remembered the name, but there was no way he was going to forget it.

"We will be there," Steve said stepping over closer to his bike. Vic started her bike, checked the road, and pulled out, leaving them standing there to watch her until she finally turned down a side street.

"That went much better than I had hoped," Bucky said, moving over to Tony's bike.

"Definitely," Steve agreed getting on his bike. "But I still don't like the living arrangements that she has."

"Me either, but Pepper unfortunately warned us to take it slow. When she mentioned working tonight, and I thought she meant the strip club, I wanted to go burn it down so she couldn't."

"A bit dramatic since she only _waitresses_ there," Steve sighed, shaking his head at the suggestion. "She doesn't seem to rely on anyone else helping her. Like Pepper said, she may not take to us trying to help, it would seem too much like charity. Victoria mentioned the name Paulo. I thought that most waitresses were female."

"Maybe not a waitress, but the bartender? She does seem to wear a lot of hats," Bucky said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out an earbud, placing it into his ear, while handing Steve the other one he had, receiving more head shakes, "FRIDAY, can you hear me?"

" _Yes, Sergeant_ ," the robotic melodic voice responded.

"Search New York City for a club called The Pit. What can you find out about it?" Bucky asked, seeing the curiosity on Steve's face at the possible answer.

" _It is labeled a rock and roll bar that often has live bands playing on the weekends. It is located on the outskirts of the Hell's Kitchen area_."

As soon as FRIDAY told them where it was located, both of their heads snapped up and made eye contact.

"There is no way she needs to be going somewhere like that alone," Steve firmly stated. He was only speaking aloud the sentiment that he felt at the situation.

"Then we agree that only a world threat will keep us away?" Bucky asked putting the helmet on, tightening the chin strap a bit too much in his state, worried about something happening to Vic being anywhere near Hell's Kitchen.

"Even then, we will make sure she is safe before heading out," Steve said, putting his own helmet on. "At least she probably will not be riding the bicycle there. The motorcycle was a bit of a surprise."

"Yeah," Bucky said, starting the bike and lifting the kickstand. Giving Steve a sly smile, he said, "By the way, just so that you know, I put a tracker on it."

He pulled out before he could hear the possible reprimand from him, but right now, he didn't think that Steve would have a problem with what he had done. He just hoped that Pepper didn't find out.

* * *

A couple of long hours later, at least to them, he and Bucky found themselves walking into the club called The Pit. It was a small converted warehouse with plenty of interior space for people to hang out, drink, dance, or anything else they did nowadays. The walls were painted black with purposeful graffiti on them and there were not many lights on, giving a dark atmosphere to the place. A bar ran along the left side wall while at the far back of the place was sectioned off to house a stage that a band was setting up on.

They had been informed at the door that he opening cover band was about to take the stage and the main act would be on later a bit after nine o'clock. They were a bit relieved that they could be out of here before the main crowd arrived.

Being a Saturday night close to a holiday, the place was already too crowded for Steve's taste. He had taken Bucky's suggestion and, for once, had borrowed some of _Bucky's_ clothes. He had pointed out to Steve that since this was a rock bar, he needed to blend in better to avoid any incidents with possible drunks going after someone dressed as _sensibly_ as he usually did.

Since that was not something that he'd had to deal with since he was small and it was the forties, he agreed. After slipping the dark pants on, along with a black band t-shirt which looked as if Bucky had somehow snagged from Tony's closet, he went to the mission prep area and found an extra pair of combat boots to wear. Admiring himself in the mirror, he had to admit that he did feel a bit tougher dressed the way he was. Bucky on the other hand hadn't changed a thing since their meeting earlier.

Steve looked around at all the meandering people, hoping to find Victoria easily and maybe see if she could leave early, but no such luck, not a sign of her. He could easily imagine a fight or two breaking out in a place like this. There were a lot of ruff looking guys, and girls, walking around. He could see Bucky scanning the place carefully, as if ascertaining it for threats. But he was a bit surprised when Bucky did not do his normal perimeter walk. Maybe for some reason he was feeling a bit more at ease here.

"Come on, let's check the bar," Bucky said, giving his arm a smack to draw Steve's attention back from the floor. There were tables set up around the entire perimeter of the space and waitresses were moving around, taking orders and delivering drinks. But none of them had her white hair or wore a crazy wig like Victoria had been doing the other night. But after seeing her with the brown wig today, he realized that he needed to verify _every_ waitress since there was no telling what she may look like tonight.

Following Bucky to a small open space at the bar closer to the door, they both ordered a bottle of beer. It was only for show since neither of them could get drunk from anything anymore, unless Thor was on-world and had his special vial.

"Hey, do you have a waitress named Vic working tonight?" Bucky asked the male bartender as he came over with their drinks.

"Nope, I don't recognize that name…sorry," he said, placing the beers in front of them. He watched as Bucky pulled his phone from the back pocket and pulled up the location of Vic's motorcycle tracker.

"It's still showing as being out back," Bucky said as the house lights dimmed even more as the crowd began to scream and yell out as the band took the stage.

Listening to the screeches of the electric guitar and drums echoed throughout the room, they both were startled by firm smacks of arms being thrown around their shoulders as someone took up residence between the two of them.

" _The Trooper_! I _love_ this song," Tony Stark screamed loudly so that they could hear him over the sound of the metal music. "I'm guessing that the two of you have no idea who Eddie is?" Tony asked, throwing an arm up to get the attention of the bartender.

"Damn it, Tony, what are you doing here?" Bucky asked as he turned to glare at the man, surprising Steve a bit with the attitude. He had never acted angry towards Tony since coming to the Tower, instead Bucky had put up with every rude comment that was thrown his way, telling Steve that he deserved it. But there was a tone in his voice this time that was different. More than likely due to Victoria being involved.

"What do you mean, Barnes? I had _no_ idea that you guys hung out here too," Tony said, dropping a fifty dollar bill on the counter while telling the bartender to bring him a triple whiskey.

"Who told you we would be here?" Steve demanded to know.

"Technically, no _body_. It's your own fault for _not_ telling FRIDAY to _not_ tell me where you were heading tonight," Tony answered with one of his grins, sipping from the glass that quickly appeared in front of him. "So, where is she? I want to meet her."

"No way, Tony," Bucky responded firmly.

"Barnes, you are no fun at all," Tony said as the crowd applauded with the changing of songs. "Well, at least your…girlfriend...has great taste in hang out spots. Live classic metal music, awesome!"

"She's not here to hang out, she's working," Steve pointed out to him, scanning the crowd again to look for Victoria. There was still no sign of her, but all of the other waitresses had been over to the bar placing orders for customers numerous times since they had taken up their spot. If Victoria spotted them, even if she were working, she would at least stop and tell them hello, right?

"Even better. Is she wearing one of those cute waitress outfits? That tells me that she's probably not as stuck-up as I thought your soulmate would be, Capsicle," Tony gave a smirk as he downed more of the whiskey.

"Why would you think that she would be stuck-up?" Steve asked now finding himself a bit more on the defensive.

"Well, I figured that she would be like the women that you grew up with back in the forties, you know, the typical 'pregnant while cooking barefoot in the kitchen'," Tony said, turning to lean his back on the bar while watching the band play and not noticing the angry face that was forming on Bucky since his outfit comment. He reached over behind Tony and put a hand on Bucky's shoulder to try and calm him down. Later he would have to point out that comments like that about their soulmate would have to stop.

"Are you totally forgetting how the women took over the roles of men when the war started? Handling themselves just fine without a man around _and_ working in the shipyard and steel mills?" Steve responded to the comment thinking that description fit Victoria very well since she worked numerous jobs to support herself.

"Fine, fine, get off the soapbox, Spangles. You might be right though, because if Pepper heard me say that, I'd be sleeping on the street outside of my own building," Tony admitted, actually looking a bit apologetic. "But…I still want to meet her."

"We'll consider it, _if_ we ever find her," Steve said, starting to get worried at not having spotted her. Then the song changed again into one that was unfortunately all too familiar to anyone who spends any time in the Tower. Tony slammed his hand on the counter and gave a loud yell.

"That's my song!" Tony yelled as he raised his arms over his head and began to stalk away into the bouncing crowd at the stage, not giving a care about being recognized. If anything, he was _trying_ to get the entire club _to_ look at him. Bucky certainly was, following Tony's movements as he left them at the bar to go and dance to _Iron Man_ , if what Tony was doing could actually be considered dancing. It looked more like a controlled mob circling a drain.

Watching Tony as the song continued playing on with the crowd going wild now after discovering _the_ Iron Man among them, Steve felt Bucky's arm suddenly reach over and grasp onto his jacket, holding him in place so that he could not move. Turning and finding the shocked expression on Bucky's face, he at first worried that something might have triggered him.

"I found her. I found Vic," Bucky yelled over the sound of the music, not taking his eyes from where he was looking at the crowd near the front of the stage.

Turning his head to follow his stare, Steve scanned the massive crushing horde but he could not see what Bucky had seen. There were no waitresses working in that area. Bucky must have seen him not finding her because he then yelled, "Look higher, up on the stage."

Steve then let his gaze slide up to where the band was playing. Staring to where he had indicated, it wasn't until one of the overhead lights began to give a strobe effect over all of the band, he saw what Bucky had seen. Victoria was indeed up on the stage. Sitting behind the drum set pounding away with fury on the device as the crowd cheered them on. She was dressed a bit funny, but there was no mistaking the white of her hair, even with the multi-braided style it currently had. They both stared in amazement as they watched.

As the song ended and the cheers echoed through the bar, Tony finally emerged from the crowd, slightly out of breath and sweaty while looking totally pleased with his behavior, which he probably was. Stepping between the two of them and grabbing his glass and downing the last of the whiskey, he slammed the glass onto the counter.

"I love this place!" Tony happily commented as he leaned on the bar smiling, motioning for the bartender to get him another drink. "And did you get a look at the drummer? Damn, she is hot!"

Steve saw Bucky's left arm raise, barely giving him time to lurch across behind the unsuspecting man so that he could plant himself on the other side of Tony so that he was between the two of them. Grabbing the silver arm, he pushed down as hard as he could, and luckily, Bucky stopped his aggressive movement.

"What?" Tony said, as he raised his empty glass to indicate needing a refill, turning to look at the two of them standing together, totally oblivious as to what had almost happened to him

 


	10. The Pit

As the band finished up their final song, Vic gave the crowd a final scan, not seeing the Steve or Bucky anywhere, but the overhead stage lights did block out most of the bar from her view being at the back of the stage. When the curtain was pulled closed, they began the breakdown of their equipment so that main band's roadies could get set up for the main attraction. The guys would set up the drum kit for her as a thank you for substituting for Paulo, plus his share of the take since they would otherwise have to cancel, but she always helped them with the breakdown to make it go quicker.

"Can you fucking believe that?" Richie said, putting his guitar into the case.

"Believe what?" Vic asked, putting the sticks into Paulo's carry-bag and beginning to disassemble the kit and grabbing her towel to pat the sweat from her face, carefully avoiding the makeup. She would have to wait until she got home to be able to wash the heavy stuff from her face.

"Didn't you see what happened when we played _Iron Man_ and the crowd went wild?" Tommy asked, wiping down his bass guitar before storing it in the case.

"Kind of, but with all the lights I couldn't see anything. Was there another fight?" Vic glanced back around the corner of the stage wall towards the front, still looking for any sign of Steve or Bucky.

"No girl…Tony fuckin' Stark was out there in the middle of everyone, acting like the god he thinks he is," Richie playfully answered. "I wonder if he is still out there. I would love to get an autograph."

Vic froze as she had heard Tony's name spoken, while thinking to herself that she could almost _guarantee_ that he _was_ still out there. But, that also meant that Steve and Bucky _had_ shown up, which brought a smile to her face as she finished packing up the smaller drum kit pieces. She just had not been able to spot them from the back of the stage. She hadn't even been able to see Tony in the crowd. She could almost guarantee that by tomorrow, somewhere on the internet would be a video of Tony in the mosh pit. She'd have to remember to search for it.

"I wonder why he was here?" Kevin asked, as he finished rolling up his microphone's cord.

"Who cares?" Richie said, "Tony Stark heard us play and he liked it. I'm so glad I asked you to dress up, Vic. This is a damn good night. Hey, I wonder if any of the other Avengers are out there. I'm going to go check."

Vic grabbed her water bottle and took a long drink, trying to figure out what to do. Everything that Natasha had mentioned earlier about the three of them becoming public knowledge was suddenly foremost in her thoughts. Tony was not known for being subtle, and if she went out front alone to find Steve and Bucky, it would look a bit out of place. There was definitely the chance of pictures of the three of them hitting the internet tonight. By now, everyone in the club knew exactly who was present. Luckily, Richie's comment gave her an idea.

"Hey, hold up. Let's finish packing this stuff up and then all of us head out front. Don't try to hog all the fun, Richie," Vic said, checking herself in the mirror that was next to the stage for the musician to use before heading up. She suddenly almost regretting agreeing to dress up at Richie's request. How was this get-up going to go over with all three of them? She knew that Tony would at least like it.

"Yeah, man," Kevin said, grabbing his own drink and finishing it off. "I _need_ to get a selfie with Iron Man. I can use it as my Christmas card picture this year."

Luckily it was a good suggestion, as the four of them made quick work of putting everything off to the side that was reserved for their equipment. Only a few minutes passed before they were walking through the door that kept the onlookers from getting back stage. Vic was the last one of the group to head out having to adjust the strange footwear that she had on. For some reason, she had always found it easier to play the drum barefoot. Right now, she was wearing a pair of bright pink fuzzy bedroom slippers around backstage. Her boots were in her bag for the ride home, as well as a change of clothes from the outlandish Halloween outfit Richie had asked her to wear again.

Passing through the door, she glanced to her left at the stage and saw that the headline band was about ready to start. That was when she felt someone grab onto her right arm and pull her toward the corner of the room. Planting her feet to try and stop the movement, she found herself sliding across the floor like she was skating due to the smooth slick soles. Balling her left hand into a fist, she waited for the right moment to strike. She finally stopped when she found herself pressed up against the black wall with Bucky's body blocking her view of the room with his closeness. She released a calming breath, easing her body.

"That is _not_ a nice thing to do," she swatted his arm lightly as the worry of being attacked left her as she looked upon his grinning face. With the look he was giving her at the comment, he knew _exactly_ what he had been doing when grabbing her. She noticed there was no Steve. "Why are you waiting over here alone?"

"Steve told me to put myself in a time out," he looked away, wanting to _not_ make eye contact as he answered her.

"Why?" she simply asked, noting his cute embarrassment at the admission. She put a finger under this chin, lifting his head so that he had to look at her.

"I may have tried to punch Tony," he admitted. Vic raised her eyebrows and continued to stare at him waiting for the rest. "I didn't like him saying what he said about you."

"What did he say?" Vic answered a bit stunned. "I didn't think that I was off beat on any songs but…"

"That you were 'hot'," Bucky gave as an interrupting confession.

"Ok…I was not expecting that," she said, slightly smiling now knowing that Bucky had done the maneuver out of jealously. She had read a lot that soulmates would sometimes act like this. Maybe it really was true. Did that help to explain their already protective nature about her? Then there was how long they had been waiting to find her…

"You told us you were working tonight," Bucky said, leaning down so that his mouth was very close to her ear so that he could talk to her as the band started playing. "When we couldn't find you waiting tables, we started to get worried."

"I told you that I had a gig, Bucky," she said, thinking of the two of them worrying about her after such a short time a bit cute. Nobody except for Wade ever cared about her. But was it only because of the soulmark? What about once they really got to know her? Nope…just enjoy the now.

"I remember you using that word, but we don't know that one," he said leaning even closer to her now, enough that she could feel his own body heat mix with her already overheated one from playing.

"A gig. It's what musicians call getting a job to play somewhere, like tonight. Sorry to worry ya'll," she sighed while explaining, resting her hand on his cheek. She could visibly see him ease at the simple gesture. She then tried to glance around him to see if anyone had noticed them or if the guys had noticed her missing. "Hey, I haven't told the guys about us yet, and they are searching the place for Iron Man right now for pictures. So come on, we need to catch up with them before someone, _like Tony_ , gives us up to them. That's why he's here, right? He wants to meet me?"

"Yeah, he does," Bucky sighed, sounding annoyed by the idea.

Vic managed to squeeze to the left between his body and the wall to free herself. Taking his arm, and noticing the hurt look in his face at losing some private time, but he did let her lead him to where she could see everyone gathering around a table near the back of the room.

Before they got too close, she release Bucky's arm so that it would not be obvious that she knew them just yet. Explaining them to the band was something that she would like to put off for a while. Hopefully, with having known her for six months, one week and three days, they wouldn't freak out like some others had done when she explained their connection.

As the guys were still introducing themselves to Steve and Tony, they found her standing behind them and took her arm to pull her forward, making sure to include them in the introductions. Both Tony and Steve were standing and shaking everyone's hands, but when Richie moved her so that they could shake, Tony instead lifted his arms wide and gave her a big hug.

"There is my new favorite drummer," he said, before releasing her as Bucky then appeared from the side so that he could stand next to Tony, a cold glare on his face. She could barely see the nudge that Bucky gave Tony trying to get his attention before he could say too much. Bucky then managed to whisper something into Tony's ear, probably giving a quick explanation to not exposing the three of them yet. The look that crossed Tony's face seemed to show that he understood. "Love the familiar color scheme. How did you know I was coming tonight?"

"We had no idea. It's just a little something for the show," Vic answered, "It was a request by this one," she said nudging Richie in the side.

"Good choice," Tony said as he took in the outfit and makeup.

She had found a pair of yellow jeans at the Goodwill and had cut them so that they came to mid-thigh. Her shirt was a simple red tank top, which was the best for moving around in. But her makeup was what stood out. Her eyes were covered with red and gold eye shadow, black eyeliner forming an Egyptian style outline, her eyebrows were tinted red to match the lipstick she wore. Her white hair had been braided into small groupings so that it formed a chunky dreadlocks look. The overall design was trademark Iron Man colors. Of course Tony would like it.

"Shoes leave a bit to be desired though," Tony frowned at seeing them.

For the next couple of minutes, the guys from the band found themselves enjoying the attention that Tony, Steve and Bucky were giving them, with Tony going so far as to making sure they had a group picture which included everyone. Vic figured that a picture like that hitting the internet would not be so bad since it could just be written off as the band meeting Iron Man.

Eventually the guys started to wander off to do their own things, mainly taking with every female in the place as usual, leaving the four of them at the table, which they then sat down at, Bucky and her backs to the wall. She noted that this time Bucky and Steve made sure that they were on her sides, the ones they favored, while Tony was across the table from her. Enough time seemed to have passed so that the onlookers around the bar had taken in the spectacle that was Tony Stark and moved on.

Hopefully, they could have a normal chat, or what passed for normal considering she was hanging out with Tony. She remembered him from the club the other night, and that was not was not a normal night in any sense of the word.

* * *

"I already told Bucky, but I'm sorry for worrying you earlier. Ya'll didn't see me up on stage?" Vic asked, looking over at Steve. So far, he had enjoyed just sitting at the table near her, considering in his own opinion, that he had not gotten enough alone time with her in the corner.

"We were scanning the floor, thinking you were waitressing again. It wasn't until Tony here," Steve said, jerking his finger at tonight's intruder, "made his way onto the floor to dance to his song that Bucky spotted you."

"Then you have me to thank for helping to find her?" Tony asked, grinning while sipping down at least his third glass tonight.

"So, Natasha is the winner in the curiosity category, with Tony a close second," Vic said, lifting her fingers with the count.

"Natasha has already met her? When did she manage that?" Tony asked throwing up a hand in disbelief.

"Earlier today," Steve said. "Not even two full hours after we all met for the first time."

"Does that mean that this is meeting number two?" Tony asked sitting up a bit straighter. "And here I was thinking that you two had been hiding Vikki for a while now and just not telling everyone."

"Don't call me that one again or you'll find a wig superglued to your suit," Vic said shaking her head, "It's either Victoria or Vic."

"You two have a lot of explaining to do to her, otherwise she is not going to get my wonderful, charming wit," Tony smirked.

"Later," Bucky stated, not feeling like talking about Tony ever.

"Well then, I know when I'm not wanted," Tony said, downing the rest of his drink. "Shocking…I know. I'll be out of your hair as soon as I can find Happy."

"Happy's here?" Vic asked, getting a large smile on her face.

"Yes, he's my bodyguard, as strange as _that_ sounds," Tony said, leaning forward on to the table. Then it dawned on him, "Wait, how do you know Happy?"

Instead of answering, Vic gave four quick loud whistles, which went through the entire place. In no time, Happy appeared from the crowd over by the bar, looking around curiously. When they spotted each other, Vic got up and when Happy reached the table they gave each other a hug.

"Wait…Happy met her before me? What am I, chopped liver?" Tony asked, slumping back into the chair looking very dejected.

"I've known Happy for…almost a year," Vic said, seeming a bit hesitant with the time frame, as if she had wanted to say something else.

"I couldn't believe it when I heard your whistle. I saw you up on the stage but I didn't realize _that_ was _you_. I've never seen you dressed up like this," Happy said, moving to stand next to Tony's chair.

"This is not the best outfit for delivering packages in," Vic said, indicating the colorful outfit. Why did it have to be Tony's colors?

"We are _so_ going to have a talk," Tony stated firmly, standing up and poking Happy in the chest. "Until the next time," he said to Vic, "which had better be soon," he said pointing to the two of them.

After Tony had gotten far enough away as to not try and invite himself along, they had planned on asking Vic about leaving, but Vic spoke up first.

"I don't know about the two of you, and I know that it's a bit late, but I didn't have dinner before the show," Vic said pointing her thumb at the door. "Care to get out of here and find something to eat?"

"Sounds great," Steve said, standing up from the table and helping to pull Vic's chair out so she could stand. "Any preference?"

"Not really," Vic said. "But after all that playing, something hearty would be good."

"There's a place we like near the Tower, not fast food and it's really good," Steve suggested. "It's also much quieter and easier to talk in."

"Any chance _another_ Avenger will be there?" Vic asked smiling.

"Probably not. You've already met the two busy-bodies that we were worried about," he stated bluntly, knowing that Steve agreed with him.

They began to walk through the club, but then she stopped, pointing to the door she had used earlier. "I'm parked out back and I need to change clothes. How did ya'll get here?"

"We are just down the street on the bikes again," Bucky said, not liking the idea of her walking in the alley alone, which he was not about to let her do.

"I'll change and then meet ya'll out front," Vic told them, moving off towards the door as Bucky looked over at Steve and gave him their old signal to hold. After she was out of hearing range, Steve turned to him.

"You're just going to let her go into an alleyway alone at night?" Steve asked looking at him shocked.

"Of course not, but while she is changing, we have plenty of time to walk around the building and meet her at the back door," Bucky said, already on the move.

"Should have figured you had a plan," Steve shook his head at hearing that, giving him a firm pat on the back.

"You're not the only one who gets them," he offered with a quick lift of his brow, earning him a groan from Steve.

They walked out the front and thanks to his checking out of the building earlier from a satellite map, he knew the quickest route to her motorcycle. When they reached the alley, they saw that the rest of the band was loading the musical equipment to a van parked close to her bike. Setting up a bit out of sight, they waited only a few minutes before Vic emerged from the open door, already changed and carrying a box and loading it into the van. She was talking to one of the guys, Richie, he remembered the name, and then she was handed a small wad of cash, her share for playing tonight. She had changed back into the outfit that she had worn earlier at the park and thanks to the outside lights, Bucky could see that she still wore the makeup. It was a very strange contrast.

They huddled in a group and were closely talking about something for a couple of minutes before each one of the guys began to give Vic a hug, bringing on another round of jealousy. He began to wonder if she had ever dated any of the guys since she seemed so comfortable with them. They were too far away to hear what they had been discussing.

"Bye," he heard Vic call out as she began to maneuver the bike towards the end of the alley they were at. Once she was a bit away from the band, he stepped out of the shadows first so that she could see him standing there. It made her freeze for a moment before recognition crossed her face.

"You know…I'm starting to think that the two of you really _do_ have a stalking problem," Vic grinned while pushing her bike towards them.

"Can't help it," Steve said, stepping closer to her, "we're in the protection business."


	11. Table For Three

Of course, as soon as they had parked their bikes down the street from the restaurant they had led her to, they took up their normal spots. It was a strange but comforting feeling walking between these two. Walking down the sidewalk while taking up a good portion of it, they received a couple of looks, but none of the people seemed to realize _who_ there were really looking at.

When they had parked, she had taken a moment to run her fingers through Bucky's hair, pushing it back off of his face, allowing her a much better look at him. Once again, she noticed some tension that he was carrying seemed to fade a bit at having her do such a simple touch to him. Turning to Steve, he was dressed similar to the two of them except for his ball cap that did not fit his outfit so she pulled a head wrap from her backpack and he had actually agreed to let her put it on him. It was a grey and black swirl pattern so it blended in much better. She was glad that she hadn't packed her pink skull one since he would _never_ have agreed to that one.

Their arms intertwined, she enjoyed the warmth coming off of them now that the leftover heat from today's sun had dissipated. Luckily they didn't have far to walk before they turned her towards a restaurants door, Steve holding it open for her to pass through first. Vic had passed by this place many times, even during just one day when she was working, but she had never eaten here. It was more of a sit-down, gathering place, not really a table-for-one establishment.

Steve was greeted by the hostess, who still seemed to recognize him even with the unusual outfit, but not be in shock at who he was. She realized that they must really eat out a lot. Requesting a table for three, the hostess picked up menus and started to walk them through the half-filled tables. They had arrived a bit late for the normal dinner crowd but she noted on the door that they were still open a few more hours. The one thing about living in a big city was that it was pretty easy to find food, even late at night. There had been many places she had lived where the entire town would close down by ten at night.

When they reached the booth, the guys stood there mumbling to each other to take the seat opposite than where she had slid into. She had a feeling this was going to be a habit.

"How about this? I have a feeling that Steve is a bit more out of his comfort zone with everything tonight, so how about he sits next to me this time?" Vic asked looking between the two of them. Bucky listened and without arguing, slid into the booth across from her, but his face did look a slight bit crestfallen.

As soon as he settled into the spot, and Steve had sat down to her right, she reached out with her legs. Finding one of Bucky's leg, she pulled it slightly forward and the wrapped both of hers around his, rubbing her foot across the back of his calf. As he realized what she was trying to do, his face lightened and there was a smile trying to form on his lips.

Turning to Steve, she asked, "Am I right?"

"Yeah, a bit. I had to borrow the clothes from Bucky. I don't really own anything like this," Steve said, passing her a menu and then Bucky before opening his own.

"Well, ya'll ended up blending in fine, except for Tony being there drawing attention," she said looking over the menu. After seeing how they ate earlier, she knew why they liked this place, lots of steak and potato items. She guess that nobody would ever mistake them for salad-only people.

"We get that a lot whenever he's around. He's…" Bucky began before Steve interrupted him.

"A very charismatic friend who doesn't even know what he doing sometimes," Steve finished for Bucky, defending Tony very nicely. "So you don't normally play with the band?"

"No, they only call if Paulo can't make it for some reason, like tonight since he was sick. It's more fun than work really," she said, feeling like she definitely needed something substantial to eat. Playing used up a lot of her energy, and she should sleep well tonight. Especially since she was no longer freaking out over meeting the two of them anymore.

"So besides, drummer, bike messenger and waitress, is there any other jobs you have?" Bucky asked moving his left leg so that hers was now between his, getting a gentle squeeze from him.

"No, not in this city. It's different here than some of the other places I've lived," she said, wondering how much she should tell them this soon after meeting them. If anything, getting it out in the open so that if they wanted to walk away would probably be the best route to take. She didn't want to get too attached if they decided that this was not going to work for the two of them.

"So you've done other jobs?" Steve asked ignoring the menu to hear more. "Like what?"

"Waitress jobs are always easy to find, as well as sales, but I've stocked book shelves, worked a loading dock for a paper manufacturer, catering, mechanic, construction…" she began before Bucky interrupted.

"Construction? Like in a construction office?"

"No, I mean as in working on job sites doing framing, painting, insulation, drywall repair, interior trim…" she let her words drift off as she watched their expressions change to something a bit unreadable. "I know, not very lady like, especially considering what the two of you probably grew up with."

"It's not that," Steve said taking her hand in his. "We are both just thinking that you may not want to let Clint know that you have any knowledge about any of that, otherwise we would _definitely_ end up losing you to him on Thursday."

"What?" she answered a bit horrified by the strange statement. Lose her?

"That man will not stop working on his farmhouse and if he finds out that you know _anything_ about construction, he'll put you to work and we will _never_ get any time with you," Bucky explained to her, giving her leg another firm embrace.

Hearing that, she felt a bit better before asking, "Then what do you mean by Thursday?"

The two of them stared at each other for a moment before Steve answered.

"Bucky and I talked about this earlier, but with Thanksgiving being this week, our group has already been invited up to Clint's farm for dinner. We were hoping that you would come with us."

"Unless you were planning on heading home to see your family already," Bucky added.

She dropped her head and looked at the menu, dreading what she knew was coming, but they needed to know.

"No, I had other plans for this week but I'm going to put them on hold. And…I don't see my family anymore," she said without looking up.

Vic could feel them staring at her, wanting an answer, but luckily the waitress showed up right then to take their orders, giving her a few moments reprieve to consider her answers. After all of them ordering steaks, hers being much smaller than theirs, but all three medium-rare which she found amusing, they were once again left alone to talk.

"Why would you not see your family?" Bucky stated not letting the topic drop, which she kind of hoped they would.

"I come from a small town. A very religious small town. When my parents saw the soulmark meant for two others, it disgusted them. It's the reason my middle name is Lilith," she answered, but saw only blank stares from them. They didn't know? "It has a couple of different religious backgrounds meanings. It can mean female demon or unclean one. I left home at eighteen after right after graduating high school, but I didn't really have a choice. My parents didn't want me there anymore. Since leaving, I've just been moving across the country, not really being able to stay in any one place for too long. I get a bit restless."

Steve and Bucky were quiet, a bit too quiet she thought, and she waited for them to say something, and finally it was Steve that spoke.

"That was _not_ how we were raised to think of our soulmarks. Our parents agreed and taught us that having a soulmark destined for more than one meant that we contained more love and friendship than a normal person did. That was why we would have a third."

"It must have been nice to have raised in that type of environment," Vic said remembering how she had been shunned most of her life, not only by her family, but by everyone she had grown up with. She had gone most of her life not having any real friends, just acquaintances who didn't know about her soulmark. All except for Wade. They had been so lucky to have found each other at such a young age so that they would always have a friend.

"If you're going to make me not be depressed around you, then I think that you should do the same with this," Bucky said reaching over to take her other hand.

"I agree," Steve offered in support. "And as for being a bit restless, that may also be because of the soulmark. We've had more than a couple of conversations with Bruce regarding our soulmarks because of them not being common. His research came up with other examples of multiple partner soulmarks and found that they were sometimes a bit restless until they came into contact with each other, then they seemed to settle down, not move around as much. Like they were looking for each other."

"Maybe that was why I had the urge to come this way," she said, wondering if by both of them finally being in the same town together had drawn her here. "When did the both of you finally come to live here in New York?"

"I've been here for most of the past three years," Steve answered.

"I didn't get here until January of this year," Bucky informed her. "Before that, I was in Europe, moving around, constantly in hiding."

"I started to head this way after Valentine's Day, feeling that it was the right direction," she said.

"So, then you moved here not long after Bucky got here," Steve commented. "But somehow, until days ago, none of us ever ran into each other."

"You said that you had other plans that you were going to put on hold?" Bucky asked, which was probably going to really get their attention.

"Yeah. I had, kind of, planned to leave town. Permanently," she said, taking another sip and waiting for it.

"What?" "No, you can't." "Not now." She couldn't tell which of them was saying what.

Vic raised her hands to placate them into silence. "I started with these plans at the beginning of the month, well before we met. I was trying to get out of New York before the snow started. I've already given notice at the messenger service, and told my landlord that I was leaving. Now, I'll just have to make a couple of calls and straighten some things out."

"So you will stay and see how this…how we, work?" Steve asked.

"Yes. I was actually hesitant to leave, not the usual urge to move on. Maybe because ya'll were here, in town, is why," Vic admitted. "I've lived in over ten cities over the past eight years. Like I said, restless."

"That is a bit more than restless," Bucky said, looking amazed at her.

"So then, will you come spend Thursday with us?" Steve asked looking hopeful.

"Shouldn't you ask this Clint if it is OK first?" she asked, wonder what it would be like to around a group of people that might actually accept her.

"You may know Clint by his Avenger's name, Hawkeye," Bucky told her, grasping that she didn't know him by that name. She nodded in recognition as she remembered hearing that name associated with the Avengers.

"By now, Natasha has already told him all that she knows about you and he will have no problem with you joining us," Steve replied with a smile.

"As long as you ask him yourself and make sure, then yes," Vic said, hoping that she didn't end up regretting agreeing to this. Depending on how close everyone in their group was, if they didn't feel she belonged, it wouldn't matter if she was their soulmate or not. They could easily sway them into shunning her, just like everyone back home did. So she would just hope for the best, expect the worst. So far, Natasha didn't seem to have a problem, and with Tony, he had been eager to meet her, but that didn't mean that he wasn't still undecided about her.

The waitress showed up with their meals and all three of them dug into the food as if they hadn't eaten at all that day. There was normal small talk about their jobs while they ate but none of them wanted to get too personal without being able to focus all their attention on a talk like that.

As they were about finished, the waitress showed back up and offered them dessert menus to look at. She had not eaten a lot of sweets growing up since they were considered special, but when she had gotten the chance, she had begun searching and tasting everything possible until she finally reached the stage of not eating desserts at all. She had practically made herself sick of most items found on normal menus.

"What are you getting, Vic?" Bucky asked looking up at her, "Their cheesecake is very good."

She found that none of the items seemed to sound all that good, and Vic put the menu down before answering, "I don't see anything that appealing."

She could instantly see the looks they were giving her.

"I've been told I'm a bit too picky sometimes," she said.

"We both like cheesecake, so there is a chance that you might also," Steve suggested. She could see the hopefulness in their eyes, so she decided to give in. What could it hurt?

"Fine, cheesecake for everyone," Vic said, aloud which she got two smiles for. After giving the order to the waitress, it was Bucky who spoke first.

"So how long did you take lessons to be able to play the drums like that?

Here it comes, another part of her that could make them _run for the hills_ , pun intended, she thought. She knew that Tony would get her joke after talking with him and the band earlier.

"Actually, I've never had a lesson. I'm sort of self-taught," she said, taking a drink to give herself some time. Why did she have to be so nervous? Because she was not normal. Looking up, she found them both staring at her, just like she figured. She just needed to go ahead and be honest.

"You taught yourself to play the drums?" Bucky asked with a stunned look. "How?"

"At one of my other jobs. I worked in a music store for a while. There was a drum set for customers to test out. After locking up one night, I listened to a song to play, and just started repeating the pattern," she said waiting for it to happen. The judgements. Might as well get it over with. "Now, I can play any song I listen to."

"So you're a natural musician," Steve said, sounding intrigued, and not with the usual disdain she was used to hearing.

"Can you plan any other instruments?" Bucky then asked.

"I've only tried the drums and piano," she told them, but they didn't look like they had any problem with the information.

"Do you write music also?" Steve then asked.

"No, definitely not," she said shaking her head no. "Not a single note. I can only copy other people's performances. Do either of you play an instrument?"

"Neither one," Bucky replied. "That talent is all yours."

"I always figured it was due to the soulmark," she said, a bit amazed that they were not put off by her admission. People had always acted like, and told her, what she could do was not normal, and therefore neither was she.

"Steve's good at drawing, how about you?" Bucky asked.

"Another big no. My artistic skills are a lot less Edgar Degas and a lot more Jackson Pollock," she said, which got a chuckle from Steve and a blank look from Bucky. "But if you need a room painted, no problem."

The waitress showed up with their desserts then, a slice large enough that she could have shared it with both of them and still of had plenty.

"So, you know artwork, you just don't make your own?" Steve asked taking a bit of his cheesecake.

"Yeah, I took an entire day and walked the Metropolitan Museum of Art when I first got into town," she said, hesitantly taking her first bite. As the creamy substance melted in her mouth, she realized that they had both been right, this stuff was good.

"Did you study art in school?" Bucky then asked, eating his own dessert fairly quickly.

"No, I just studied the basic classes in high school, the minimum necessary to graduate. No sports, no art classes, not a single club."

"How did you end up with a motorcycle?" Bucky after a few bites of them eating in silence.

"I grew up in dairy country. We used motorcycles and ATV's to round up the cows for milking. It's easier to use in the fields than cars or trucks," she said noticing that she was about half way through the slice. "I was already used to moving around a lot without many possessions. So I bought Riddick and learned how to do maintenance on him myself in case anything happened while traveling."

Bucky then almost choked on the bite in his mouth, "Wait...you named your motorcycle after a homicidal, sociopath, mass-murdering criminal?"

"Don't forget escape artist," she smiled at him, giving his leg a gently squeeze and pointing her full fork at him before eating it. "He's one of my favorite movie characters."

"I have a feeling that we are going to be having a lot of strange conversations as we get to know each other," Steve said placing his fork on the empty plate before him.

"Speaking of which, what do we want to do about tomorrow?" Bucky asked finishing his own slice.

"Could I offer a suggestion?" she asked still working on her piece. They both nodded in agreement. "How about we try two one-on-one dates tomorrow? I meet one of you, your choices for the dates since tonight was kind of mine, and then I meet the other. Then we can meet back up for dinner together?"

"That sounds like it may work out fine," Steve said, looking over to Bucky for approval.

"Sure, but how do we decide who goes first?" he asked pointedly at Steve. This was definitely going to be a problem eventually. She should just let the two of them fight it out but there was not telling how long _that_ argument might last. Then the solution came to her.

"Odd man out. My match gets the first date?" she said, holding her fist out for the quick solution game. The guys then held their own fist out. "On, and I mean on, three."

As their hands formed the one and two symbols, Vic found that she was going to be meeting Steve first and then Bucky. She was sure that there was a quick frown on his face before it disappeared.

"How about ten a.m. at the Metropolitan? Even though you have been there, if you don't mind, I haven't been there since…well, since I woke up," Steve finally managed to get out, sounding like he was still hesitant about what to call it.

"Sounds good to me, and then," she turned to Bucky, "We can meet there at about two and do whatever you want. And meet back up with Steve at six?"

"Sounds like a couple of dates," Bucky said with a small smile forming on his lips.

When the waitress then brought over the single check, she tried to reach over to take it and found it grabbed up by Bucky.

"What are you doing?" Bucky asked, even though she thought it was obvious. He then passed the holder to Steve.

"Well, I asked the two of ya'll to dinner, so _I_ get the check," she said, reaching across Steve to try and take it again.

"When you are with us, even if you did invite us, we pay. That's how we were raised and our mothers would be ashamed of us if we didn't," Steve said, placing his own credit card into the bill holder.

"That's not fair," Vic stated crossing her arms.

"Trust us, we know that life is not fair, but you're with us now and you are going to have to get used to it," Bucky said, giving her leg a firm squeeze and another one of his cute smirks. He was definitely going to be trouble.


	12. A Morning at the Museum

* * *

Victoria, wearing her leather coat, was on her cellphone sitting on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum as he walked up to the massive building. Catching the last part of her call as he got close, he could tell that she was leaving a message for someone. When she looked up at him once he stopped next to her, a lovely smile crossed her face that made his own face brighten. She had braided her hair into two large plaits that went all the way down her back. The lightness of the color was shining in the mid-morning sun.

"Good morning," he said, sitting down next to her, letting the other people pass them by.

"Morning," she replied, leaning slightly into him, so that their arms were touching. With a devious grin, she asked, "Is that supposed to be a disguise?"

Steve looked over at her and smiled.

"It's worked so far," he said, knowing that the simple jacket and baseball cap were so absurdly normal that nobody so far had found him out. He could not do anything about his height, but living in such a large city, men of his stature were not as rare as they used to have been.

"Well, let's see if your record holds out then," Victoria said, reaching out to take his hand into hers.

Standing up, he then helped to pull her up before she put her cellphone into her back pants pocket. They looked to be the same pair that she had worn yesterday, and he figured that he was probably right in his original assessment. Judging by what he had seen of her apartment, he guessed that she was limited on the amount of clothes she had. He was going to heed Pepper's advice, but it was not something that they were going to let stand for too long. This was their soulmate and they would protect and take care of her, clothes included…once she would let them.

"So, you've been _so_ busy for the past few years that you haven't had time to take a day for yourself and visit the museum?" she asked as they reached the main doors.

"Well, between Loki and the aliens, being hunted by SHIELD, taking down the HYDRA Helicarriers, and then Ultron…yes, I've been a bit busy. And all of that doesn't even include the normal SHIELD mission I went on between the times searching for Bucky," Steve said, letting her lead him over to the line for the admissions counter.

"I actually try to ignore the news, but I heard about two of those, but what you do mean searching for Bucky? Natasha mentioned that also," she asked with a look of curiosity on her face.

"When SHIELD and HYDRA fell, he was still under HYDRA's control. I had told him his name, along with a phrase we used to use as kids, and it was just enough to help start to bring back some of his memories. He didn't fully remember me, or trust me, since he had been sent to kill me. But...he did pull me out of a river, saving my life, before he ran and went into hiding. Bucky was out there on his own, trying to piece himself back together. For the next two years, we, Sam and I, were searching for clues as to his location, but he had been trained to not leave a trail. We couldn't find a trace of him. But, HYDRA unfortunately had better luck tracking him, and when he almost got recapture by them, he knew that he needed help to stay free, and he finally came back to me."

Victoria seemed to consider his condensed story for a few moments before speaking.

"So, when you were found frozen in the ice, he was still a prisoner. But when you finally found each other, he ran. So really, the two of you have not had each other since the war, until this past year or so," she said as the line slowly moved forward.

"That's about right. He's been working with Wanda who can help to sort his memories, and some other things not to be mentioned in public ever, but there is the guilt from what he was forced to do while working for HYDRA. There is a lot of information that we need to tell you, but it's better for it to be done while we are all together and in private. We have a _lot_ of history," Steve said, as they took another step forward in the line.

"You two _are_ history," Victoria said, bumping her body into his, smiling up at him at her own joke.

"You and Nat are _definitely_ going to get along," he said, shaking his head. He purchased their entrance tickets and the cashier handed them a folded map of the museum, which he held as they moved to the side so others behind them could go. "So, anything in particular you would like to see?"

"Not really, but I'm sure that a lot of this may be new to you. I'm good with wherever you want to go," Victoria told him as they headed up the stairs to the next level. He held out the map, unfolding it and trying to get an idea as to where to start. Victoria looked at it over his shoulder, he saw her eyes darting quickly over it.

"It doesn't seem like they've made any changes since I was here earlier this year. Do you have a favorite artist?" she asked.

"Not really. I haven't been able to keep up with anyone that became famous since I was under the ice so…"

"Well then, let's just walk the entire place," Victoria said, taking his hand in her and wrapping her other arm around his bicep. He felt a little bad that Bucky was not here, but he was already enjoying his alone time with her. As they walked up the stairs, he barely noticed the other people around them, he felt like it was just the two of them.

For the next two hours, Victoria led him on a well guided tour throughout the museum, naming off the rooms, and not getting them lost or doubling their path back over where they had already been in any way. Had she memorized the museum from her previous visit or from looking at the map?

They had fun talking about the different styles, both of them agreeing that the minimalist movement could have been accomplished by elementary school kids. The sculptures both drew their attention as they looked at the fine details of the carvings in marble, amazed as how the smooth surface was accomplished. He found that she liked the landscapes more than the portraits, unless it had dancers in the painting. She seemed to focus on the ballet dancers the most, admiring the lines of the bodies as well as the flow of their outfits.

"You know, Nat was trained in classical ballet, as part of her spy cover, but as far as I know, she doesn't ever dance like that anymore," Steve told her after they had been looking a one solo dancer for a few minutes.

"I've tried to dance like that but I guess that I didn't have the proper muscles to do a lot of the stances. I know the positions' patterns, but actually doing them was a bit harder," Victoria said as they moved further down the gallery, still hand in hand. "We are about half way through and it is lunch time. Want to head up to the roof café and get something to eat?"

"Sounds like a plan," he said, letting her guide him through the halls to an enclosed staircase. He had thought that they would take the elevator, but he was fine with just following Victoria's lead.

As the door closed behind them, he saw that there were the only two people in the stairwell. They made their way up towards the first platform before Victoria spoke.

"Elevators are always so packed. So, how are you enjoying your first trip to a museum in quite a while?"

"Technically, I have been to _a_ museum just not _this_ museum," he answered.

"Really, which one?"

"I went to the Smithsonian's Captain America Exhibit around the same time as the Helicarrier event," he told her, as they slowly walked up.

"That sounds a bit narcissistic, especially for you, I would guess," Victoria joked, as they made it to a landing and she stopped, thinking about something. "I could _definitely_ see _Tony_ doing that though if he had his own exhibit."

"I was _actually_ there to see the memorial that they had for Bucky. This was before I even knew that he was still alive. I was missing my friend," Steve replied, as he leaned on the railing as he remember going there that day. It was only days later when he discovered his soulmate was still alive. How fast their lives had changed at that time.

Victoria then stepped forward, her body close to his, her right hand still in his. Reaching up with her left hand, she placed it on his cheek, gently caressing her fingers over his smooth skin. He was so glad that he had shaved this morning as he leaned into her touch.

"Now, you have him back, and somehow, the two of you found me," she said, moving even closer, their bodies now almost touching. "You know, you _really_ should thank Tony for dragging the two of you into the strip club Wednesday night. I don't think that I've mentioned it, but Friday was my last night working there since I had planned to leave town."

"When we walked in, the group was actually joking about finding our soulmate in there. Tony was a bit blunter with what he was he was _actually_ hoping to accomplish," Steve reached up and matched her hand's position on his face with his own on hers. Victoria then tilted her head slightly into his touch.

"I'm sure I can _guess_ what Tony _assumed_ would happen by going into a strip club," she grinned, leaning forward while running her hand over his face, down his cheek to the back of his neck, pulling his head down towards her. "I'm so glad that you looked down my shirt."

With that embarrassing phrase, Steve was pulled close enough so that their lips finally touched. He found hers soft, with a slight flavor of berry from some lip balm that she had applied at some time. Being this close to her again, he was again struck by the scent of coconuts coming from her hair. It reminded him of a tropical island, warm and inviting.

Victoria then leaned in a bit more so that their bodies were now touching, her body resting against his, while his back was to the rail. He allowed his mouth to open, trying to explore hers, to which she accepted by her tongue gently touching the tip of his own. For the next minute, they just enjoyed this quiet moment together, the feel of her against him sending a warm feeling throughout his body, easing a tension he had not realized he had. Holding on to the back of her neck, matching her own grip, he felt her press her body even more against his. He then moved his left hand around her waist, but not wanting to let go of her hand at the same time, but Victoria moved her arm with his, as he enjoyed holding her in his grasp.

It was the sound of a door above them opening and then closing, echoing top to bottom in the concrete stairwell, which finally drew the two of them apart. By the time that the other couple rounded the turn, they were already headed up the next flight, a blushing, grinning expression on both of their faces. They continued heading up towards the exit, holding hands while rubbing their fingers against each others, as he wished that their wonderful first kiss had lasted a bit longer.

When the top door opened, they walked out to a great view of Central Park with the surrounding buildings encasing the massive green space. There were a lot of other people up here also enjoying the view, but they seemed to blend in with the larger crowd. Everyone seemed to be engaged with their own group, or cellphone, and ignoring the others around them. It was just like being alone in a crowd.

They headed over to where the café's line ended and they looked up at the small menu, easily deciding on their choices before even getting to the counter. They waited for their food along with all the other hungry people and when their number was called, they took their sandwiches and began to search for a secluded spot to sit and eat. When Victoria led him over to a small table for two where another couple was just packing up their trash and beginning to stand, he was surprised that she had noticed them getting ready to leave.

"That was some good timing," he said, putting their lunch on the table before pulling the chair out for her to sit. She gave him a soft, "thank you," as she sat down opposite of him. He noticed a slight shy look from her, as if she were not used to having someone do such a simple proper gesture for her.

"I was watching and waiting for a table. The chill in the air makes people not tend to chat the way they would if it were warmer outside," she said, opening up the wrapper of her sandwich. "Out of curiosity, the other night, it didn't seem like Bucky got my Degas joke. He's not into art the way you are?"

"Not really. I sketch a bit, or at least I used to back during the war, but I haven't done it as much as I used to. Like I said earlier, I've been a bit busy," he said, removing his own wrapper and taking a bite of his sandwich.

"I never had any original art that I've been able to create. But I do enjoy looking at the pieces they have here. Whenever I passed through a larger city, I would always stop and see what the local museums had to offer," she said, eating another bite of her own sandwich.

He noticed that a bit of the cranberry sauce rested on her upper lip. He motioned to her so that she knew that it was there.

Victoria then gave him a sly smile and then, very provocatively, used her tongue to lick the dab away. Seeing her doing that make his heart skip a beat, in a good way. Victoria knew what she had done when she lifted her eyebrows in a quick movement with a smile on her lips.

"That's very cruel," Steve said, shaking his head slightly due to her gesture.

"If you think that's cruel, wait until I actually _start_ to tease you," Victoria said, taking another bite. "That was just a bit of fun."

They chatted as they ate, Victoria asking him questions about him and Bucky growing up together. She found the fact that he used to get beat up all the time amusing since she couldn't picture him small like he used to be. Victoria said that she had gone on the internet and seen a picture of him before the serum, but it didn't register as to what it really meant since she was used to him now. He told her about how Bucky used to be a ladies man, always with a different girl on his arm and always trying to set him up.

"Bucky seems a bit more, I don't know…serious? He joked a bit yesterday, but it was almost like he was holding back," Victoria commented as they gathered their lunchtime trash.

"Yesterday was the closest that I have seen him behave similar to how he used to be, back before the war. Hearing him laughing yesterday is something that I've missed. I'm hoping that spending some time with you will help him to come to terms with what happened to him, and help to bring him back," Steve said, leaning forward on the table, resting on his elbows for support.

"I hope that you _will_ notice a change in him, but you need to understand that there is a greater possibility that the friend, the soulmate, that you used to know, may never be exactly the same again. Do you think that you are exactly the same, personality wise, as you were before going into the ice?" Victoria asked him, matching his arm positions.

"I guess not," Steve admitted.

"So, the friend he is looking for is gone also. Just give it time and don't expect things to be exactly the way they were. Have fun being together now," Victoria said, leaning forward to give him a simple kiss on the lips. She pulled back with a smile on her face. "Ready to continue the tour?"

"Yes," he said, taking a hold of all of their trash in his hands as they stood and made their way to the staircase. He was a bit disappointed with a few other people saw them using it and followed them. He had been hoping for a repeat of earlier.

Exiting the staircase, they continued on their walking tour, hand in hand, admiring a lot of the same paintings, having a similar taste in artists, it seemed. As they wound their way through the twisting halls, moving up to another level, he knew that it was getting close to the time they had agreed to meet Bucky out front.

Bucky had told him earlier that morning that he had no idea where to take Victoria for their date, not having be on one in so long. The only advice that he could really give him was to take her somewhere so they could talk and just be together.

"You seem a bit distracted," Victoria said, as he realized he had been staring at a not-flattering portrait of a group of hunting hounds.

"Just thinking that our time is about up," Steve admitted, leading her away from the dogs.

"So, does that mean you don't want it to end or you're looking forward to it being over?" Victoria smiled at him, giving his hand a gentle teasing squeeze.

"Why would you even ask that?" he wondered aloud, grinning at her also.

"Everyone always worries about how their very first date will go," she told him as they turned into another hallway, this one filled with statues. He noticed that it was fairly empty of people, the only others being near the far end and walking away from them.

"Then consider this the best one that I've been on," Steve informed her, leading Victoria over towards the wall where large decorative pillars ran from floor to ceiling. Glancing around to make sure that nobody was watching, he leaned his back into the corner where the pillar met the wall, pulling Victoria against him, wrapping his arms around her waist, eliciting a smile from her.

"Really?" she said, resting her body against his, wrapping her arms around his waist.

"I've been looking forward to _this_ date for about ninety years, don't forget," he said leaning down and giving her a firm kiss on the lips. They stayed like that for a few moments, just enjoying being there, before Victoria pulled back.

"So, then, no _pressure_ , at all," she joked, leaning back in and giving him another kiss. Hearing a group of people entering the room, they then continued through the hall, making their way back to the front of the museum where he and Bucky had agreed to meet for his date.

"Just so you know, Bucky is worried about spending time with you today because he was not sure where to take you today when I left," Steve told her as they finally reached the main hall.

"That's good to know, but I'll be fine with wherever he finally chose," Victoria said, leaning slightly onto his shoulder. Glancing around the large room with lots of people wandering around, she said, "I'm actually surprised that your hat trick worked. Not one person noticed you. I was sure you would get noticed."

"Better than Clark Kent's glasses," he joked which got a lovely laugh from Victoria.

"Nice one," she said, kissing his cheek as they reached the front doors.

Walking outside into the chilly air after being inside for so long was only slightly shocking. Victoria was wearing her leather jacket, so her motorcycle was probably located somewhere nearby. Bucky probably knew exactly where it was thanks to his proficient use of tracking devices. Scanning the limited parking area in front of the museum, it was not hard to find Bucky sitting on his 'bike', patiently waiting for his turn with Victoria.

"There he is," he said pointing him out of her. She looked over to where he indicated, and Bucky just gave a simple nod of his head so they knew he saw them also.

"The two of you already worked out where to meet for dinner?" she asked as they started to walk down the steps towards him.

"Yes," he said, stopping a bit away from the parking area, "so I'll see you later."

Leaning over he gave her a kiss, the last time for the immediate future, but now he had something to look forward to later. Victoria also gave him a firm hug.

"See you later," she said, before turning to head towards Bucky. The next four hours were going to be a very long time.


	13. A Walk Through a Garden

 

As Bucky watched Vic walking away from Steve and towards him, he felt some of the pressure over his body dissipate. Just seeing her smiling at him as she got closer helped. He had been tense most of the day, worried about how he was going to spend time with Vic.

Years, no decades, ago, he had no problem entertaining a dame. But he was not the same person he had been back then, and he probably never would be again. And now, here he was, expected to have one-on-one time with his soulmate for the first time. He started to think that it was strange how easy Steve had it today being with her, while he was the nervous one.

"Hey there," Vic greeted him with a lovely smile, coming to stand next to him, all of her attention now focused directly on him, while in the background, he could see Steve walking away down the sidewalk.

"Have fun?" he asked, not sure how to strike up a conversation with her.

"Yes, we did," she said reaching over to place her hand on top of his gloved metal one, which was resting on the handlebar. The fact that she didn't seem bothered by it still amazed him. "So, are you ready to go?"

He may as well admit it out loud to her, so he told her, "I'm not sure where to take you. It's been a while for me."

Leaning a bit more towards him, her body resting against his arm, which was covered with his jacket sleeve, she asked, "Well…where _would_ you have gone?"

"Back then, we used to go to dancehalls, but they don't exist anymore," he told her. She seemed to consider this for a moment.

"And afterwards, if you wanted to spend some private _alone time_ with a date, where would you take her?" Vic asked, making him picture a place that all the guys in their neighborhood used to take dates, a place he used to know very well.

"Hop on, I know where we are going," he said as he felt a small smile creep over his lips at the thought of heading out. Vic grinned before she moved and mounted the bike behind him, wrapping her legs around his hips, pulling her riding gloves from her coat pocket to put on, and encircling her arms around his waist as she squeezed her body tight against his. How nice that felt, he thought. Starting the bike, he pulled out into traffic and turned towards the Brooklyn Bridge.

The traffic wasn't too bad but he didn't mind since it just meant that Vic's arms would be around him a bit longer if it took them a while to get there. When he got the chance, Bucky put a bit of speed behind them, causing Vic to tighten her grip while lying her head against his back. Even with the wind, he was sure he heard her give a cry of delight at the thrill of his deed.

Before he had reached the bridge, he felt her hands sliding over him and he realized that Vic had slipped her hands into his coat pockets. She was wearing riding gloves, but maybe with the extra wind caused by his driving, they might be getting cold. He didn't mind as he found that he could feel her hands better without the leather interfering.

He knew that they had been riding for a while but it seemed like no time had passed by the time they exited the bridge into Brooklyn. Having to slow down once they hit the residential area, he found himself wondering if coming here was a good idea. There were a lot of memories in his head, but not all of them fit just right all of the time. When they had a chance later this week, he and Wanda were supposed to get together once again so she could help him some more.

But it was too late now to change his mind and take Vic somewhere else. Turning onto the street that looked so different, but he was sure was correct, he slowed down even more. The houses looked the same, but there were less power lines visible, and the cars were totally wrong. Finally the street ended and he sighed with relief at the sight before him. It took only a minute to find a parking spot for them. As Vic stood up from the bike, he almost hated that he had stopped, thinking that just riding around would have been fun, at least for him.

"I've never been out this way since I came to town. Where exactly are we?" Vic asked, brushing a few stray hairs that had gotten loose from her braids during the ride from her face. Reaching up, he tucked one behind her ear before wondering if he should have touched her like that. But then Vic reached up with both of her hands and began to stroke his tangled mess of hair back away from his face, like she had done last night.

"The Brooklyn Botanic Garden," he informed her as Vic finished primping him, reaching for his hand, taking a hold of it. He looked around the area, seeing that there were a lot more signs leading him to the areas that he was familiar with. Years ago, the local guys had the entire park memorized, especially the most secluded spots. He decided to just start walking, not sure how much would still be the same after so long. "After being inside of a hot dancehall for a while, walking outside in the cool air was a nice way to end the night."

Vic looked over at him with a sly grin on her face, "Walking?"

She was teasing him, knowing what had really happened down the darkened paths late at night. He had even been able to drag Steve out here a few times when his date had a friend who wasn't too judgmental. Having a good heart did not make up for being so small and weak. If those dames had only known…

"Mostly," he said, letting his lips curl only slightly up. Vic gave a small laugh, placing her other arm higher up on his arm as they started to walk down one of the paths. A few plants were still green and there was almost nothing colorful at this time of year, with only a few sparse areas still trying.

"So, if I guessed that this was the first time you've seen it during daylight hours, would I be right?" she asked, bumping her hip into his.

"No…but it wasn't as often," he offered up, getting a giggle from Vic. Maybe this was not going to be as hard as he had imagined it would be.

"Is there a favorite area that you want to head to?" she asked as they headed down a tree-lined path.

"I'm not sure what is still here," he admitted, looking around the area.

"Then we should just walk the entire park and see what's still here before we have to leave," Vic stated totally seriously. She had just spent four hours walking around a museum and she wanted to walk more?

"Aren't you tired from walking with Steve all morning?" he asked, giving her a way out if she needed one.

"No, that was just a slow walk as we looked at the paintings. I'm fine with walking as long as you can handle it," she said playfully.

"As long as _I_ can handle it?" he said turning to her. "That sounds like a challenge."

"Smart as well as cute," Vic commented, stopping him in his tracks with the teasing compliment, walking away from him with a slight bounce in her step. He stared at her back for only a moment before moving to catch up with her.

When he made it to her side, Vic automatically reached out and latched onto his hand, making him feel a bit warmer inside. Vic definitely was not like the girls he used to date years ago, which he found that he really liked. They had just trailed him when it came to almost everything, never arguing with whatever he had wanted to do, just blindly following while he took the lead. And now, here she was, teasing _him_ about keeping up with _her_. None of them other dames would even have considered riding on the back of a motorcycle with him, but Vic actually had her own.

"Steve and I grew up here, not too far away," he said as they walked, just enjoying being there again. It had been seventy years or so since the last time he was here, less than a week before he had shipped out for basic training. He couldn't even remember the girl's name he had been here with since it didn't matter after he found that her soulmark was not a match.

"Do the two of you come back here often? Or is it just the opposite, where you stay away on purpose?" Vic asked as they came to a fork, which he guided her towards the right, remembering a place he wanted to take her.

"We've ridden through it a couple of times during the past few months. Some things still _look_ like we remember, but it just doesn't _feel_ like the same place," he admitted as he saw the entrance up ahead.

"Do either of you still have family living around here?" she asked, not knowing that it was a sore topic for him.

"Steve was an only child," he just said hoping that she dropped it.

"But you weren't?" Vic then prodded. He may as well tell her.

"No, I was actually the oldest. But I don't communicate with anyone that's still around here. Not with my history," he finally admitted to her. Vic seemed like she wanted to say something but she didn't, which he was kind of glad about. They walked into the Rose Garden, which was mostly brown at this time of the year. "This place looks much better in the spring time."

"Then we will have to come back again," she said as they headed for the white arbor that he remembered very well.

Walking underneath of it, he firmly led her off to the side he had always favored. One end of the arbor had a gate, leading to more areas of the garden, but the other side ended with a partially secluded spot from three trellis walls with taller plants on the outside. Just enough privacy for the two of them.

"You seem to know this spot well," Vic stated as they made their way down the few step to his destination. Leading her over to the corner where the concrete pillar was, he glanced around to make sure they were really alone.

"I _may_ have been here a few times before," he said, coaxing her towards the pillar so that her back gently leaned against it, his arms coming to rest on either side of her head, just above her shoulders. Vic was smiling at him, not looking at anything but his face.

Leaning forward a bit, he gazed at Vic, wanting to kiss her, but then, his own eye caught sight of a sliver of metal peeking from between his jacket sleeve and glove, right next to her head. Suddenly, he couldn't look away from it. Doubt suddenly began to swim in his mind.

Vic noticed because her own eyes were drawn to see what he was so focused on. He then felt her hands grip onto his cheeks, turning his head so that he was staring at her.

"This may not…" was all he got out before she pulled his head forward, her lips contacting with his, stopping any argument he may have about doing this exact thing. But as he felt her lips against his, all doubt was gone.

Tilting forward, he pressed his body against hers, letting his muscle memory take over for his swirling mind. As their chests were crushed together, he wished that it was spring so that the leather jackets, preventing him from feeling her skin, were gone. Vic's hands moved from his cheeks, gliding through his shaggy hair until they found hold at the back of his head, holding him against her.

Needing more, he spread his lips slightly apart, swiping his tongue against her own lips. Vic understood and soon their tongues were exploring each other's mouths, both of them moaning at the sensations. He pressed forward even more, her head now resting against the pillar. Her hands then began to move from the back of his head, now that he needed no more directing as to what needed to happen. She then reached up and took a hold of both of his arms, near his wrists. He started to pull back, worried about her touching his arm and him somehow hurting her, but Vic must have sensed his retreat. Instead of letting him go, her teeth took a firm hold of his bottom lip, keeping him close.

Removing his arms from the pillar, she guided them down so that she made them come to rest on her hips. Once they were in place, she released her hold on his lip, resuming to kiss him. He was still worried about holding her, but then her own arms slid between the opening of his jacket, wrapping around his waist, only his shirt between him and her hands. She pulled his body hard against hers, making him grip onto her hips, pulling them off of the pillar so they ground against his own waist. The movement caused a lovely moan to emanate from her chest. They allowed a couple of minutes to pass before they mutually agreed with their bodies that they needed to stop.

Both of them were panting hard, trying to catch their breaths after what he considered to be the best first kiss ever. Gazing at Vic, who had to rest her head against the pillar, he noticed that her pupils were wide, with barely a glint of blue around the edges. He figured that his were an exact match after that experience. But then he noticed that her expression seemed to have a bit of humor towards it. "What?"

"Just thinking about how this is the second time today that I've made-out against a pillar," Vic informed him with an amused tone in her voice. As her comment registered, he began to chuckle, leaning his own head down so that it rested on her shoulder.

"Good to know that Punk had the courage," he said, just enjoying holding her as they rested against the pillar, their arms still wrapped around each other.

"Look who's talking," she commented, giving his waist a squeeze. "Don't ever second guess yourself like that again, otherwise," she whispered, then pressed her lips against his ear, "you are going to miss out on some good times."

As she finished talking, he felt her tongue start to play with the edge of his ear, the sensation causing a shudder to run through his body. It had been so long since he had felt any emotion close to what she was triggering in him. When she gently bit down on his earlobe and sucked at it, he groaned as he lifted his head away from her mouth.

"Keep doing that, and we're not going to be seeing much of the garden," he smiled down at her, to which Vic moved her hands down so that they rested inside of his back jeans pockets. No female had ever done such move to him before, and he found that he enjoyed it.

"Is that a promise or a threat?" she teased pulling him in so that they were once again kissing, this time more gently than before. Guiding his hips back, he allowed her to break their kiss. "How do I know that you're not just trying to get out of walking this entire place?"

"If you want me to exercise…" he teased, curing his lips up in the way that _always_ had his dates swooning in his arms, giving him their blessing to continue. Vic, on the other hand, gave an exasperated scoff, shaking her head at him. Yeah, she definitely was not like other dames.

"Maybe I need proof that you are up to _strenuous tasks_ ," she said, taking her hands out of his pockets so that they rested on his hips, helping to push him back just enough so that he knew they needed to start moving.

"Fine, but we are definitely coming back here in the springtime," he said, taking one final kiss before letting her off of the pillar. As he stood back, he pulled his jacket down to straighten it, while Vic did the same, both of them making sure they were presentable to any public they ran into.

As they turned to leave the secluded nook, Vic suddenly moved from his right side to his left. Taking a hold of his hand, she then wrapped it around her waist, using her own left hand on top of it to hold it in place.

"I think that you need to work on your confidence, so if you let go, no more kisses for an entire week. Got it?" she glared at him, daring him to argue with her. He wasn't about to risk the possibility that she might be serious, so he kept his arm in place as they walked out from under the arbor, heading to the next section of the garden he remembered fondly, hoping it was still there. Never had he wrapped his metal arm around somebody for enjoyment. And now here Vic was making him do exactly that, without a bit of fear coming from her.

Vic asked him to tell her about growing with Steve, and he went into the story about how they had met, seeing the drawing of the soulmark on his book and becoming friends. As they walked towards another area he hoped was still there, he reminisced to her about how it seemed that Steve was always getting himself into fights, trying to stand up to bullies, even with his small size.

He noticed that the subject made her a bit quiet, but he still felt the same way as he remembered all the times he had found Steve beaten and bloodied as he tried to defend someone either smaller or younger than himself. Bucky had then gone out and _tried_ to make sure that it was the last time that person ever laid a finger on Steve. But, somehow the Punk always managed to find new bullies.

Turning down a particular path, he noticed the Japanese doorway leading to his second favorite place. He noticed that Vic seemed a bit happier as they made their way through the archway and down the path. Eventually, the red arch that had been there since he was young came into view, making him sigh with relief at the familiar object.

"I take it that this has been here for a while?" Vic asked as they stopped at an open area of the trail next to the pond, giving them a view of the red arch as well as the pavilion over the water across the way.

"Yeah, it has," he answered, a bit amazed that it was still there. He took a minute or two just taking it in. "It looks exactly the same as the last time that I saw it, a few weeks before I went to basic training. When I came here, it was _always_ alone. No dames."

"It's lovely," Vic's arm coming to wrap around his own waist now that they were stopped. "They must take great care of the torii for it to have lasted so long."

"The what?" he asked glancing at her.

"The torii, the red arch. Is the Shinto shrine close by?" she asked, surprising him a bit with the question. He had almost forgotten about it, but the arch was forefront in his mind.

"Right up the path a bit, up in the woods some," he said, turning in the direction of the shrine, pointing with is right hand, not sure if he was allowed to release her without reprisals with his left.

"Let's head around so we get to the pavilion," she said, pulling him with her on the path. They diverted up the narrow path to the small shrine. Vic then petted the heads of the two concrete fox statues guarding the gate, whispering something into one of their ears, making him laugh at the strange behavior. She was unique, there was no doubt.

"Do I want to know what that was about?" he asked, jerking his thumb over his shoulder as they headed away from the shrine.

"Some foxes are tricksters. I was just letting them know not to play any tricks on us," Vic said, with a mischievous grin. "I'm sure that they didn't want to make _you_ angry."

At the pavilion, they walked out onto it while gazing on the calm water before heading off to the right side. There was a small open area looking out over the pond with benches against the railings for people to sit at and enjoy the scenery.

"Since you've been good…" Vic started to say before releasing him and heading over to the bench looking towards the arch. She sat down with her back against where the two railings made a corner, patting the bench on her left, his normal spot, indicating that she wanted him to sit, which he eagerly did.

It had felt strange to be on her other side, and not only because of his arm, but he was happy to be next to her again on his side. How could he already have deemed to have his side versus Steve's side after only three meetings? But that was exactly how it felt. His side.

Reaching up, he rested his flesh hand on her cheek, just taking a moment to stare at her.

"You are so beautiful, on the inside even more than on the outside." Vic, with flushed red cheeks, then leaned over and gave him a small kiss for the compliment, bringing a smile to his face.

She tilted her body just a bit, pulling him so that he was slightly leaning back on her. Her left arm then went up until it rested over his left shoulder and her hand rubbed his chest area near his soulmark. With her other hand, he felt her start to stroke her fingers through his hair as they just sat there, in silence, looking out over the pond, giving them a perfect view of the torii. It didn't take but a minute of being with her like this before his entire body calmed, leaving him feeling like the last seventy years had never happened.

"Are you doing alright?" she asked after a few minutes.

"Yeah, better than I have in a long very time," he admitted as she leaned her head against the back of his, continuing to weave her fingers thorough his long locks.

"If coming here helps to calm you, why haven't you done it sooner?" Vic asked.

Reaching his right arm around so that it rested over and around her legs, he said, "The place is nice but the company is better."

"Smooth," she whispered into his ear, her lips just barely touching him.

After they had been sitting there peacefully for about half an hour, Vic whispered, "Maybe we don't need to see the entire garden."

He just nodded his head in agreement, as her fingers kept moving. Being here with Vic, he felt like he never wanted to leave.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you are curious, use can Google Maps to locate the Brooklyn Garden. You can tour through the rose garden and see the arbor that I used in the story, as well as the Japanese Garden, with the Torii and pavilion. My research showed that all of the places described were in fact there during the 1930's and 1940's.


	14. A Guilt Filled Meal

Bucky and Steve had already discussed earlier where to meet up for dinner and Vic found the two of them parking his bike, well technically, Tony's bike she guessed, in a lot reserved for a small Italian restaurant back in Midtown. Glancing around the parking lot, she spotted the same bike that Steve had ridden previously. He was already here and waiting.

Thanks to the time change, it was already dark outside, with the temperature slowly dropping. She pulled out her phone to check the time, just a few minutes before six, when they were supposed to meet, but she also found a missed call from her landlord. Riding, she had not felt the vibration from it ringing, not that it would have been possible to answer while on the back of the bike.

"Hey, I need to check voice mail really quick. You can head on inside where it's warm if you want," she offered to Bucky.

"And leave you _alone_ in a _dark_ parking lot?" Bucky stated with probably all the sarcasm he had.

She should have known that would be his response by now. He seemed much more relaxed since leaving the garden than he had been meeting up at the museum. She would have to make him go out there again since it seemed to have worked wonders on him.

"Fine," she answered, sticking her tongue out a bit at him as she clicked on voicemail. He did move a few feet away, but he was definitely guarding her while giving her some privacy. The only message she had to listen to was the one she had been waiting for all day. It was less than a minute long, which could either be good or bad.

" _Victoria, I'm sorry to tell you that, unfortunately, I have already leased your place out since you had put in your notice over two weeks ago. I do not have anything else available right now, so you will have to follow through with your original time of being out by the thirtieth_."

Click.

"Dark fracking chocolate," she said, pressing the button on the screen with anger. Now she was going to have to apartment hunting this week to this week's agenda, on top of working and leaving town for Thanksgiving. She had ten days, starting tomorrow, to find something affordable. At least she didn't have a lot of belongings to pack. Since she would be staying in town, it would be three boxes at best, plus all her pillows. Hopefully she could find something close to her old place, that way she could just walk her stuff over, instead of trying to strap it to the back of Riddick.

"Something wrong?" Bucky asked, stealthily appearing at her side as she slipped her phone back into her pocket, angry at the device for giving her the bad news.

"Kind of," she said, trying to remember is she had seen any for rent signs this past week. It was close to the end of the month, and some places usually had quick turnaround in such a large city, just like her own landlord had.

"Want to share?" he asked, taking her hand in his, walking away from the bikes to the sidewalk.

"I called my landlord this morning and left a message about me staying in town and wanting to continue the rental, but I just got his voicemail that he's already rented the place, so that means that I still have to be out by the end of the month. I'll just have to add finding somewhere else to live to my To Do List, that's all," she said, turning from him so that they could head into the restaurant. As he held open the door for her, she could almost swear that it seemed that Bucky had gotten a grin on his face as she had told him the problem.

Heading inside, they spotted Steve's blondish head at a left side back booth, facing away from them. It was exactly what she would expect an Italian restaurant in New York City to look like: checkered tablecloths, glass-enclosed candles, violin music in the air. She took her jacket off and draped it over her arm as she walked. Bucky let her take the lead to the table and she slipped into the seat opposite of Steve, while he made sure to sit down right next to her this time, still on her left. This was the second time she had been protectively boxed into the corner, where nobody could get to her, she figured as she shoved her jacket against the wall.

"I hope the two of you are going to keep track of the sitting rotations, because I refuse to," she said, moving her legs forward to grasp them around Steve's just like she had done with Bucky's last night. She smiled at the shocked expression that barely registered on his face before Steve calmed and smiled at her.

"I don't think it will be a problem," Steve answered. "So, where did the two of you end up?"

"The Brooklyn Botanic Garden," she said, reaching for the glass of water that was already sitting on the table. "I had never been that direction out of Manhattan before."

"That always was a favorite spot of his," Steve joked, which earned him a scowling look from Bucky, but he just sat there smiling, pleased with his tease, it seemed. "We grew up out there."

"Yeah, I heard a little about the Garden. Bucky also told me a couple of stories about ya'll growing up. Sounds like you were always looking for a fight, but, that hasn't changed much, has it?" she smiled at him.

"Not really. But I did talk with Natasha while the two of you were out and she said to ask you about Mike's?"

"How does she know about Mike's? Wait…that's a rhetorical question, she's a spy," she gave a dismissive wave of her hand, "Mike's is the gym that I go to. It's a local one near my place where I go to box, or to just hit something in general," she said, noticing the looks passing between the guys. "What this time?"

"We used to box before the war," Bucky said, flexing his left hand a bit too much, she thought.

"So, another coincidence then," she said.

"Looks like it," Steve added.

The waiter came over and greeted the two of them as familiar faces. They must really eat out a lot, she thought. After a quick introduction to Antonio, he took their order of two large plates of lasagna and a fettuccine Alfredo for her.

"Ok, so besides needing to eat mass quantities of food, jumping across rooftops and roads, and the body temp increase, is there anything else I should know immediately?" she asked, curious as to what else they could do.

"Well, we don't get sick like we used to. Not a single cold or flu since the serum," Steve answered.

"Speak for yourself, _you_ were the one who was always laid up sick from just _looking_ at another sick person. Also, when we are injured, we heal a lot quicker than normal," Bucky added teasing Steve about when he was smaller, which she still had a hard time picturing. "Did you ever get hurt growing up? Any major injuries?"

"No, not really. Both colds and the flu, so that must be nice not having to deal with those anymore," she told them.

"Nat seemed to think that you may have had your hands injured in some way with how you were boxing," Steve told her.

"No, but Mike was my teacher and he's had boxers fractures on both of his hands. I just picked it up as I studied him," she explained, hoping they didn't catch on to the double meaning and freak out so soon. Eventually she would have to explain how she could copy actions, but she was worried that it would just scare them off this soon. Luckily, they seemed to accept her answer. "No, the only health problem I've ever had was a couple of years ago while I was living just outside of Seattle."

"What happened?" Steve asked curious, but she wondered how they would react to the strange incident. Medically, it was the only reason she had ever been to a doctor. But they needed to know in case it ever happened again.

"I'm still not sure. One afternoon, I started to have some chest pains and dizziness while working at a coffee shop. I know, what a cliché, working in a coffee shop in Seattle. But when I stared to have a sharp pain in my left arm, my boss thought I was having a stroke and decided to call an ambulance. It all stopped by the time that they got there, but they paramedics wanted me to go to the hospital for a couple of test.

"The doctors couldn't find a cause for any of the symptoms so they kept me overnight for observation. Then early the next morning, it started back up. A couple of sharp pains over different areas, a migraine with dizziness, and then my right arm became numb from the shoulder down. It only lasted for a few minutes, and then it all just stopped. Their monitors were going crazy the entire time. There was no lasting problems. But the doctors never could explain where it came from and it's never happened again."

Vic stopped talking when she heard Bucky's arm suddenly calibrating over and over. She saw that he was flexing his fist, causing the sound. She then noticed that the two of them were not only silent, but _both_ of their faces were drained of all color. Bucky actually looked like he may be a bit sick.

"What's going on?" she asked, now very worried about the two of them.

"Do you remember when this happened?" Steve asked quietly.

"In April, and I did watch the news later that night about those the three flying things, Helicarriers you called them earlier, in D.C. falling and all of those secret files being leaked onto the internet. It was everywhere on all of the news channels. Why?"

Bucky then suddenly got up and stormed away from the table, leaving her staring at his back. She wanted to go after him, but she had no idea why he was upset or had left so suddenly. Vic turned back to look across the table at Steve for answers, which he now looked too pale to give.

"No, it couldn't," Steve mumbled more to himself than her, covering his face with his hands, rubbing up and down while shaking his head.

"What?" Vic asked firmly, worried as she stared at the closing front door, now losing sight of Bucky entirely.

Steve finally looked over at her, taking a calming deep breath before he could continue.

"Were some of the sharp pains you had, here, here, and here?" Steve said while pointing at his left side, his right shoulder and the center of his chest, exactly where some of the sharpest pains had been.

"Yes, but how do you know that?"

"Because those are the locations where Bucky shot and stabbed me while we were fighting in D.C. _on_ one of those Helicarriers. I ended up dislocating his arm…his right arm, immobilizing it for a while. The day before I had injured his left arm using my shield."

The comprehension was almost too much. She had never heard of such a strong connection between soulmates. There had been minor rumors, such as a feeling when one was in trouble, but _never before_ had she heard of _physical pain_ being conducted. Now she understood why Bucky had left.

Standing up, Vic quickly made her way through the restaurant and out the door without waiting for Steve.

Looking in both directions down the dark sidewalk, she saw nobody moving under the streetlights with Bucky's form. She then wondered if he would have taken off on the motorcycle. Quickly, she headed in the direction they had come from just a few short minutes ago, during a much happier time.

Turning the corner into the parking lot, she saw that both of the bikes were still there, making her breathe a bit easier, but there was still no sign of Bucky. She then turned and look across the street, and down the sidewalks again, hoping to catch a glimpse of him. Steve was exiting the door as she heard the familiar mechanical sound. Turning back towards the parking lot, she began to head inside of it.

There were not a lot of streetlights in the paved area, so there were multiple dark locations all around the perimeter of it. Listening carefully, she finally heard the sound again and made her way in the direction it was coming from. Finally, she spotted Bucky's form slumped down on the ground in the dark corner, behind some cars, where two brick buildings met, his head resting on his drawn up knees. His arm was calibrating as he flexed his fist in anger. She went to take a step towards him, but she felt a hand grab onto her upper arm, holding her back.

"That may not be a good idea," Steve said, looking at Bucky, not her.

"I will be fine," she said, placing her hand onto his, patting it confidently, sure that Bucky would never hurt her, just like Steve wouldn't. Steve took a long moment, considering her words before he finally looked at her, releasing his hold and nodding at her. "How about you get those dishes to go? I think that we will need to have a change of location."

"Where are we going?" he asked, looking back at his upset friend, his soulmate.

"I'd invite the two of you back to my place, but I don't think that we would all fit. Maybe somewhere familiar to him would be good."

"How about we head back to our place then?" Steve asked, slipping her coat over her shoulders. She hadn't even thought of grabbing it as she had run out, but he had. "Would that be alright with you?"

"Yeah, we can do that," she told him. "Give us a few minutes."

Moving towards the edge of the sidewalk, Steve hesitated right at the edge where he could see the two of them, knowing that he was waiting until she was with Bucky. Slowly, while taking a deep breath, trying to figure out what to say, she started to walk over to him.

"Bucky," Vic said, coming to a stop right in front of him. "Bucky, I need you to look at me."

When he refused to lift his head, Vic carefully went down onto her knees before him, resting one of each on the outsides of his feet, surrounding him the best that she could with him being in a corner. Leaning her chest against his shins for support, she placed her arms over his shoulders, resting her hands on the back of his neck. Leaning over, Vic then rested her forehead down so that it was now on top of Bucky's head. He didn't flinch or try to stop the comforting movement she was trying, which was probably the best she could hope for. Steve had seemed a lot more worried for some reason.

"Bucky, I need you to tell me what you are thinking about."

It was almost a minute before she heard his muffled words.

"I never even considered that something like that would _ever_ have happened. The soulmark meant _nothing_ to me when I was under their control. What could have happened if I hadn't stopped? What could have happened to you if I had _killed_ Steve? Would you have felt him die?"

"It does not matter. I don't care what _could have_ _happened_ over two years ago," her mind quickly corrected with two years, seven months, thirteen days. "You didn't kill Steve, and I didn't have any lasting effects from the incident. _That_ is what you need to focus on. So unless you intend to try and _kill_ Steve again, I'm _not_ going to worry about it happening again."

With that, she felt him lifting his head, so she lifted hers also, allowing him to look at her, a dark look covering his face, and not from the lack of light. They were mere inches away from each other. "You should."

Now, hearing _that_ made her angry. Taking her arms from around his neck, her hands formed fists, her nails digging into her palms. With a firm voice, she harshly told him, "No, I will not! That was _not_ _you_! I've said it before, and I'm saying it again…I may not know or understand _exactly_ what happened to you, but I _do know_ that the person that fought Steve that day, the brainwashed HYDRA agent, was _not_ the same one I walked through a garden with today, joking and laughing with. Making-out with under the arbor," she finished a bit calmer than when she had started resting one hand against his cheek, while the other ran through his hair, hoping to ease him now like it had earlier, as she had done at the garden, giving him a simple smile at the memory, trying to get him out of his gloomy mood.

"But what happens if…"

"Stop it!" her voice was firm again, " _Nothing_ is going to happen. Are you going to _shoot_ or _stab_ Steve again?"

"No, but…"

"Then _stop_ _worrying_ about it! It's in the past. Besides, I already told you, and you _promised_ , not to be guilty or depressed around me, and right now, you are _totally_ breaking that promise by being _both_ ," Vic firmly stated before taking a few extra moments to think of something to help lighten the mood and then changing her voice to have a playful tone to it, before saying, "I mean, if _anything_ , you should be more worried about what might happen during a round of kinky sex."

"Victoria!" Steve's shocked voice suddenly exclaimed from not too far away.

She couldn't help but let out a heartfelt laugh after hearing Steve's voice suddenly coming from behind her, not having known he was there, but not really caring either. She was determined to cheer Bucky up, if nothing else. But what felt the best, was when Bucky dropped his head back behind his knees to hide his amused expression and he finally began to laugh with her. She didn't think that the two of them laughed very much anymore.

Vic then let herself fall to Bucky's right side, the best that she could considering the building being there, leaning on his leg for support so that she could look at Steve standing a few feet away holding the to-go bag with his face visibly red, even in the dim light of the lot.

"Come on, Grumpy," Vic said, using Bucky's knee to get her standing and then offering her hand to help Bucky to get on his feet. As he accepted the offer, she informed him, "You, me, and Bashful, over there, are getting out of here."

"Where are we going?" Bucky asked, brushing off his pants to remove the dirt from them. She thought about doing that for him, but figured it was too soon to pat him on the butt. Maybe by tomorrow...

"We are heading home," Steve answered, putting the food into one of the saddlebags on his bike.

Vic walked over to where Steve was as he moved to get onto the bike. "Mind if I ride with him? I think he needs a bit of company right now."

"Go ahead," Steve nodded his head in agreement. "I think so too."

Vic leaned over and gave him a solid kiss on the cheek. "Thanks."

Bucky was already getting on 'his' bike when she made it back over to him. Hopping onto the back behind him, she wrapped her arms around him very firmly after slipping her gloves on. As the headed out, she buried her face against his back to help keep the chill off of her face.

It unfortunately reminded her that she was going to have to add buying winter clothes on her To Do List, as well as finding some kind of inside job for the winter now that she intended to stay in the city, and right now, she really wanted to stay. It seemed like all three of them were slightly broken in their own ways.


	15. Lockdown

 

As they pulled into the enclosed private parking garage under Stark Tower, or Avengers Tower, depending on who you asked, Steve could see Victoria looking all around them at the vehicles that their motley group had assembled over the past few years. Most of the cars were Tony's, as well as the bikes, but both Steve, Natasha, and Clint had at least a car or a bike at the location. There were also team SUV's for use around the town. Bucky and Thor were the only ones who did not have some type of personal vehicle, having to depend on using anothers, or in Thor's case, just flying where he wanted to go.

Pulling over to the area where the bikes were stored, Victoria hopped off so that Bucky could back the bike in easier into the space, with his own bike going right next to it.

"So then yesterday, when you said that you had borrowed a friend's bike, I'm guessing that you meant Tony?" she asked, taking in the sight before her, all of the expensive cars and motorcycles, standing close to him now.

He began to remember what Pepper had said about being slow and not overwhelming her, but when coming into the Tower, it was hard to not be overwhelmed. It still even got to him sometimes when he remembered how they had grown up back in Brooklyn.

"Yeah, I don't think that he would even notice _one_ of them gone," Bucky answered, heading over to the hanging wall cabinet that stored the keys for all of the vehicles. Using his thumbprint to open the panel, the doors parted to show numerous hooks with engraved metal tags over them stating what each of the dangling keys went to. He put the one from the bike back into place and then held out his hand. Steve gave his own keys a toss through the air, which Bucky caught and put away while he got out the bag of their food.

"Any paperwork from Happy that I need to fill out before heading up?" Victoria asked, but probably only half joking.

"No, this is a private elevator for the Avengers, and a few select others. You can get to any floor from it, but not just anyone can access it _from_ those floors," he said, moving over to his side of Victoria, reaching out and taking her hand into his free one. They walked over to where Bucky was standing at the elevator, who had already hit the call button for it.

When they reached him, she slid her arm around his also, holding him close. Steve noticed that she seemed to be a bit anxious, her grasp being a bit harder than he remembered. Maybe a bit overwhelmed, slightly scared, but probably nervous.

As the doors opened, they stepped inside and Steve spoke aloud, "Our living quarters, FRIDAY."

As they stepped inside of the metal-walled elevator, he noticed that Victoria seemed a bit calmer already. The elevator doors shut and instantly began to move.

"But it's Sunday," Victoria stated.

"FRIDAY is the name of the artificial intelligence that runs the entire building. She knows about almost everything that happens in the Tower," Bucky explained to her.

" _Almost_ everything?" she asked curiously.

"She keeps our bedroom and bathroom comms off limits, on our level, per our own request, so that nobody can just activate them. The others have probably have done the same thing," Steve answered as the doors opened to reveal a darken room. "Only an emergency of some kind will override it."

Reaching over to the side, Bucky hit a switch on the wall and the overhead lights turned on. They were in a main living room, a large den to the left with a kitchen area off to the right side, the center leading down a dark hallway. There was the basic den furniture, a couch and side chairs, and coffee table, as well as a large TV mounted on the wall, surrounded by empty shelves.

Overall the furnishings for the large space was very minimal. They had found that the layout had become very popular after watching a couple of home shows where they explained the open concept idea, which they both had liked. Their apartments growing up had been very small and filled with smaller closed-off rooms.

Steve had noticed early on that Bucky seemed to prefer bigger open spaces to smaller ones, due to his time with HYDRA. There was the small cryostasis chamber, as well as the small mission waiting rooms that he spent so much time in, having to sit in alone, for hours at a time, which he had eventually told Steve about. He was glad that their floor also had higher ceilings to give the space a larger feel for him.

Bucky then took their jackets, as well as Victoria's, and put them over on one of the chairs near the couch. Victoria seemed to be looking around the place, which they had not really decorated at all.

"Let's see if anything needs to be warmed up," Steve said, heading over to the right side kitchen area where they had a good sized round table with six chairs. Even though they had told Tony's designer that they didn't require something so big, she already had her instructions from Tony as to what he expected on each level.

Putting the aluminum containers out onto the island, he pulled a couple of bowls out of the cabinet and began to fill them with the food while Victoria took a couple of steps towards the window, but not getting very close, to look outside. It was fairly dark out and there was not a lot to see except for more nearby lit up buildings. She seemed to be doing fine and then he saw her look down.

"Ohh…kay," she took a deep breath before taking a few steps backwards heading away from the window. Once she was a short distance back, she asked, "So, nowhere on the ground level we could eat at maybe?"

"Nope," Bucky said, stepping up to her and wrapping his arms around her as she still looked outside.

"How can ya'll stand being up here?" she asked, looking over at him.

"It's worse during the day when you can see the ground," Bucky replied, to which she elbowed his chest slightly in retaliation.

"Bucky," he responded with a firm tone. "Don't say stuff like that. But to answer your question, it doesn't bother us, not with what we do. The upper levels are the ones designated to the team for either personal quarters when we are in town, training facilities, and mission prep areas. As well as Tony and Bruce's laboratories, and a lot of other useful areas."

"You want scary…try listening to Tony and Bruce go off on a subject," Bucky said, finally releasing her and moving Victoria over to the table, pulling out a chair for her to sit on. He smiled at hearing Bucky make such a joke about them…sounding a lot like his old self. Hopefully, he was over the earlier incident. So far, he seemed to be, and wondered how much of it was due to Victoria's presence. Then Bucky came over and grabbed some silverware from the drawer, bringing it over towards him, as he asked Victoria, "What do you want to drink? Thanks to Tony, we have a bit of everything."

"Water is fine," she said, looking a bit uncomfortable sitting at the table alone while they moved around the kitchen.

When Bucky had the chance to get close to him, he whispered, "We need to have a quick talk about her apartment," Steve turned, giving him a look with a quiet, "Not now," but Bucky just continued, "Trust me, you want to hear this," to which Steve repeated more firmly, "Not…now," which got him a very scornful look. Definitely like his old self, Steve thought.

"So, is this where ya'll normally hang out when you're not saving the world?" Victoria asked as Steve placed the dish before her while Bucky passed out the silverware. "Thanks."

"For the most part. We try to keep busy doing stuff, like training…" Steve began before Bucky interrupted with, "Keeping up with Tony…" Steve then continued, "Going over security files dealing with what is left of HYDRA."

"I'm going to guess that Tony takes up most of your free time after just seeing him the two times," Victoria said, taking a bite of her food.

"That he does," Bucky replied, eating his own meal, seeming to be thinking about something.

"You may not believe it, but I have it on good authority from Natasha, that he has calmed down _a lot_ over the past couple of years," Steve responded, thinking back to some of the stories Nat had told him.

"Does Natasha live here too?" Victoria asked, then added, "I'm not sure what kind of arrangement ya'll have. If I'm being too nosy, just let me know."

"No, it's fine," Bucky replied. "Natasha and Clint have a floor that they share when they are in town. They each have their own rooms, but they knew each other from before the Avengers formed. They were both with SHIELD before it fell. They are basically best friends."

"Bruce shares a floor with Thor, who is hardly around anymore. He's been dealing with stuff on Asgard with Vision. So basically Bruce gets his own floor, most of the time. There is an extra guest floor for anyone else who comes into town and needs a space. Tony and Pepper have a private floor near the top, but there are also common areas up there that we all use to hang out in," Steve told her as they ate.

"So, can I ask how the living arrangements are on _this_ floor, or is _that_ too personal, too soon?" Victoria asked, and he noticed that it was her face that was a bit red at the question. She was probably wondering the extent of his and Bucky's relationship. Before he could say anything, Bucky started to speak.

"We both have our own bedrooms, and since Tony knew of how our soulmarks were formed, he went ahead and added a third full bedroom. You know…just in case we finally found you," Bucky blabbered out, in his opinion, without thinking of Pepper's _take it slow_ policy. But then he continued, "Which seems to be working out great…since it's all ready for you to move in to."

As soon as he had finished talking though, Victoria began to choke slightly on her food. Covering her full mouth with her hand, she somehow managed to get out, "Wait...what?"

"Yep," Bucky said, taking a bite of food with a _very_ smug look on his face. He knew _exactly_ what he had been doing, saying that.

"Buck! Remember what Pepper told us!" Steve firmly gritted out through his closed teeth while trying to smile.

"I _do_ remember, but if you would have just talked with me a few minutes ago like I wanted to, I would have told _you_ about how Vic just lost her apartment and needs to find a new place to live in one week," Bucky was now pointing his empty fork at him to drive the point home. As his words then sank in, he looked over at Victoria for confirmation of this.

"Is that true, Victoria?" Steve asked her.

"No…I have _ten_ _days_ to find a place to live," she responded with a jab of her own fork at Bucky.

"Didn't you also mention something about having already put in a termination notice at work?" Steve asked.

"Yes, I have. Tuesday is my last day at the messenger service. My original plan was to use Wednesday to pack some of my stuff, trash the rest, and then leave town on Thursday. I'd planned on being gone well before the end of the month originally. But I couldn't go back to doing deliveries during winter time anyways. Biking in all that snow would be impossible. I just figure that now, I'll have to try and find some inside job for the next few months."

Steve could see the slight sad look that crossed over her face as she really began to contemplate how her original plans were drastically changing all because of meeting them. He knew all too well about making a plan and then having it not work out.

"Then...you moving into the empty bedroom would not be _totally_ out of the question," Steve began saying with a definite tone to his voice, one of authority that he used often out on missions. From the corner of his eye, he could see the grin starting to form on Bucky's face, knowing that he was taking his side when it came to this.

"If it were not for us, you could have gone through with your plans, and you would not have been put out in any way. But because of us finding you, and us asking you to stay, those plans no longer work. You need somewhere to stay, and we have somewhere. I doubt that any landlord would rent to someone who did not have a job, which is what you would have to say. Accepting the offer to live here will give you time to find a decent job you actually _want_ to take, instead of taking just _any_ job available. Then there is the fact that it will give you time to get to know us. You already know that we want very much to get to know you."

Victoria scrutinized him as he listed off his reasons, seeming to consider each one of them carefully. He had tried to use logic more than the overwhelming urge to just throw in a couple of emotional pleas. He had not heard Bucky laugh since coming to the Tower as much as he had since yesterday morning. Then there were the small quips that he kept saying. Even with what they discovered at the restaurant, Bucky still seemed to recover from it much quicker than Steve would have thought possible. The past two days were the first time in months that Bucky seemed to be more like his old self, even more than just this morning. And even though Victoria seemed to also have inherited Bucky's old teasing ways, he would not have her be any other way.

"The two of you would _seriously_ have me move in here, without knowing anything really about me? How do you know I'm not one of those overly attached girlfriends? For all you know, I could snore like a cow!"

"Those are your reasons for not moving in here? That you _might_ be affectionate, and that you _may_ snore," Bucky stated, listing the items on his fingers as he spoke, wiggling the two fingers as a show.

"Alright then, you want some reasons? Then let's see…I will basically have no job in two days, which means no income, I have crazy hobbies, more than a few strange habits, the inability to sleep more than a few hours a night, and since _Tony_ owns the building, wouldn't it be up to _him_ as to who _lives_ here?"

"See, now _those_ are _much_ better reasons," Bucky joked, smiling while taking a large bite of his lasagna, to which Victoria gave him an English bird. The same kind that they had picked up during the war. Another coincidence, it seemed.

"And how do I know that _you_ ," she pointed at Steve, "aren't just trying to make it easier for _him_ ," pointing at Bucky, "with his _stalking_ problem?"

"Surveillance!" Bucky cried out, throwing his hands in the air, his empty fork going flying behind him, landing on the island before clattering to the floor somewhere in the kitchen. Shaking his head in defeat, he asked, "Is this what you felt like all the times I picked on you, Steve?"

"I can only hope so," he answered with a grin, as he watched a smile creep over Victoria's face. No matter what she said as she joked, he could tell that she knew that they were all having fun being together. They watched as Bucky got up and began to search the floor for the missing utensil, retrieved it, washed it, and then sat back down without a word. They all ate a couple of bites before Victoria spoke up.

"So, exactly how would it work? We all live here and keep…dating and hanging out, getting to know each other?"

"Yes, if you want, the only thing that would change would be your address. We will work around whatever your new work schedule would be once you find a job, just like we've tried to do, and you can try and see if being around us more helps with the restlessness that's been bothering you," Steve suggested. "Don't forget, there will be times when we are gone on missions and you'll have the place to yourself. We won't always be here."

Victoria took another couple of bites, thinking their offer over, and then glancing out of the window in silence for the next few minutes as they all ate quietly.

Victoria nodded her head, as if she had made up her mind, then said, "First…just like asking this Clint person about Thanksgiving, you will _have_ to get Tony's approval. This is _his_ home. If he says no, then _don't_ argue with him because I can understand him not wanting a stranger moving in. Second...no interfering with whatever job I can find somewhere during the winter. Third…if Richie calls and needs me to play, then no arguing about the safety of the location, because I can _definitely_ see the two of you doing that."

Steve looked over at Bucky who seemed pleased with the simple requests that she had given to them. The first would probably be easy. Tony knew the importance of a soulmate with Pepper being his, and he didn't think that he would deny them this, especially since he already had a room for her, even with his attitude towards Bucky still needing more time. Second, they both had no problem with her getting a job, as long as she was safe. The third would probably be the hardest, but they would just go with her to any clubs…so, not a big deal.

"I think that we can work with all of those," Bucky answered for him with a large smile on his face, making him glad to know they were in agreement. "So, I guess _you_ need to go talk with Tony," Bucky said turning to him.

"Let's finish eating first," Steve answered taking another bite of his mostly cold food, but right now, eating was the furthest thing from his mind. He remembered how difficult of a discussion it had been about Bucky moving in, but then, Tony didn't hold a grudge over Victoria for killing his parents. Steve hoped that tonight's conversation went much better. Maybe he needed to get Pepper on his side first...

Suddenly his phone beeped, letting him know that he had a text message. Pulling it from his pocket, he had to read the message twice.

**Nat** : _Tony says that Vic can move in as long as she plays Iron Man at every show he attends, the makeup and outfit are optional._

Steve dropped his head, knowing that he should have realized that by now, that the two of them knew they were here. But, it also seemed that he had started to worry for nothing.

"FRIDAY, have the comms in our living quarters been _open_ and _monitored_ since we got home?" Steve asked, but already sure of the answer.

" _Yes, Captain. I was to alert Tony if Miss Victoria entered the Tower again, and your living room comms were activated soon after_."

"They've been listening to us talk since we got here?" Bucky asked rhetorically, before going into a cursing streak in Russian. Victoria shook her head with a grin towards Bucky, as she began to laugh looking between the two of them.

"You mean that they can hear us right now? Stalkers unite!" Victoria stated with glee in her voice, raising her fist in the air triumphantly, still chuckling a bit.

"Yes, everything that we said, they heard," Steve answered, sliding his phone over the table top to where she sat so that Victoria could read the text herself. She picked it up and laughed at the text.

"Ok, Tony, _Iron Man_ at every show, but _only_ _as long_ as the band says it's alright. Remember, I'm only the replacement drummer," she spoke a bit louder than normal and looking towards the ceiling unnecessarily. He had done the same thing right after moving in for a while. The phone in her hand beeped a moment later. She read the screen and slid the phone back to him.

**Nat** : _Tony agrees and says welcome to the Tower. PS: Clint can't wait to meet her._

Steve couldn't help but smile at the text as he slid the phone to where Bucky was now quietly sitting after his Russian rant. Reading the text, it seemed to relax him a bit, knowing she would be close and safe, and he also spoke to the ceiling, "Thanks, Tony."

"FRIDAY, could you please _now_ put our _entire floor's comms_ onto lockdown with approval from one of the three of us being needed _before_ it is activated, _unless_ an emergency has been stated," Steve asked the AI, hoping to prevent a similar situation in the future. Staring down at the remaining food, he still didn't feel like finishing it.

_"Yes, Captain."_

"Tell me…why didn't we have that in place before?" Bucky asked after a small beep signaled they had been turned off and the location secured from prying ears. He put his fork down, seeming done with his food, but he did not sound as angry as Steve would have guessing the rant had helped.

"We never really cared before," Steve replied heavily.

"Seems that it worked out ok for you tonight," Victoria said, pushing her own cold plate away. He saw that none of them had finished their meals tonight. "So, now what?"

"Well, it _is_ still early. How about we head over to your place and get your stuff?" Bucky answered with the same suggestion that he wanted to give, but which he had been a bit scared to voice out loud.

" _That_ doesn't sound a bit _anxious_ at all," Victoria stated sarcastically.

"We _barely_ let you go home last night," Bucky partially mumbled with a smirk on his face.

"It's not a bad idea. We would feel much better with you here, somewhere a bit safer," Steve quickly replied, but then deciding to add with a bit of humor, "Otherwise, you may end up with someone sleeping on the roof guarding you."

"I can only _imagine_ who you mean," Victoria said, turning her head to stare directly at Bucky. She then sighed and shocked him a bit by saying, "Why not?"

"We'll take one of the team's SUV's from the garage so that we can load anything you want to bring in it." Steve knew he could not hide the smile that was plastered on his face. He then mentioned, "But we may need to split up. Your bike is still somewhere near the museum."

"You're right. I figured that I would just get a ride back to him later. But now…" she hesitated as she thought something through before turning to Bucky. "Can I trust you to get Riddick for me? I have never, ever, let anyone else ride him before? And Steve can come with me and help pack up a couple of things that I'll need immediately. We can get the rest later, maybe Wednesday." Steve could tell that Bucky wanted to go with Victoria, but he nodded at her request, happy that they were following through with his suggestion of having her move in.

"Sounds like a plan," he stated, standing up with the two of them following suit.

They headed back to the elevator, Bucky hitting the button while he grabbed their coats from the couch. Handing Victoria hers, she pulled a set of keys from her pocket. Taking off her bike key, she kept the others necessary for getting into the apartment. When she went to hand the key to Bucky, she also pulled out a couple of large bills from the wallet in her back pocket. "I'm in a lot on the first block of East 83rd. Do you think you can find him?"

"Yeah…that shouldn't be a problem," Bucky said a bit too suspiciously as they stepped into the elevator, and only accepting the bills once he had given him an approving nod from behind Victoria, where she could not see him doing so. He did not want to upset her in any way so that she changed her mind about moving in.

"Tell me, Bucky!" Victoria demanded but sounding amused again, probably having already figured it partially out, but wanting to make him confess.

"I kind of put a tracker on it," he admitted fairly easy, Steve thought.

Victoria pointed a finger at his chest, while grinning, "We are going to have a serious talk one day about your stalking problem."


	16. Packing Up

 

As she watched Bucky get into the car, she still couldn't believe that it would be driving itself back to the Tower while Bucky rode Riddick back here. Steve said that most of Tony's cars had FRIDAY as a co-pilot and that she quite often drove the vehicles, not the person sitting in the driver's seat. She had given Bucky a kiss on the cheek as well as made him promise again to be careful before getting into the SUV.

As the two vehicles left the parking garage, each heading in the opposite direction, she sat back and let her mind think over earlier at the restaurant.

"So, how bad was tonight's breakdown compared to anything else that you've seen?" she asked after a few minutes.

Steve took a deep breath, considering his answer.

"It was not as bad as I thought that it was going to be when I got outside. I actually expected _a lot_ of collateral damage to either the vehicles, or a wall. The fact that he restrained himself _that much_ after learning about the connection was amazing. He still holds a lot of guilt over, not only that fight, but _all_ of his time with HYDRA. The things that they did, to turn him into their Asset...they took the honorable man that he was and ripped him away. None of what he did was because he wanted to. I've tried to remind him of who he was, as well as having Wanda helping him with trying to get his memories straightened. But there is so much other stuff we still have to tell you about."

"I don't know hardly anything about what happened to him. Mostly whatever made the mainstream news around the time that he was vindicated from prosecution. At the time, I just lumped it together with other celebrity news, which I don't care about. With the way the two groups kept going back and forth talking about how Bucky and his actions should be dealt with, I just gave up listening to the bickering and waited for the final outcome. I had no real interest in someone else's private life. But I'm also guessing that most of what happened to him was never made public anyways, right?" she asked, turning slightly in the front passenger seat so that she could see Steve while he drove.

"Yeah, it was too great of a security risk for him if everything was made known, so only a few select trusted higher government officials know the background of what happened to him, including the President. They were the ones who said he would not be charged after they knew everything. Even then, they don't know the full detail of all his missions, but instead, they were briefed on them," Steve then turned to look at her for only a moment. "Every Avenger also knows about his past, especially the more important details and events. I tried to read most of the files, but after a while, I just had to stop. You should know too, but I'm worried it will scare you away from him."

"I already know that they used Bucky to kill people. I don't know if it was one person or a hundred, but it doesn't matter to me. They are just numbers in his past. I'm sure that you have even killed a few during the war, and probably even recently, doing what ya do. It may sound crazy that I _don't_ care, but I _do_ care that it has an effect on him," she told him, reaching to lay her hand on top of his, where Steve had laid it on the center armrest. "Knowing what that number is, it's not going to matter to me. I've always been very easy going, even when dealing with rough topics, but maybe that is what he needs."

"There are days that the memories, or the guilt, gets to him more than others, especially after a session with Wanda. He'll refuse to leave either his room, or the apartment, along with the brooding, which he has become very good at. There was one time early on after coming to the Tower that he refused to go on a mission."

"Well, it seems that I'll be there to help with those days now," Vic said giving his hand a reassuring squeeze as they turned down her street.

After a few minutes of silence, Steve then asked, "Are you angry with what happened? That you could feel the two of us during the fight?"

"Heck no," she told him. "There was no way for any of us to know of the connection, and it's not like he did it intentionally to hurt me…just you," she grinned at him, earning her a groan from Steve at the tease.

"Still…" he started, so she interrupted.

"Nope, I already told Bucky, probably before you got back outside, that unless he intended to try and kill you again, then I don't care what happened. It's in the past," she shrugged her shoulders, wondering why they were so concern about it. Steve gave her a quick glance, but he then seemed to accept her explanation.

They found a space not too far away from the front door, which was good since she knew they didn't like the neighborhood already, and adding a block of walking through it would not have been fun. She would definitely be safer tonight than previously, if anyone tried anything again, but most people around here knew not to mess with her now. _That_ was a conversation she was not looking forward to having with them especially with their protectiveness. She would eventually get around to telling them about the idiot muggers, but it would have to wait until they had gotten to know each other better.

Heading up the front steps of her building, she opened the door and found the lock for it still broken. Pushing the door wide, they stepped inside.

"The door doesn't lock," Steve said.

"Hasn't for the past few months," she said starting up the stairs.

"It's reasons like that which make us glad you are moving in with us," he said as they headed up.

Just for fun, she looked back at him with a smile, saying, "And is that the _only_ reason?"

"Not really," Steve told her with a sly grin, but not elaborating. He could handle her innuendoes fine, and he seemed to be able to give them back, just not as often as Bucky. Maybe that would change.

Reaching her door, she unlocked the three deadbolts that the previous tenants had installed. She had not actually minded the extra work of getting into her place. So far, she had never been broken into. Opening the door, she flipped the light switch on and suddenly became very aware of what her place looked like.

Compared to the massive space Steve and Bucky had, he must think it a dump, clean, but still a dump. She had always tried to live frugally since leaving Wade. A small place with minimal furnishings meant that she could pick up and leave whenever she wanted to, which had been quite often. Plus, it also had the bonus of being dirt cheap which meant that she could save her money.

"Well, this shouldn't take long," she said, stepping aside for Steve to enter. "You're going to feel pretty cramped in here for the next few minutes, big guy," she said, locking the door behind them.

Heaven help anyone who tried to break in here right now.

"It is a _bit_ on the small side," he said giving the place an easy look over, which wasn't hard considering that it was so small. "I think my old childhood bedroom in Brooklyn was bigger than this entire place."

"Probably, but it is perfect for a single drifter," she said, opening up the closet door, pulling out her backpack and saddlebags. The first thing she put in the backpack was her computer and Nano. Moving to the bathroom, she gathered the few products she had, a nice expensive shampoo and conditioner, facial products, the makeup bag, toothbrush, and hairbrush.

Stepping back out, she found Steve holding the milk-glass container that had been resting on the cabinet shelf with her money in it.

"My mother used to have a jar just like this. Where did you get it?" he asked turning to look at her.

"An antique shop a couple of blocks over. I needed a container and when I saw it, I just liked it," she said holding out her hand for it. Steve passed it over to her. She sat down on the mattress and then patted the spot next to her signaling for him to sit, which he did. As he sat down, her side of the air mattress raised a bit higher than she had expected it to.

"It's one of the few items that I was going to take with me when I left. I hadn't figured out exactly how to carry it on Riddick besides wrapping it up in my clothes for protection," she said before lifting the lid to reveal the large sum of cash bills stashed inside.

"Victoria, why would you keep all of that in there? In a place like this? If anyone knew, that would have been dangerous," he said reprimanding her a bit.

"This is my traveling cash. Gas, food, hotels. I've had times in the past when I got somewhere that didn't take debit cards, or their machine was broken, and having cash on hand came in useful," she informed him, putting the lid back on the container and handing it back to him to hold. "Now, I'll use some of it to buy the winter clothes I need, and the rest of it can go into my savings."

"Savings?" he asked curious.

"Yeah, I have savings. As well as a Roth IRA, stocks, and mutual funds. I'm going to guess that you and Bucky figured that since I live like _this,"_ she raised her hand to indicate the apartment, "that I'm living paycheck to paycheck?" Vic asked with a smile on her face, figuring she was right.

"Yes, we did. If you could afford better, why not do it?" he asked, putting the jar carefully on the floor next to the mattress.

"What's the point? I have everything I needed here. Food, internet, a space heater," she said pointing to the small device under the window. Pulling the shampoo out of her backpack, she held it up for him to see. "When I want something nice, I get it."

Steve took the item from her, looking at it before popping the top and taking a sniff of the shampoo.

"This is why your hair smells like coconuts," he said closing it and handing it back to her.

"It's one of the best brands out there, and priced like it, too," she said putting it back into the bag. "I just prefer to keep it simple."

"That is a strange concept for nowadays, especially after living with Tony for a while," Steve said leaning back against the wall, his head barely missing the bottom of her bicycle. Vic got up and grabbed the pair of chopsticks sticking out of a glass she was using as holder for them. Handing them over to Steve, he began to examine them, then he really began to understand what he was looking.

"Victoria, these are amazing," he stated, continuing to admire the intricately carved metal sticks.

"They are sterling silver, hand carved, a dragon on one, a phoenix on the other. The third most expensive thing in here besides the bike above your head and my computer. I got them when I was living in San Francisco a few years back," she said as he handed them back to her.

"Why are you telling me all of this?" Steve asked curious.

"I saw the look that Bucky gave you when I tried to hand him the money for the parking garage, as well as the reflection of your nod so that he would take it," she told him, putting the chopsticks into a smaller protective pocket on the backpack that was made for writing utensils. "Also, there was last night when I tried to buy dinner. I know what you said, but I wanted you to understand that it would not have been putting me out in any way. I only _look_ like a pauper."

Steve smiled as he saw the silly expression cross her face at the comment. Standing up, she began to roll up the few clothes that she had, placing them into the saddlebag. Vic also grabbed the jar and wrapped a t-shirt around it before putting it into the bag.

"Can you reach with your right hand under the mattress and grab the book that is there and throw it in the backpack?" Vic asked as she continued with the clothes.

Steve did and found the small ledger.

"Mind if I ask?" he said holding it up.

"It's where I keep track of my funds. All my statements are electronic, but I like to see the actual numbers on paper. I'm not worried about much of this for tonight. Saddlebag, backpack, my bike, and my pillows. That's about it. I can leave the rest until later," Vic said grabbing the pocket watch off of the nail, slipping the chain through her fingers.

"Why a pocket watch?" Steve asked, putting the ledger into the backpack. She noticed that he did not try and take a peek.

"I've never liked the feeling of anything on my wrists, like watches or bracelets. After a while, they begin to feel annoying. I don't care for tight long sleeve shirts too much either. I like to have my arms free, so I wear a lot of short sleeves or tank-tops. My hoodie jacket is also a few sizes larger than I need so that it is loose," she said sitting back down on the mattress next to Steve. "It's also why I like to live in the South during winter time."

"Bucky," he simply said.

"What about him?"

"Bucky was held as a prisoner during the war, strapped down to a table and experimented on. Then, later on, when he was being turned into the Winter Soldier, they would strap him into a chair that…would send painful electrical shocks through his mind to wipe out his memories. Any time that they thought he was remembering something, he was strapped back down, so that they could do it again. That _could be_ why you don't like the feeling of them. It may be another connection due to the soulmark," Steve answered somberly.

"When was the last time something like that happened to him?" Vic asked curious as to another possible link.

"A few hours after the first incident you felt, the day before the final fight that you ended up feeling while in the hospital. Why?"

"I was just thinking that the connection really only worked when the two of you were fighting each other. I've never been hurt any other time, like when you would go out on missions and maybe would have gotten injured," she said, rubbing the spot on her shirt that covered the mark. Why would fate give them such a strong connection?

"Bruce would love to hear about all of this. He's helped us whenever we had questions about our marks. Knowing him, he'll want to do some experiments," Steve said, reaching over to take her hand. "So, are you ready to head home?"

"Technically," she started to say while gesturing with her hand at the room.

"Fine, ready to head to your _new_ home?" Steve grinned, standing up and holding his hand out to help her up. Vic took it, rising to her feet.

Is that really what it would be for her? Home? And for how long? It had been years since she had ever felt like somewhere she lived could be called that.

Enjoy it while it last, she told herself.

"Think you can carry something for me?" she asked, indicating her bicycle.

Steve smiled as he grabbed the bike from the wall, testing the weight of it.

"This barely weighs anything, and I'm not trying to sound conceited," he told her with a grin.

"No, it's a special lightweight carbon fiber material. It's beneficial since it's easier to carry up multiple flights of stairs, as well as going a bit faster when riding," she told him.

Now, she wanted to look up bicycles from when he and Bucky were growing up, to see what they looked like.

Vic threw the saddlebag over her shoulder, the backpack on the other shoulder, then grabbed her mass of pillows before locking the door. There was not a lot of stuff left for her to deal with later, which is what she was used to. They then began the trek down the staircase. Steve easily loaded all of her items into the back of the SUV, before he open and held on to the door for her to get inside. She'd never had anyone do that for her before.

Riding back to the Tower with her menial possessions, they were almost a block away before Vic spotted something that she desperately wanted right then. None of them had finished dinner, so this would be a good idea for a snack.

"Hey, can you pull into that parking spot right there?" she asked, pointing a few spaces up from where they were.

Steve did so, pulling in before he passed the only open spot in sight.

"Why…" he started before she opened the door and said with a grin, "I'll be back in a few minutes."

Hurrying back down the street to the coffee shop, only a few doors behind where they parked, she headed inside. Luckily, there were only two customers ahead of her. Looking into the pastry case, she had made her selections before arriving at the counter. She placed the large order and then headed off to the side to wait. Within five minutes, she was walking back out of the door with a drink carrier in one hand, and a snack filled bag with the other. Steve reached across the passenger seat and opened the door for her when she got back to the SUV.

Putting the bag on the floor between her feet so it would be easier to hold the carrier, she told Steve, "Alright, let's go."

"We're going to have to get used to you doing things like that, aren't we?" Steve asked as he checked the traffic behind him before pulling out into the street.

"Yes. Yes ya'll are," Vic grinned while giving him a poke in the side with her finger.

Within two minutes, they were heading into the parking garage area. Off in the area designated for motorcycles, she spotted Riddick parked right between Steve's bike and the Ducati, the one Bucky preferred to ride. As they were pulling into the parking space for the SUV, the elevator door opened and Bucky stepped out, a bit of a scowl on his face.

Stepping up to her side of the car, he opened the door and asked, "What took so long and why did you stop down the street?"

"First, we didn't take that long. Second, how did you know we stopped down the street? And third, how about a _hello_ before you get all stalkerish," Vic chided him while he held the car door open for her as she grabbed the bag from the floor and stepped out.

"Hello there," Bucky said as he closed her door before moving to the back tailgate of the SUV where Steve was starting to remove her stuff. "It felt like you were gone a long time."

"It was barely an hour. And knowing that we stopped?" Vic asked coming to stand next to him.

"There's a tracker on your bicycle," he informed her, pulling the mentioned item out of the vehicle and placing it carefully on the ground, raising his hand to stop the comment he was about to get, "As well as on all of the vehicles in the garage. Tony likes to keep track of his things."

"Seems like the two of you have that in common," she said, giving him a slight tap on his shoulder as Steve grinned at her comment as he held onto her backpack, saddlebags, and pillows while he watched the two of them banter. They all headed over to the elevator that had been waiting to take them all up to her new…home?

In a _really_ tall building.


	17. A Snack Then More Teasing

 

When the elevator doors opened back up, Vic headed over to the kitchen island to put their food and drinks down, while Bucky put her bike against the glass wall near the elevator in the den side of the room. She would have to talk with them in a little while about that, but she really wanted her snack first. Steve disappeared down the hallway with her bags and pillows, heading to her new room, she figured by taking a very educated guess.

Bucky walked over to where she was pulling the drinks from the carrier and setting them down onto the island's countertop. She noticed when they had come off of the elevator that the dishes they had left on the table were now sitting drying on a towel on the countertop next to the sink. Bucky must have cleaned up to keep himself occupied while they were gone. She could imagine how adorable looking he must have been while doing something so mundane.

"So, this was the stop?" he asked, leaning against the counter next to her, a charming smile on his face. She was definitely going to have to be careful when it came to him. He was the smooth one between him and Steve. "What do we get?"

"I figured that since none of us finished eating, that a snack was in order," she said, handing one of the cups to Bucky. Lifting the other two, she started towards the hallway and saw Steve leaving a door at the end of the hall to head back towards them. She handed him the other cup when he got close. "I'm going to take a guess that neither of you have tried this before, so go ahead. Be careful, it's hot."

Taking a drink from her own cup, she relished the first taste of one of the few treats that she really loved indulging in. Looking expectantly at the two huge guys taking little sips of their drinks, she watched as their faces changed to surprise at the taste.

"That's good," Steve smiled, before taking another long sip.

"I figured you'd like it since it taste like a hot apple pie with vanilla ice cream, but how about you?" she said turning to Bucky, and finding that he had removed the lid so that he was able to take larger swigs of his drink. While looking right at her, he ran his tongue over his upper lip to get rid of the whipped cream mustache that had formed, making her almost choke on her own sip. Had he done that on purpose? Is this what Steve had felt like at lunchtime?

"Does it come in a larger size?" he asked sitting down onto one of the stools at the bar area of the island.

"Yeah, but I figured this size would be good in case ya'll didn't like it. I also figured out how to make it at home, but ya probably don't have what I would need. I can get the stuff later," she told him, moving to sit on one of the other stools. She noticed that there were only three, so she took the middle one, knowing what was going to happen. Only a moment later, Steve took the one on her right side. They had definitely adapted already to having their own sides when it came to her.

"Pass the bag over, Bucky," she said placing her cup down. When he handed it to her, she passed the two of them each a large chocolate muffin while putting a blueberry muffin down on the counter in front of her.

"You didn't get one of these?" Steve asked pulling the wrapper from the base.

"No, I don't like chocolate," Vic said picking a large chunk out of the top and placing it into her mouth.

"What do you mean...you don't like chocolate?" Bucky asked from her other side, his mouth full of a large bite.

"Never cared for it," she said continuing to consume her items, as she ignored the strange stares coming from both of her sides. She was used to that stare from others when she had told them the same thing, so it didn't bother her this time.

"Well, that's going to make Valentine's a bit difficult," Steve was almost finished with his muffin already.

"I'm sure we can find something," Bucky said going for more of the drink. They were thinking that far in advance? The only reason she ever planned a month out was due to having to give landlords move-out notices.

"How can the two of you eat so fast?" she asked watching them quickly go through the muffins and drinks.

"We had to eat fast back during the war," Steve answered taking another large bite.

"So, what would ya'll normally be doing right now if not for me intruding?" she said taking another bite.

" _Never_ would we _ever_ consider having you here with us 'intruding'," Steve grinned at her.

"We've been pretty good with catching up on movies, or a TV show," Bucky then answered. "We don't go out on the town much. That usually only happens when Tony drags everyone out."

"I'm guessing there's a _lot_ of movies for you to watch then. Any preferences to genres?" Vic asked.

"I'm partial to the classics, black and whites," Steve answered.

"And I like the modern action and sci-fi ones," Bucky stated.

"I can work with both of those," Vic figured, finding it amusing how the two of them were sometimes similar, yet different in other ways. Pulling out her watch, it was barely past nine, and she usually didn't go to bed before two a.m. anyways, but she wouldn't keep them up that late. One movie should be fine for tonight. "How about trying one of my favorites? I bet I can name a movie from of each of those genres and you would not have seen either one."

"You can try, but there's a chance we may have seen them," Bucky said, finishing up both of his items and getting up to throw the cup into the trash can that was disguised as a cabinet door. Good to know, she thought. At some point, she was going to have to get them to give her a small tour of the place so that she knew the layout. Another item for a later time. Right now, she was looking forward to just hanging out and being with them.

"Alright then," she said getting up to take her own cup to the trashcan. After she had rounded the counter, she then leaned over it towards where they were sitting, grabbing the now empty bag from the other side and tossing it away. The look on both of their faces told her that her move had just given them another small peek down the front of her shirt, just like at the bar. Neither one of them looked away though.

Talking to Steve first, she said, " _Gaslight_ , 1944," and then to Bucky, she told him, " _Equilibrium_ , 2002."

The two guys thought about it a moment, then looked at each other to see if they had heard of them. Both of them gave slight shakes to their heads. She could tell that she had them stumped. They had probably been going down a list of the top movies of the different years.

"Man, I should have bet something," she said, closing the trashcan. Leaning down onto the counter towards them once again, but not as dramatically as to produce a show, holding out her hand in a fist, she said, "Odd man out gets his genre tonight."

The three of them once again did the game, and this time Bucky won, so the action movie would be first. Glancing over at the den, she guessed that they would all be sitting on the couch together. Very close to each other. Probably with a bit of body parts maybe accidentally touching every once in a while. With her right between their two warm bodies. This would definitely be different than every other night she had ever had. And in the best possible way.

"How about putting something on that's a bit more comfortable first?" Vic asked as they headed toward the den area. "I'm used to changing as soon as I get home."

"We know," Bucky said aloud, before stopping himself as he realized what he had just revealed.

"What do you mean, _we know_?" Vic asked, taking a couple of steps toward him, a bit of firmness in her voice. She could already guess, since she knew that they had followed her home that first night, and Steve had not been too shocked at what her apartment looked like on the inside. They had to have been on the roof across from the window. She turned her head towards Steve, then gave him a quick wink to know that she was going to mess with Bucky a bit. She saw Steve's head drop as he tried to hide the small smile that formed.

"Um," was all that Bucky managed to get out before Vic gave him a small poke in the center of his chest with her finger.

"You were watching me through the window, that night ya'll followed me home from the strip club, weren't you? _You_ saw me get undressed," she stated, trying to sound serious. The nervous look that came across his face was priceless, she thought.

From her side, Steve tried to interject, so that he did not seem to be an accomplice, "We were just trying to verify your part of the soulmark."

But even as Steve talked, she never adverted her gaze from Bucky's petrified face. Not wanting to make him worry too much, she then firmly asked, "Did you see anything you liked?"

There was a moment before it actually registered with him what she had asked, probably expecting something totally different. She couldn't help but give a wide smile at the sight of him as he realized that she was messing with him again. Once he had, his entire demeanor changed. Any trace of apprehension was wiped from his features, replaced with a firm stare, aimed right for her.

Taking a small step towards her, closing the already small distance, he answered with smile and a decisive, "Yes."

"Good," Vic said, patting her hand on his cheek a couple of times before turning and giving Steve, who was a bit red from her response, another wink. Stepping away from Bucky, she headed down the hall towards the door which she had seen Steve leaving from earlier, after depositing her stuff.

As she was walking away, she heard Bucky say to Steve, "I think I almost had a heart attack," so she yelled back over her shoulder, "You would have deserved it."

Opening the door that she figured was her bedroom, she stopped in her tracks at the sight before her. "Holy Fudge."

Through the large window, that took up the entire wall directly in front of her, was an assortment of lit-up skyscrapers lining their way down the view of Park Avenue. Most of them she knew from delivering packages and letters to them numerous times a day. She hardly had been up in any of them, and had _definitely_ never seen them by looking down on them. Stepping into the room, while getting as close as she could to the window, she looked down at the lit-up copper cupola and roof of the Helmsley Building next door. She had always admired the architecture of the building, but had never dreamed she would be this close or looking at it from this angle. Never mind the fact that it was now the view from her bedroom.

Turning her attention away from the inescapable window that went from floor to ceiling, she found that Steve had placed her pillows on the bed with the couple that were already there, which was covered with a thick down comforter in a dark grey color, her bags being nowhere in sight. Probably in the closet. What she also did not expect to see was the massive bed that her pillows were sitting on.

"It's Tony's idea of a joke," Steve said coming to stand next to her, close enough that she could feel a bit of warmth coming off of him. It was way too nice standing there. They had to have heard her comment upon entering the room and come to investigate.

"He said that since there was going to be three of us, we _all_ needed beds that would accommodate _all_ of us, so we each have a California King," said Bucky, who was standing in the doorway, leaning nicely on the frame.

Making her way to the bed, she sat down on it, put a smile on her face, and then patted the seats to both of her sides, indicating for Steve and Bucky, to come sit next to her. They glanced at each other for a moment before heading over and sitting down. They may not always understand why she was doing something, but so far, they didn't seem the least bit hesitant about any simple request she made towards them.

"There," Vic said, once they each took their side right next to her, enveloping her with more of their divine body heat. "Now, the next time we see Tony, we can tell him that we all tried my bed out together tonight, without it being a lie. We don't have to mention that we were just sitting on it. Think that may shock him a bit?"

"I can only hope so," Bucky said with a chuckle.

"So, bathroom," she guessed, pointing to the door closest to the outside of the building, figuring it would have the view, "and closet," she said pointing to the only other door in the room, to the right side of the bath, which butted up against one of their room's wall.

"Yes," Steve answered as she stood up and walked over to the bathroom door. Opening it up, she paused at the sight before her. Concrete countertops, a large glass enclosed shower, a large soaking tub, water closet, and a small walk-in linen closet, she found opening the door to her right. "Just so you know, all the bedroom and bathroom windows are specially tinted so that nobody can see inside, even at night with the lights turned on. You have full privacy here."

"Except from him," Vic commented, pointing over her shoulder behind her at Bucky's sitting form without even having to look.

"Oh, come on," Bucky sighed, tossing his hands up in the air again and falling backwards onto the bed in a prone position while Steve got another laugh from him being on the receiving end of the teasing.

"Alright, now is the time when I kick you out, but just for right now," Vic said with a smile, stepping inside and then waiting to close the door.

"We're going to go get changed," Steve told her, nudging Bucky's thigh with his fist before standing up and heading for the bedroom door. As he headed out into the hallway, he yelled back to both of them, "Movie in five."

Bucky was starting to sit up on the bed from when he collapsed as she finally shut the door.

When she opened the door a short time later, she found that Bucky was still sitting on the bed. His head had been cast down until she stepped into the room, then he lifted it to look at her. He had not left her room to go and change yet, and she could tell that there was something bugging him.

"When it comes to having watched you that night, are you actually upset with me...well, us...all kidding aside?" he asked her with total seriousness in his voice. She could see the worry sweep over his face as he asked his question.

Walking over so that she was standing right before him, then running her hand through his hair to push it back from where it had fallen partially in this face, she answered, "Never and absolutely not. Besides, if I remember correctly, ya'll probably didn't even see me naked. Remember when ya saw me in the lobby dealing with that guard? That was one of the few times in the past couple of years that I've been upset about anything. I told Steve earlier tonight, I'm fairly easy going, and certainly not uptight, and definitely not shy…well…most of the time with that last one. Remember where I was working when ya'll spotted me?'

"The strip club," Bucky stated, seeming to ease up a bit.

"It's not even the first one that I've worked at," Vic said as he gave her a quick, almost panicked, look. "Not dancing in any of them, you pervert."

Hearing footsteps before Steve then stuck his head back into the door, already changed into a t-shirt, a size too small, she thought, with the way it fit him too nicely, and sweatpants, he asked, "Are the two of you ready yet?"

"Not yet," Vic answered looking over to him, then turning back to Bucky, "Besides, if I was worried about people seeing me naked, then why did I have a membership to a private nude beach this past summer?" she asked, walking towards the closet to change her clothes.

"Wait…what…a nude beach?" Bucky barely managed to get out, while Steve just stared silently between the two of them, also trying to comprehend what she had just said.

"You know the best part of that? No tan lines," Vic grinned over her shoulder as she reached the closet door. Opening it, she then slipped her shirt and sports bra off in one swift motion over her head, letting them both get a look at her bare, tanned back for a moment, before shutting the closet door behind her.


	18. Questions and then a Test

 

Vic had realized while pulling her change of clothes from the saddlebags that since she was going to be in New York for the winter, she was going to have to go out _soon_ to buy actual winter clothes. A pair of jeans, sweatpants for work, and a pair of loose yoga pants were the limit of warm clothes that she had. As it was, she had put on a pair of shorts that she usually would wear to work along with a tank top and fuzzy purple socks.

When Victoria made it back out to the den, Steve was in the kitchen getting something to drink from the fridge so she decided to see if she had shocked him too much with what she had done at the closet.

"You ok, Steve?" she asked leaning onto the counter by her elbows, "I hope that I didn't take that too far in there, but Bucky was worried that I was _actually_ mad, and I figured _that_ was the quickest way to prove that I wasn't."

"Yes, I'm fine, but I think that the water bill is going to go up from all the cold showers that are going to be happening," Steve answered, stunning her for a moment at the comment. A wide smile crossed over both of their faces.

"Nice one, Steve," she said, holding her hand up for a high five, which he hit as he passed her to walk into the den. "I _knew_ you had to have it in you."

Opening the fridge door, she found that he had been right earlier about there being choices. Not only was the fridge a massive Sub-Zero, it was stocked with five different types of sodas, juices, bottled water, and other bottled drinks. In the drawers, she could see fresh fruit and vegetables. It had been a long time since she had seen so much food in one fridge. There was no point in buying a lot of food for just herself. Pulling out a water, she walked over to the large couch were Steve was already sitting. He had left space on his left side for the two of them to take their normal places.

"Don't you think that you'll get cold?" he asked about her short clothing. Bucky came into the room at about that same time, heading straight for them. He was wearing sweat pants also, but he was wearing a long sleeve heavy shirt.

"Stop right there!" she demanded, holding up her hand, which he stopped for. "Steve, is that what he would _normally_ wear to watch a movie? Something that _heavy_ and _long_?"

"No, not normally," he answered before he received a scowl from Bucky at being called out.

"Go change. And I mean into something you would _normally_ wear," Vic informed him, pointing back down the hallway. Bucky headed back down the hallway without a word.

"How did you know?" Steve asked.

"The two of you run hot. I can get the sweatpants, especially since you are wearing some, but even I wouldn't want to wear a shirt like that right now. I figured it has to be because of his arm," she answered. "What does he normally drink?"

"This late at night, a water," Steve told her, so she got up and headed into the kitchen to get it for him.

As she was heading back to the couch, Bucky stepped out of the door down the hallway on the right. She realized that their rooms would match how they walked if they were all leaving their rooms at the same time. Bucky was now wearing a black tank top shirt that did not hide his arm at all, except for where it connected into his skin. Stopping and waiting for him, she held out the bottle for him, which he took with his right hand.

"Satisfied?" he asked a bit pouty.

"Yes. Don't you dare hide from me," she stated, taking hold of his left hand and leading him to the couch. "Otherwise, I'll make you play strip poker, and trust me when I say, you don't want to go up against me."

"You play poker?" Steve asked, picking up a small flat screen device that seemed to control the TV as well as the lights, since they dimmed once the two of them had found their seats on the couch.

"Yeah, I was heading through Vegas years ago so I read a book on how to play a couple of the different card games the casino's have, as well as one on the strategy behind poker. I got comp'd a suite that night at the Bellagio Hotel I did so well," Vic informed them, pulling her feet up on the couch so they rested against Steve's covered thighs.

"You learned to play poker...from reading a book?" Bucky asked curiously.

"Yes, that's how I learn some things," Vic responded a bit shyly. Should she try and explain now?

"What else have you learned?" Steve asked now curious himself. She may as well see what happened, so she decided to start with something easy.

"The whistle that I do to get Happy's attention? That's Morse code. I looked the chart over one day, memorized the pattern, and when I mentioned it to Happy, he thought it was funny so we agreed to use that as our signal," she answered.

"Four short whistles, the letter h," Bucky realized, looking past her head and over at Steve, giving a look to him that said it should have been obvious to them what she had been doing. "How long did it take you to learn the entire code?"

"I didn't try to time myself, but I'd say about two minutes," Vic answered, starting to feel a bit uncomfortable where this was heading. This was talking about something that had gotten her isolated from other kids when she was younger for not being normal.

"That's amazing. It took me four days of studying in boot camp to learn it, and I was the only one in my squad to do it in that short of a time," Bucky said, looking a bit stunned, and he honestly didn't seem to be appalled by her admission. That was a good start.

"Can you do that with anything you read?" Steve asked.

"I'm not sure, I never tested _how_ I do it. If I read the instructions on how to do something, I can then apply the pattern to it," Vic said reaching for the water bottle to give her hands something to do. "Ya'll don't think that being able to do something like this is weird?"

"No, have you forgotten who you're talking to?" Steve answered with a genuine smile. "Wait until you meet the rest of our group, especially Wanda. She does magic, basically."

"When you said that you worked as a bike mechanic…" Bucky started the sentence so that she could finish it.

"I would read the manual online for whatever bike came in, and then I could diagnose the problem with the pattern and fix it," Vic answered. "But I've worked on cars too."

"How long would it take you to read a manual?" Steve continued with the questioning.

"Not long. I read a book on how to speed read," Vic said with a small laugh. "The most useful thing I think that I've ever read. Well, except for the street map of the city. I never could have gotten the job as a messenger if I hadn't learned the streets and buildings."

"How long did the map take you?" Bucky asked, turning so that his arm now rested on the back of the couch, over her shoulders.

" _That_ I know, because my boss, Richard, wanted me to start at base pay. I talked him into giving me an hour to study the map, and then he could quiz me on locations and routes. If I got them all correct, he would start me at the same rate as someone who had been there for six months," she said, opening the bottle and taking a sip. "I got all twenty questions correct. One of the guys who worked there for about three months even got some of the questions wrong."

"You said that you only took basic classes in school. Why?" Bucky asked a bit hesitant. She guessed that he knew.

"My parents. They signed me up for only the basic classes necessary to graduate, even though I was making perfect grades. They did it so that nobody would find out what I could do, so that I didn't catch anyone's attention. They felt that it was not natural, another curse from the soulmark," Vic answered. "That's also why I couldn't take any extra classes, like art, sports, music, or clubs. They were worried that people would find out."

"Music, does it work the same way?" Bucky asked a bit skeptical.

"Not exactly. Music works a bit different. If I hear a beat, I can duplicate the pattern. I can listen to music, and then play the pattern. I hear lyrics, I remember their pattern and then I can duplicate what I hear."

"Why not use a talent like that to become a professional musician?" Steve asked taking her feet into his hands and beginning to gently rub them.

"Hard to carry a drum set on a motorcycle," Vic answered jokingly, not wanting to go into further detail right now. If they haven't thought of what may happen being in the public eye with their soulmark, she was not going to spoil tonight by getting them started thinking about it.

"It's more fun than work, so I've kept it that way. And, to get back to your original question, before this brief interrogation," Vic said pointing to Steve, "No, I don't think I'll get too cold tonight sitting between the two of you. But since packing my clothes earlier, I realized that I do need to go out and get real winter clothes. And soon. And also something more appropriate for Thanksgiving dinner."

"Nat would never pass up a chance at shopping, if you wanted someone to go with you," Steve supplied.

"That may not be a bad idea. It's been a while since I've cared about clothing, and she would be a good second opinion. Let me go text her really quick while you get the movie going," Vic said, quickly standing up and heading for her phone, which she had left in the bedroom.

Sending a text to Nat, she asked if she wanted to meet her Tuesday morning for a shopping trip. Before she had a chance to put the phone back down on the nightstand, she received a response of 'yes!'. Vic would just have to tell Richard that tomorrow was going to be her last day, instead of Tuesday, which should not be a problem. She would need at least a day or two to get everything that she would need.

Heading back out to the den, she caught the two guys talking in hushed whispers, which suddenly stopped when she reached the end of the hall. With the look that she was receiving from Bucky, she could guess what they had been discussing. Walking back over to the couch, she sat down and looked at Steve.

"You told him, didn't you?" she asked with a grin.

"I had to, he was worried about you going out shopping. That you couldn't afford to," Steve answered with a small smile.

"You don't have to worry about _that_ happening at all. I'm more worried about having a _Pretty Woman_ scene happening, with the way that I normally dress," Vic said turning to look at Bucky.

"I get that reference," Steve said with a smile.

"We just thought…" Bucky began before she raised her hand to stop him.

"I know. We," she said moving a finger between her and Steve, "had this talk earlier, after I saw the look you gave him about the money. I had what I needed, but now, I need clothes that won't all fit into the saddlebags. So, are you ever going to get this movie going?"

"What about Natasha? Is she going with you? We can always go instead, if you want," Bucky asked while Steve began to fiddle with the pad.

"And have ya'll sit like every other sad-looking male that I've ever seen inside of a woman's clothing store? No, thank you. That's the quickest way to put a strain on a relationship. Besides, Nat already texted back and we are going on Tuesday morning," Vic said pulling her feet back up onto the couch to rest against Steve's legs, but this time he rested his warm hand against them as soon as they touched him.

"Good, then get the movie started, Punk," Bucky instructed, leaning over just enough so that his warm shoulder was slightly touching hers. Definitely not going to be cold, she thought as Steve pressed a couple of buttons on the small screen, making the movie finally start.

After the movie, with the guys arguing about the validity of the final fight scene, which she absolutely loved, she decided that it was starting to get late for the two of them. It would be the perfect time to soak in that tub, right after dealing with something she shouldn't put off for too long.

"Alright, you two, have fun arguing, but I'm out," she said, giving Bucky a kiss on the cheek as he argued for the spare clips, and another to Steve's cheek as he said that it would not actually work. They both told her good night before they started back up. They were debating calling Tony to see if he could make it happen while she walked down the hallway to her new bedroom.

As Vic opened the door, the large window drew all of her attention as she stepped inside and tried pushing the door closed behind her, but not seeing that it remained open a crack. She walked over as close to the window as she could and looked out over the city below her, still bustling with activity even being this close to midnight. There were people walking the streets still.

Sitting down cross-legged onto the floor, Vic slowly scooted forward towards the window. She could do this, she can face this fear head on, just like she had read, especially now that she was going to _have_ to live with it. She was still a few feet back when she had to stop. Her breathing had become heavy and her hands were shaking. She closed her eyes and made herself calm down. She was inside a building, she was not going to fall. Think about anything else, she thought.

Maybe she did belong here with Steve and Bucky. They had not freak out at the abilities she had told them about, they didn't think that she was unnatural. They had actually been curious as to what she could do, how she could do it, what she already knew. Nobody had ever been curious like they had been. Supposed friends usually just played it off and then she never heard from them again, or even had a few just hang up on her when she had called. Not everyone was like Wade.

Just because her two soulmates had not freak out didn't mean that the rest of the group wouldn't, once they found out. Them, she was not sure of. So far, they didn't seem to think that there was anything wrong with the three of them being soulmates. Tony had even planned their floor around it, the large bed joke aside. But, would they _still_ think that once they saw the three of them together? Natasha had been very nice. And Tony...she started to think that Tony needed his own category.

Scooting forward a small distance, Vic barely peeked her eye open to see how far she was away from the glass. Just about where she may be able to touch it, if she reached out. Making sure her eyes were closed tight, she carefully reached out with her left hand, as if waiting for the glass to prick it like a thorn. Once her hand was stretched out as far as it would go, she still was not touching the glass. Keeping her left hand up, she used her other to help scoot forward. Inches later, she finally felt the cold glass against her fingertips. Cold like every window she would touch while walking on the streets. No difference. It was solid, just like the floor. Nothing was going to happen. A few more inches closer she went. Now, her palm was touching the glass. Just a bit closer she went, so her arm was bent and her knees were now touching the window.

Taking a deep breath and turning her head upward, she slowly opened her eyes. There was where the glass met the ceiling. Easy. A bit lower was the reflection of the room behind her. Not too awful. Lowing her head slightly, she saw the antennas of the buildings nearby flashing with the warning lights for planes to know that they existed. But now, they were almost eye-level with her. _That_ was disconcerting. She could do this, she thought.

With a final deep breath, Vic glanced down at the street below, focusing on a far spot up Park Avenue, and bringing it closer. As her vision got closer to the Tower, passing over the roof of the Helmsley Building, showing the steep angle drop she was at, now sitting right up on the glass, it began. The sheer terror from the anxiety at seeing the height she was at, began to rise from her chest, a cold chill traveled up her spine, her arms froze where they were so she couldn't move them, but yet they trembled furiously. Her breathing became extremely shallow, no steady rhythm at all. Her vision then became trapped on the spot on the ground that she had finally focused on, while dark circles all around the edges of her vision started to appear. She felt as if she were already falling. And she couldn't even blink to block it out.

* * *

Steve felt the strange panicking, vertigo sensation come over him, once again, as he was just getting ready to pick up his toothbrush and get ready for bed. He and Bucky had both felt this before, a couple of times over the past year, but they had never been able to figure out why it happened. He struggled to get his breathing back into a steady rhythm, closing his eyes he placed his hands on the countertop to steady himself from the dizziness overpowering him. The tightness in his chest started, as he wondered where this vertigo was coming from. The fear that he felt was almost uncontrollable, making it hard to think about anything but that day, long ago, on the train.

* * *

Bucky was coming down the hallway, heading to his bedroom after realizing that he had left his phone on the coffee table where he had put it during the movie. He had actually paused in the hallway near his door, listening carefully for any sounds coming from Vic's room, wondering if she had already gone to bed. Maybe he could get _another_ good night kiss, he thought smiling. That was when the panicking vertigo started to set in, one that he had originally felt over seventy years ago, as he had been falling.

Taking a deep breath, he pushed the feeling down, having to use a bit of his conditioning to override the sensation, yet again. He and Steve had felt this before, but now, he began to wonder if Vic would feel it also. Knocking on her cracked door, he waited for a moment without a response, so he pushed it opened, looking inside the dark room to find her sitting on the floor, silhouetted by the window. Calling out to her, he received no response as she remained motionless. That was when he knew that something was not right.

"Steve!"

* * *

As time began to pass, Vic tried to move but found that the vertigo was too great, she was stuck. Once again, she was going to have to wait to faint before she would be able to back away from the fall, the darkness having already encased the sides of her vision while steadily growing.

That was when she heard the noise from behind her. It sounded like someone talking underwater…you know they're saying words, but you just can't understand them. They were getting louder, but she still couldn't comprehend them, so just making them louder was _not_ going to help. That was when she sensed the pressure on her shoulder as the noise continued.

Vic then felt her entire body being grabbed from behind, something wrapping around her waist, pulling her away from the long drop. Her left arm was still frozen from touching the glass, as she felt something touch her hand. It was able to bend her arm, whereas she couldn't, but once her hand had been moved, it clamped onto the item, hard.

Her mind then realized that the spot on the ground that it had been focused on, was now gone from her vision. Knowing that, she was finally able to blink her eyes, and they were hurting so much. Closing them, she began to try and breathe normally again. Counting aloud softly to thirty, she felt much better.

Opening her eyes, she found that she was actually leaning backwards against something very warm. Something passed in front of her vision, so she decided to follow it by turning her head. As the item, a finger, moved to the side, it stopped in front of a face that seemed to have been there, but hidden by the dark ring over her vision that was now fading. She knew that face.

"Hey there," she sounded like she was slightly soused as she spoke.

"Are you alright, Victoria?" Steve asked, his face covered with concern.

He was looking her body over, as if looking for an injury.

"It didn't work again," she responded, wondering if she was really slurring her words. It felt like she was.

"What didn't work?" another voice asked from somewhere.

"The book said to face your fears head on, so I did. Books aren't supposed to lie," she said, looking down at the object in her white-knuckled left hand. It was an arm, a silver arm, which she was holding on to, as she squeezed with all the force she could to keep herself from falling. "Wow, will I break you?"

"No, doll, it will take a lot more than that to break me," Bucky's voice, that's what was behind her. "You can keep holding on if you need to."

Looking down at her body, Vic realized that she was lying on the floor against Bucky's body as he supported her against his chest. It was his right arm that that was around her waist, and he had used it to pull her away from the fall, no…not a fall, just a window. Glancing to the side, she saw it was now across the room. Far away.

"Just a window, just a window, I'm not going to fall," she kept reassuring herself like the book had said.

"Vic, earlier in the kitchen, when we were standing near the window, you were really afraid, not just making a joke, weren't you?" Bucky asked giving her a comforting hug.

"I always joke, but it wasn't that bad then, being that far away. I have a hard time being really close," she answered looking over to Steve, who she realized was sitting on the floor next to them. At least her voice wasn't as wobbly now.

"I think that you could consider _that_ a bit more than just a _hard time_ ," Steve said looking over her shoulder, probably at Bucky.

"I've known since I was young that I have a fear of heights. A few months ago, I had to make a delivery to the 31st floor of a building that had a glass elevator. I had to lean on the door with my eyes closed to get up, but I decided to walk down the stairs. I was just trying to face my fear," Vic said, trying to sit up a bit and feeling much better.

Bucky used his right arm to help her into a sitting position. Once she was up, she finally released her grasp on his left wrist.

"Victoria, how about next time, if there is a next time," Steve started, "you let one or both of us be in here with you, alright?"

"Ok," she said, flexing her arms to get rid of the cold, stiff feeling they had in them. Then it dawned on her. "How did you know?" she asked looking between the two of them.

"We both felt the panic that you were experiencing," Bucky told her, moving to her right side so they were sitting in a triangle. "One that I first felt over seventy years ago, because of the incident on the train, but that I unfortunately remember well."

Vic could see the pained look that crossed over Steve's face at Bucky's words for some reason.

"Bucky yelled to me when he spotted you, once you did not respond to him calling your name," Steve admitted. "We've felt this before. Have you tried previously doing this?"

Vic then felt the guilt starting up, as she grasped the full concept of what had happened. The connection from the soulmark had made _them_ feel _her_ panic. Just like Bucky had been upset with what his actions had made her feel, she had just done the same thing to them. And they had felt it _every time_ she had tried doing this. She had been interfering with their lives. Now, she understood a bit of the guilt that he had.

"Yes. I'm sorry, if I had any idea that would have happened, that the two of you would feel it, I never would have done it," she said, backing up a bit from them, embarrassed at her actions.

Steve reached out and grabbed a hold of her hand, preventing her from getting too far.

"We understand and know that you had no idea. We're _not_ mad at you. This is new for us, too. We have no idea what to expect from the connection that we all share. But _never_ think that we _don't_ want it, because we _do_ ," Steve said, holding firmly onto her hand.

As he spoke, Bucky reached out and took a hold of her other hand with his left one since he was sitting on her right, blocking the window from her she realized. Looking down at his arm, she had to ask.

"Are you sure that you are all right? I know my hand is hurting from just holding on," Vic asked finally making eye contact with him.

"Yes, I'm fine, but I'm glad you grabbed that one. I could feel the pressure you were giving off, and my right arm may not have fared too well," Bucky teased with a sly grin.

"What did you mean when you mentioned seventy years ago and a train?" she asked looking between the two of them.

"It was the mission where I fell off a train and lost my arm. I fell into a ravine," Bucky quietly told her, not really sounding like he wanted to go into detail right now. But it was enough information so she understood that she had made him recall that horrible event of his life...just by sitting too close to a window.

Crawling up onto her knees, she made her way between the two of them and then gave Steve a tight hug, whispering in her ear, "Sorry for worrying you." He returned the hug, saying, "We still have more for you to know. But later."

Letting him go, she then turned to Bucky. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she tightly began to squeeze him. Whispering into his ear, "I will _never_ do that again. I _won't_ make you relive that again."

Bucky then wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight. Whispering to her, he said, "I would endure it again for you."

Once they finally released each other, and they were all sitting on her bedroom floor, it was Steve who finally spoke.

"Looks like we may have a change in travel plans for Thursday," he stated.

"Why?" Vic asked curious.

"We had planned on loading everyone into the Quinjet to fly to Clint's farm. It's the fastest and best way to get there," Steve answered.

"Oh, I'm ok with flying," Vic stated as if it should be obvious to them, which got her a couple of strange looks. "Seriously. I flew to Hawaii a few years back, first class of course, with no problem."

"Really?" Bucky asked more than a bit skeptical, especially after what had just happened.

"Yes, I lived at a campground next to the beach in a tent for two months."

"Why does that not surprise me?" Steve answered shaking his head, grinning.

"Even thought it was nice, I finally had to come back though. That sand gets everywhere, and when I say everywhere, I mean _everywhere_."


	19. The Last Day at Work

The next few hours seemed to fly by for Vic, once she was able to finally convince the two of them that she was totally fine and that they could leave her alone. Once they made their ways to their own bedrooms, she was about to close the door to hers when her old fear suddenly emerged. One that had not worried her since she had at least moved into town. Living in her tiny studio apartment, she had not even thought about it in months. But now, it was there, nagging at the back of her mind, that shutting the door all the way could result in locking her inside.

Since leaving home, she had always kept her bedroom door open, when she had one. But now, would they think it strange for her to leave it open? After what had just happened, Vic knew that they would feel a bit better if she _were_ to leave it open. She had scared them, and she knew they were going to be a bit antsy for a little while, especially with their protective natures. So leaving it open where they could check on her would be her excuse, which is what she expected to happen during the night anyways.

Heading into the large bathroom, she started to fill up the deep tub and then headed back to the closet to get her backpack, where she had put all of her bathroom products. As she found spots for all of her stuff in just _one_ of the many drawers, she realized that if she wanted, she could actually get more bathroom items, like maybe a hair dryer. Another item that she quickly appreciated would be very useful during the cold months. No more letting her hair air-dry like she usually would for a while until it got warmer. Maybe even some real makeup, not just the costume stuff for shows.

After a nice long soak in the tub, listening with headphones to one of her playlist that she had just for fun, she made her way to the closet. Since the entire closet was the size of her old apartment, not joking at all, Vic started to form a list in her head of everything that she would need, starting from the feet up. Socks, fuzzy socks, shoes, jeans, underwear, shirts, maybe even a real bra, normal gloves that were not for riding, coat, scarf, and a hat. Hopefully Natasha would know where to go since she was used to the cheap stores and she wanted to look nice for the guys. They had waited too long to meet her, and then, with what she had put them through tonight…Nope, don't think of it again, it's not going to happen again.

As she dressed in a pair of underwear, socks and a tank top, she realized that she needed to add pajamas to the list, maybe even some lingerie, which brought a smile to her face, before a thought hit her hard. How could she have forgotten? She had just gotten the birth control implant renewed when she arrived in New York at the beginning of the year in March, and not just due to Wade's insistence. Eventually, they might...would?...hopefully, become intimate, and she had no idea right now what they expected from her in a way of a family. With the way that she was raised, it had taken a while for her to understand that kids were not normally treated as she had been. It was another topic for them to discuss once they knew each other better, and add to her _tomorrow_ list, she guessed.

Picking up her phone, she found that it was almost one-thirty in the morning. She took a moment and scheduled a text to Richie at lunchtime to let him know that she had decided to stay in town, if they needed her. She decided she should at least try to get comfortable in the massive creature of a bed.

Throwing the comforter back towards the foot of the bed, she began her nightly ritual. Sorting her pillows, along with the existing ones, she finally made a space for herself. Pillows on all sides, but this time there were no gaps thanks to the extra ones already here, and now, there were solid walls on both sides. Taking the last two pillows, she put one down for her head, and then laid down onto the bed. Shoving the last pillow between her legs, she reached down and pulled the comforter all the way to her chin.

As she laid there, playing around on her phone while it was plugged in to charge, she found that with the extra pillows, the hole she had made inside of her walls was not that bad. She still wasn't tired, but sleep would eventually come, like it always did. After about an hour of goofing off, she made sure her alarm was set and finally put her head down to sleep.

When she woke up in the morning at five-thirty a.m., thirty minutes before her alarm, she found that she had gotten a few minutes over three hours of sleep. That wasn't too bad. Maybe Steve and Bucky would be right, and that after a bit of an adjustment period of living here and being close to them, her sleep schedule would stretch out a bit more.

After changing into the messenger biking clothes, hat and goggles nearby, with a hoodie jacket over the biking shirt and yoga pants, she began her stretches that she usually did out on the street in front of her apartment. After about five minutes of doing them, and finding that stretching inside the warmth of her room was much better than the street, she headed off to the kitchen. Creeping past their closed doors, she opened the fridge and took out the milk, as well as an apple.

Devouring a large glass and tossing the core into the garbage can, she headed over to where her bike was placed. She noted that when they had arrived at the floor last night, that Bucky had put her bike against the glass wall next to the elevator. But now, she found that it was moved to where there was a large concrete section of wall near the elevator, giving her plenty of space, even on the sides, so that she could not see down. One of them had taken the time to move it for her last night.

Grabbing the bike, she rolled it over to the elevator and pressed the call button. After less than a minute, the doors opened. As she started to roll the bike inside, she realized that there was someone slumped against the wall, Tony. He was yawning and had massive dark circles under his eyes, which she could relate to.

"Good morning, Landlord" she joked, pushing the bike all the way inside so the doors could close. When they did, she felt the elevator heading up. Thank goodness it did not have glass walls.

"I beg to differ, my little drummer girl," he said before taking another large yawn, which of course, made her yawn. "It's good night."

"Stop yawning," Vic said, suppressing her own yawn poorly.

"Going out for a ride?" he asked.

"No, heading to work. That's what _normal_ people do at this hour," Vic responded with a bit of sarcasm.

"What a _horrible_ concept," Tony replied, shaking as if the thought disgusted him.

"You do realize that _your own employees_ are doing just that, right now?" she asked.

"Nope…Pepper is in charge of the company, so it's _her fault_ , not mine!" he firmly stated with a sleepy grin.

The doors opened onto a floor that looked like a very nice, modern-style decorated apartment, Tony's obviously.

"Go get a nap, Nickle Boy, you look like you need it," Vic told him as he stepped out of the elevator.

"It's Iron Man," he said, turning to look at her as he walked away.

"Whatever. By the way, thanks for the large bed, we tried mine out last night," she said with a large grin on her face as the doors closed. She could hear his pounding fist and muffled words as he yelled for details, which he would never get.

Now, she had to figure out how to get out of here.

"FRIDAY, are you there?" she hesitantly asked.

" _Yes, Miss Victoria_ ," the voice sounded from all around her.

"Can this elevator take me to the main lobby?" she asked.

" _Yes, proceeding down now_ ," the voice let her know as she felt the elevator start to move.

When the doors opened to reveal the lobby she was so familiar with, she looked up and said, "Thanks, FRIDAY, have a good day," not really sure how to interact with the voice.

" _You too, Miss Victoria_ ," it, no, she said. Tony had programmed her to interact with people very professionally, not at all like he seemed to act.

Carrying her bike through the lobby, there were already a few early birds getting into the office early to impress the little bosses around the place. The normal security guards were at their stations. Just a normal day for the Tower, she guessed. She should have thought to ask Tony if it was Stark or Avengers Tower. The news kept using both terms.

Making her way through the early morning traffic, she found the ride to work much shorter than coming from her old place. Another added benefit of living in Midtown. Parking her bike inside the large access door, she made her way to Richard's office, knowing that he was already here.

"Hey there, Boss Man," she said knocking on the open door to get his attention from the paperwork strewn across his desk.

"I'll be damned, you just made me win the office pool," he said leaning back in his chair with a wide smile.

"How?" Vic asked moving to sit in the folding chair for the riders to use.

"I had the bet that you would still show up _and_ before seven o'clock," Richard said.

"Why wouldn't I show up? I said that I'd be here," she asked.

"Usually we don't even get a call when someone quits, so you actually giving notice is a rarity," he responded.

"Well, then you're welcome for the help at winning, but I do need to let you know something. Instead of tomorrow being my last day, it's going to have to be today," she said.

"That's not a problem since the pool is now over. And I got a few who wanted some overtime to earn a bit more for the holidays. I can shift them to your spot," he informed her, pulling out a chart with the names on it.

"Also, would you be opposed to me coming back to work for you in the springtime, maybe? I'm going to be staying in town, but I'm _not_ working while it snows. If it works out, I can be back after all the white floof melts," she offered hoping that it eventually would work out.

"Sure, but it's probably going to start another office pool. Not many actually come back once they find better work," he said.

"Then let me know how you place your bet and I'll _try_ to help you win again. No guarantees, though," she said, standing up and tipping her head to the side.

"We'll see, now get out there and get to work," Richard said, picking up the phone to start making the calls.

Vic grabbed the box labeled for her and stuffed the packages in her pack, read off the drop-off locations, formulated the route's pattern into her head, then grabbed her bike and left. Hopefully this day went by quick, she thought, because she was actually looking forward to shopping with Natasha tomorrow.

* * *

Steve opened his bedroom door and glanced to his left to where Victoria's room was, her door slightly ajar. It was still very early, but he wanted to check on her, figuring that maybe she was awake and ready for some breakfast. Walking over to the door, he looked inside the dark room that the rising sun was just barely touching. There was a lump in the bed, which he assumed was Victoria still sleeping. Since there was no sign of movement, he started to turn around and leave.

"She's not here, Punk," he heard a voice say from inside of the room.

Turning back to the door, he pushed it further open to reveal Bucky's silhouette, still dress like he was last night, standing over by the window at the same spot they had found Victoria sitting in during the episode.

"What do you mean she's not here? It's barely seven a.m.," Steve said stepping inside.

"I came to check on her a little while ago and found that she's already headed out to work...her bike is missing," Bucky said turning from the window to face Steve.

"We don't even get up this early unless we have to, and the only reason I'm up is because I was worried about her after last night," Steve said, walking to stand next to Bucky and looking down at the street below.

"I quizzed FRIDAY and found out that, even though she didn't fall asleep until just before two-thirty, Vic was up, without an alarm, by five-thirty and out the door in less than fifteen minutes. I found a cleaned glass and an apple core thrown away, so she did eat something before leaving. She even ran into Tony in the elevator before heading out," Bucky informed him as if reciting a mission report. Steve had to give a chuckle.

"Maybe Victoria _is_ right about you being a stalker," Steve teased him with a smile.

"Steve…take a _good look_ at the bed," Bucky expressed with all seriousness.

Steve went over to the wall switch by the door and turned on the overhead lights. Now that the room was lit up, he could see that the form he had thought was Victoria was actually two solid lines of pillows, with a hollow space between them. As he looked at the shape, it didn't take long for it to come to him what Bucky had already understood about it.

"Victoria mentioned that she didn't sleep much. And I didn't think anything of her bringing the pillows when she said that they needed to come with her last night. Buck, she's formed a spot for _herself_ between _two bodies_!"

"Yeah, she has...but, for some reason, I don't think she knows it," he said moving to sit on the edge of the bed. "With all of the strange connections and coincidences we are finding due to the soulmark, _this_ had got to be a major one. When I followed her that morning after we found her, she only had about three hours of sleep _that_ night, and then spent the entire day biking across the city. Probably exactly the same as she is doing today. There is _nothing_ normal about being able to do that on such a limited amount of sleep all the time," Bucky stated with a bit of sadness in his voice.

"Tony probably gets more sleep than she does," Steve then sat down on the bed near him. "What can we do? Mention what you found by going into her room, and that she may actually sleep better if we were _in the bed_ with her?" Steve said with as much sarcasm as he could muster this early in the morning.

"Yes, that's exactly what we do!" Bucky stated, standing up and starting to pace around the room. "This has probably been going on for a very long time. It may have even gotten worse for Vic when she came to New York, with us being so close by. We have no idea. But we _do_ need to have a talk with her, _tonight_ , when she gets home." He paused for a long stretch before beginning again.

"Home. Steve…we found our soulmate, and she is here with us. We may finally have a real home."

Steve looked up at Bucky, who had always worn his emotions on his face. He could see how much the problem was troubling him, even without the short speech. Standing up, he gave Bucky a firm hug as a show of support, giving him a couple of smacks on the back, before breaking the hold. Bucky had been so hesitant over the past year when it came to too much contact but this time it seemed he wanted it.

"Alright, we will talk with Victoria before bedtime tonight. She is supposed to go out with Nat shopping in the morning, and I'm sure _if_ she lets us, and _if_ it even works, she would appreciate the rest. I learned after one trip, that I will never go shopping with Nat again," Steve said, giving him a pat on the shoulder. "Come on, let's go get something to eat."

* * *

By the time that Vic had made it back to the Tower, it was just past six o'clock. Most of the workers in the building quit at five o'clock, but there were a few stragglers still just starting to head home. Getting off of her bike close to the main doors, she picked it up, putting it on her shoulder, and made her way through the automatic doors, heading for the same private elevator that she had used this morning.

Before she had even made it half way there, she heard a male voice from off to the side yell, "Stop!"

As she did so, _positive_ that the voice was meant for her, she looked around and saw the same security guard from a couple of weeks ago, during the media event, heading towards her with a smug look on his face.

" _Where_ do you think _you_ are going?" he asked stepping between her and the elevator.

"I'm heading upstairs," she simply answered.

"Oh, no, you are not. That is a private elevator, reserved for Mr. Stark and _important people_ , like the Avengers," he said crossing his arms in front of him with the smuggest face she'd ever seen on someone. "Not for the likes of you, buddy."

"That," she said pointing at the elevator, "is the same elevator that I came off of this morning, and I am _about_ to get back _on_ it."

"Yeah, right! Just turn around, right now, and get the hell out of here!" he firmly stated, trying to leave no argument.

"I'm _already_ bored," Vic sighed, before giving off the very loud four sharp whistles, to which she only received another smug look.

"Your friend is not here, this time," he said, taking a hold of her bike, pulling it off her shoulder so the tires bounced on the ground and trying to turn it back towards the door.

"I'm telling you right _now,_ to get your hands _off_ my property, dude," she said with as much anger she could get into her voice, holding onto the handlebars in a tug-of-war with him.

"Or what?" the guard said starting to drag the bike closer to the exit doors.

"Or you are going to have to deal with _me_ ," a new voice echoed throughout the lobby, very loud and very confident.

Both of them turned to look to where the voice had come from near the private elevator. The guard stopped his actions as he watched Tony stomping across the lobby with a harsh glare on his face, heading right for the two of them. He was wearing an AC/DC shirt that looked to be very old, with dark jeans, and a pair of Converse with a hole in one of them near the toe. A very casual and unusual look for a billionaire.

"Mr. Stark," the guard was barely able to get out as Tony came to a stop right next to her.

"Is there a problem here?" Tony asked the startled guard.

"No, sir, I was just trying to get this messenger out of the lobby and he refused to go," the guard said, standing a bit straighter now that the real boss man was before him.

"Really…you still haven't figured it out? Fine, then," Vic annoyingly stated to the guard, before pulling the hat and goggles off of her head, allowing her long, light hair to cascade down. She then unzipped the baggy, hoodie jacket that she was wearing over the ugliest, brightest, Hawaiian floral print biking jersey that she had been able to find online. Tossing all of the items into a pile on the floor, holding her arms up wide, she asked, "Can you figure it out now?"

"I had no idea," he managed to say, while staring down at her bosom, as if trying to make sure her breasts were real.

Tony raised his voice so that anyone nearby could hear and stated, "This is Victoria. She lives here now, got it? So, if I ever hear of you, or any of the other guards, bothering her again, you will be fired, no questions asked. Do you understand?"

He received a nod from the guard, as well as the perimeter guards, who had luckily stayed out of the mess.

"Yes, sir," the guard's face looked panicked, then he gave an unnecessary salute to Tony.

Tony then bent over and picked up the items that Vic had tossed to the ground, while she took back a hold of her bike. Rolling it beside her, she followed Tony closely, not saying a word as they both got into the elevator, waited for the doors to close, and start heading up.

As soon as they were moving, they turned to look at each other and the both of them burst out laughing.

"Alright, that was the most fun I've had in a long time," Vic said leaning against the wall for support.

"I love the salute he gave me," Tony said duplicating the guard's gesture in mock. "He looked ready to cry! Priceless."

As the elevator continued up, and the laughs eventually died down, Vic asked, "Were you just there by chance?"

"No, I had FRIDAY set up to inform me when the Wonder Twins brought you here so that I would know, hence last night, but I forgot to get rid of the command. She informed me that you had entered the building, but were being detained by a guard who was trying to kick you out," Tony said as he held out the items for her. Taking them, she hung them on the bike's arm. "We'll need to make sure that you are in the system, and hopefully that won't ever happen again."

"I'm sorry that I caused that trouble, especially since I've lived here less than a day. I didn't think about trying to get back _into_ the building when I left this morning," Vic said as the elevator opened on to the only floor she wanted to see right now.

"What are landlords for," Tony grinned while rocking on his heels. "Also, dinner will be in about," he looked down at his watch, "in about twenty minutes, upstairs. Tod and Copper are already there."

"Wow, you _really_ had to rack your brain for that nickname connection. I'll try to hurry and get changed," Vic said, pushing the bike back to the same concrete wall as this morning. "Thanks again, I owe you. One song later."

"Alright…just tell FRIDAY to find the guys, she'll bring you to the right place," Tony said as the doors closed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FYI - Biking jerseys like the kind she was wearing, go up to the neck, so her soulmark would have been hidden.
> 
> When Tony uses the Tod and Copper reference for Steve and Bucky, it comes from the 1981 Disney movie: The Fox and The Hound. They grow up for a while as best friends until the hound (Copper) is taken away to train as a hunting dog. When they see each other for the first time again, things happen and they are enemies, but they become friends again. I felt like this was a very appropriate connection.


	20. Dinner and a Song

"Where did you disappear off to in such a hurry?" Steve asked as Tony made his way up the stairs to where he, Bucky, Pepper, Natasha, and Bruce were sitting on the couches.

Sitting down next to Pepper, he took her hand, lifting it to give it a kiss.

"I have something that I need you to see to, or at least have one of your _minions_ take care of," Tony grinned at Pepper.

"This should be good," Pepper commented, taking a sip from her wine glass.

"Could you make sure that Victoria is set up in the security system so that she has access to the Tower, _without_ security guards in the lobby trying to throw her out?" Tony asked while reaching for his glass of whiskey.

"What?" the duel voices of him and Bucky sounded through the cavernous room, with Bucky standing up looking ready to leave.

"Sit, Barnes. Everything is fine. I got to yell at a guard, she stripped down in the lobby, we both got a good laugh, and then I dropped her off on your floor. She's getting changed for dinner now," Tony calmly stated while taking a sip of his drink as he watched the two of them comprehend his words, especially Bucky, who seemed to have frozen half way to sitting back down as he heard a key phrase.

"What do you mean…stripped down in the lobby?" Bruce asked a bit calmer than he or Bucky would have.

"The guard was under the assumption that she was a guy, so she had to prove him wrong. I'm sure that FRIDAY has the security feed. Hey FRIDAY, could you display what just happened? Oh, and after in the elevator, too," Tony spoke to the AI.

" _Certainly, Boss_ ," she answered as the large screen TV off to the side of the room turned on.

"Oh, now _this_ should be good," Natasha finally spoke up, turning to look at the screen behind her.

All other heads in the room turned to watch, but he and Bucky actually stood to get closer as the playback started. They saw Victoria, still fully dressed for work, entering the lobby carrying the bike, just like she had done previously. They listened as the guard confronted her, and then how she stood up to him. Bucky actually chuckled at the loud whistle while Bruce flinched a bit.

When Tony appeared, Steve heard him say, "You're welcome," from where he sat. But when Victoria got mad at being mistaken for a guy and began to shed the flimsy disguise, even Pepper began to laugh at the sight. Steve snickered when the guard saluted Tony as the two of them then stoically walked to the elevator.

"Well, she certainly isn't shy," Natasha said, taking another drink of beer.

Steve's mind quickly flashed back to last night, at what Victoria had done at the closet.

What no one in the room expected to see were Victoria and Tony glare at each other before losing it in a fit of laughter in the elevator, just out of sight of the guard who had just been put in his place. He smiled as he watched the two of them joking about the incident.

"I think I like her," Pepper smiled when the screen had gone black after Victoria stepped onto their floor.

"I hope so, since we're keeping her," Bucky commented while heading quickly towards the elevator.

"She's not a stray kitten, Barnes!" Tony called out over his shoulder, turning to look at the man as he was already pushing the elevator button.

"Hold up, Bucky," Steve called, heading down the stairs to join him. "We'll _all_ be back in a few minutes."

Catching up with Bucky as he stood inside the open doors, they headed down to their floor.

"You do understand that everything worked out fine, right? Victoria was not injured in any way. She actually seemed to be amused at what happened," Steve pointed out, crossing his arms.

"I don't like the idea of anyone _treating_ her like that," Bucky practically growled out, his hand flexing into a fist and calibrating the entire time.

"Neither do I, but she handled herself. At least she was wearing that hideous top underneath the jacket. I somehow have no doubt that she would still have taken the jacket off even if she wasn't," Steve chuckling at the thought.

"Even knowing her a short time, that does sound like something she would probably do," Bucky commented with a chuckle too, sounding a bit calmer, and his arm finally growing silent.

As the elevator door opened, they found the den empty, with her bike against the concrete wall where he had moved it late last night after learning of her fear. Looking down the hall, they could see that her bedroom door was again partially open, the sound of distant music leaving her room.

"What is that? Vic listens to opera?" Bucky asked as they reached the hallway, the beautiful piercing sounds of the female singer perfectly hitting the high notes as the orchestra played.

" _Sounds_ like an opera," Steve asked.

" _Actually, Sergeant and Captain, it is an instrumental song from the musical play 'Phantom of the Opera'_ ," FRIDAY informed them as they began to walk down the hall.

"So she likes musicals. That could be something else for us to try. Pepper is always dragging Tony out for shows. We could all go and see one, especially if Vic has a favorite. This song doesn't sound too bad, so we may be able to stand it," Bucky said with a smile.

"Some of us more than others," Steve responded, knowing that Bucky had never been into music of this kind, and it would only be for Victoria that he would consider going to a show. They were reaching her bedroom door before what he had just heard registered. "Wait, FRIDAY, you said this was an _instrumental_ piece?"

" _Yes, Captain. Miss Victoria requested to hear an instrumental version of this song. She said she wanted to test the acoustics of the shower,_ " she responded.

"Then where is the voice…" Bucky began to ask as they looked at each other. "When she said that she could duplicate music…you think she meant…"

"Yeah, I think she _did_ mean…" Steve partially finished as they listened to the voice carry from the bathroom where Victoria was.

"She can sing like _that_ ," Bucky was pointing towards where she was hidden behind the walls, "but she rides a bike for ten hours _delivering packages_ as work?" Bucky questioned with a disbelieving tone to his voice. Shrugging his shoulders, Steve had no good answer to that question, wondering the same thing himself.

As the song finished up and Victoria fell silent, Steve tapped Bucky's shoulder and then gestured back towards the den. They walked back out of the hallway and he took a seat on the couch.

"I figured _both of us_ standing outside of her door like _stalkers_ would _not_ be the best," Steve said leaning back on the couch, trying to look casual. Bucky, on the other hand, moved so that he was sitting on the edge of the couch, ready to stand the moment she appeared.

A few minutes later, Victoria walked out from the hallway, twisting her damp hair in two large separate sections in her hands, a hair-clip being held in her mouth. She was wearing tight black jeans, her riding boots with the same tank top they had met her in, and she had the same button white top over it, knotted in the front.

"Hey guys," she said, getting a large grin on her face, so big, that the clip fell to the floor. "Drat."

Not stopping the twisting motion she was doing with her hair, she dropped straight down to the ground into a cross-legged position, right next to where the clip had bounced to.

"Victoria," Steve said as a greeting, watching the movements of her hands. "How was your day?"

"Not bad. I was able to talk with my boss Richard and worked it out, so today was my last ride. I'm free to go shopping with Natasha tomorrow," she said still working on the mass of hair.

"Any problems?" Bucky asked not very subtly, in his opinion.

"No, he even agreed that I can start back up in the spring, if I wanted. What did ya'll do today?"

"Not much. So nothing else interesting?" Bucky asked still probing.

"Not really. I did finally managed to talk with the guy I was going to sell my bike to. Turns out he didn't mind me keeping it, saying that he could use the money for Christmas," she told them, moving the two sections to be held with one hand so she could reach for the clip with the other.

"No problem with say...a guard?" Bucky finally spit out.

"Oh, that. It was the same guy as last time. He was just being a bullheaded toad," she said, clipping her hair into place at the back of her head, two twisting loops hanging down over her shoulders. He found her use of alternate curse words adorable. Victoria then moved her legs so that she went straight up into a standing position without using her hands at all. "So, was I running late because of the shower? Tony said ya'll were already wherever I was supposed to go."

"Tony showed us the security video of what happened in the lobby," Steve calmly said, waiting to see how she would handle them knowing what had happened.

"Alright," Victoria plainly said looking at Steve. Then she turned to look at Bucky, and she really _saw_ Bucky. He could tell that she now realized their unease, but she seemed more tickled than anything since a smile appeared on her face. "What? You want to go beat up the _meanie_ guard because he picked on me?"

"Pretty much," Bucky grumbled.

"For that? That wasn't even the worst thing to happen to me this year."

"What was?" Bucky suddenly asked, now focusing on her comment.

"Oh, no. Absolutely not. Not with you being like… _that_ ," Victoria said, waving her hand towards Bucky, coming to stand before the two of them, sitting down on the coffee table so she was able to look at both of them. "I appreciate the offer, and at my high school reunion I might actually take you up on it, but for now, there's nothing to do. Nothing happened. Ever think that the reason I may be so easy going, is that ya'll are bit _too_ uptight?", knocking her knees outwards so that she tapped both of theirs, " _If_ something happens that I _need_ help with, I will let you know so _ya'll_ can handle it. But, you don't have to be so paranoid about me. I've gotten this far on my own…not that I wouldn't mind some extra muscle backing me up sometimes."

Steve knew Victoria was right, but he could see that Bucky was still trying to come to terms with not being able to do something about what happened. He had always been one to defend another, mostly Steve, so having a problem solved without him taking care of it was a learning experience, it would seem.

Hoping that it never came to her really needing their help, Steve asked, "Are you ready to head upstairs for dinner?"

"Yes," Victoria smiled, reaching down to take both of their hands in hers, pulling all of them into a standing position. Walking them to the elevator, Steve pressed the button, to which the doors automatically opened, having already been waiting on their level. Stepping inside, he directed it back up, to where everyone was waiting.

"So…what happened in high school?" Bucky asked her as the doors closed.

"Nope," was all that Victoria said, staring straight ahead.

Leaving the elevator, they walked Victoria across the common room, or party room as Tony sometimes liked to call it. Looking down through the glass, she asked, "Is that a _plane_?"

"That's the Quinjet. Our ride in a few days," Steve answered.

Heading up the flight of stairs, the others greeted them while Bruce and Pepper introduced themselves to her. Nat glided her way over to his side as Pepper talked with Victoria. Bucky headed back over to the couch they had been sitting on, picking up his beer and taking a long drink. He looked to be _trying_ to relax, since Victoria had been so calm about the guard incident.

"Everything alright?" Nat asked sipping her drink.

"Yes. You are still going shopping with her tomorrow, right?" Steve asked picking his own drink back up from the coffee table where he had left it.

"Of course. Anything I should know about?" Nat asked

"Bucky is just a bit worried about what happened with the guard," Steve said looking at the upper level where a server was setting dishes on the large table. The smaller upper level had a great view out over the city as well as the room.

"Come on people, I'm hungry," Tony announced with a loud clap of his hand, and then wrapping his arm around Pepper's. Bucky was immediately up and at Victoria's side, but she turned around to face him, waiting for him to join them, holding out her hand for him to take. Stepping forward he accepted it, the three of them following behind Tony and Pepper. Bucky led them to the left side of the table, which was the furthest away from the windows.

"You alright over here?" he heard Bucky quietly ask Victoria.

"Yeah, this far away is not a problem," she answered as Steve then pulled out a chair for her. The three of them were able to sit in their new normal configuration.

That night, Tony had food brought in from three different restaurants, since everyone had different preferences. Tony had asked him earlier in the day what they would like, so he got all three of them steaks with baked potatoes, figuring that it was safe since he remembered how Victoria liked and orders hers the other night. It had made him realize that there was a lot of little details that they still didn't know about her. It made him smile thinking about spending time with her to learn of them.

As the meal continued, the others at the table would question Victoria with the standard inquiries about her past and jobs, as well as her present. She seemed to take everything in stride, nothing too personal or private, even with Tony asking a few. He noticed, every once in a while, if they asked her something that they already knew about her, she would give a more simple answer, not going into the full detail she may have told them about the subject. He figured that she was still gauging the group, and how they would feel about her admissions on the subjects. But overall, Victoria fit in nicely with their motley group.

"Are you doing alright?" he leaned over and asked, most of the way through the meal to Victoria.

"I'm fine. I'm actually having fun," she answered as if she had not expected to. She had probably been nervous about being with their group, but she had never shown a real sign of it.

Moving back down to the other level after an assortment of desserts, which he noticed that Victoria got a fruit tart, they took up an entire couch facing out toward the large glass window.

"So, Vic, when you said that you owed me a song later, what did you mean, since I don't exactly have a drum set handy?" Tony said during a quiet spell, getting everyone's attention drawn to Victoria.

"Hang on," she said before leaning close to him to be able to whisper into his ear, so that only he could hear, "Would they freak out if I showed them a little of what I can do?"

"No, but be prepared to have them be shocked and amazed," Steve responded with a smile. Bucky must have been able to hear because he gave her a reassuring nod.

Victoria said, "You better be right," to him before turning to Tony. "Alright, I notice that you have a piano over there. Name any song, classical preferred since it will have the music for piano, and I'll play it for you."

Everyone in the room was then looking between Victoria and Tony, as if this were a dare, which maybe to her it was.

" _Any song_ for piano?"

"Yep."

Tony then leaned over and began to whisper into Pepper's ear. She then responded with something. Sitting back upright, he announced, "Mozart, Sonata 16 C Major Allegro."

Victoria pulled out her phone, along with headphones, and began typing away. After a moment, she put the earphones in and stood up, taking a couple of steps away from everyone and heading to the bar off to the side. Putting the phone down, she stood at the bar not moving, her hands resting on the countertop, her fingers barely twitching. He could see in the reflection of the mirror that her eyes were closed.

"What's…" Tony began before Bucky gave him a shushing sound.

After just a few minutes, Victoria took the headphones out and started to walk towards the piano. She was most of the way there before she suddenly stopped.

Turning around, she looked between the two of them. "Um, could one of you help me?"

Bucky was quickly on his feet walking over to her. Taking her by the left hand, he put himself between her and the window so that she was looking at him and not focusing on the object getting closer. Steve thought that since Victoria was going to be living here, he would request of Tony to have the piano rotated a bit so that the bench was further away from the window, not next to it facing into the room as it currently was.

"Steve…" Pepper began to ask, but he held up a hand.

"We'll explain afterwards."

They watch as Victoria sat down on the bench, while Bucky stood to her left, continuing to block the glass that was right up to him. _He looks like the world's scariest guardian angel_ , Steve thought.

Suddenly, Victoria began to play. As she looked directly down at the keys, her eyes moving back and forth, he noticed that everyone was now silent. Pepper and Natasha both stood up and began to move towards Victoria, watching with fascination as she continued with the melody. Actually seeing her being able to perform the task that she had described last night left him speechless. He could not believe that she had such an amazing talent.

The song did not last long and as she finished, Victoria took a moment before looking over at the group. He gave her a large smile, nodding his head in approval. The girls standing next to the piano, each of them complimenting her on her playing. Victoria stood and Bucky took her hand, helping her from behind the piano and back into the room.

"That was remarkable playing," Bruce said as she took her seat back next to him, "But I don't think I understand. What were you doing with the headphones?"

"I was listening to the song. I'm guessing that Pepper chose it, and that you don't listen to classical much," Victoria said to Tony, who was sitting there still speechless, a rarity.

"Yes. It's such a beautiful melody, and it's always been one of my favorites," Pepper said from next to her.

"So, you learned the song, just now, by listening to it?" Bruce asked looking from Victoria to Tony.

Steve could tell the scientist in him was perking up at the thought of testing out her ability.

"Yes," she said taking his hand into hers. He felt her fingers starting to fidget, so he gave a firm squeeze to assure her.

"Then what was the thing about _going_ to the piano?" Pepper asked taking her seat next to Tony again.

"I don't like places where I can see a very long drop," Victoria answered with just enough detail so the group would understand.

"We think it's a connection between us due to the soulmark," Bucky answered honestly, but still not fully explaining. They all knew exactly what had happened to Bucky all those years ago, so they knew immediately what he was talking about without having to mention the Alps.

Tony finally got up and walked over so that he was standing in front of the three of them. Holding his hand out as an offering, Victoria released his so that she could take it. Tony shook her hand, before placing a kiss on her knuckles.

"That was one of the _best_ party tricks I have seen in a long time. The only thing that could have increased your performance would have been _the outfit_ ," Tony said with a smirk.

"Of course, _you_ would think that," Victoria responded, giving his arm a light smack in jest at his comment. Tony headed back over and sat next to Pepper.

"What outfit?" Bruce asked looking around the group for an answer.

Victoria later entertained them with a couple of tales from when she lived in different places, mostly funny stories from when she had worked at assorted jobs. A lot of rude customer anecdotes. Bucky had calmed down dramatically as the night had worn on, even going so far as to sit at the bar for a while, allowing Natasha and Pepper to take up Victoria with talk of the shopping trip tomorrow. Steve headed over and got himself another beer, then took the stool next to Bucky.

"Steve, did I mess up tonight?"

"What do you mean?"

"Earlier in the apartment. After seeing what happened in the lobby, I just felt the need to protect Vic. She didn't seem mad with how I acted, but I just can't tell," he said lowering his voice a bit so that nobody else could hear.

"I don't think that she was mad. She may even have been right about there being a connection between our over-protectiveness and her carefree ways. But, you don't have to worry about Victoria. We found her and she's here with us," Steve said turning to look at Victoria sitting and laughing with Pepper and Nat. Just from the few conversations they already have had, he had gotten the impression that she didn't have many real friends. It was nice to see her fitting in with theirs.

"I haven't had anyone in a long time that needed protecting," Bucky admitted aloud.

"Gee, thanks," Steve gave a nudge with his elbow into Bucky's side.

"You know what I mean, Punk, but you can take care of yourself now," Bucky replied, taking a drink from the bottle of beer. "Well, most of the time."

"I'll remember that...and I know what you are getting at, but I have a feeling that Victoria can take care of herself, too," Steve said. "She seems to take a bit after us, in case you haven't noticed."

About two hours later, the group finally broke up and started to head to their separate areas. As the three of them headed into the elevator, Tony called out from where he was still sitting, "Hey, wait. Vic, this morning when you said the three of you had tried out your bed…?"

"Good night, Tony," was all that Victoria said as she wiggled her fingers at Tony, while the doors closed.

"You actually told him?" Bucky asked leaning on the wall.

"Of course, just as the doors on the elevator were closing. I could hear him yelling and banging on them, _screaming_ for details," she told them, with a devious smile.


	21. Short Hours and Pillow Shapes

"So, ya'll up for watching my other movie tonight, or any other suggestions?" Vic asked them as the elevator doors opened onto their floor.

"No, a movie sounds fine," Steve said, giving a look over at him with a simple nod. He had agreed to let Steve _ease his way_ into the conversation, as he had put it. He'd taken a bit of scolding from him after the 'moving in' dinner surprise he had sprung on the two of them, but after asking Steve if he was happy with the end result, Steve had smiled and dropped the topic. He never really had a problem with rushing into some things. "So, how was your first night sleeping here? Any problems?"

"No, I slept the same as usual," Vic said heading over to the fridge, already not liking that sentence. Was three hours really usual?

"When we came to wake you for breakfast, we saw that you were already gone, so we were worried that you hadn't been able to sleep," Steve said taking a seat at one of the stools. "Knowing that we were all up late, we thought you may have slept in a bit. Have you always been an early riser?"

"Yeah, I don't normally sleep too long anyways, but it's a bit better, nowadays," Vic said, taking a water bottle from the shelf and leaning against the cabinet to talk. Bucky remembered her mentioning that last night, as one of her 'move-in reasons' at dinner. He walked over so that he was standing near the island, but he didn't want to get to close to Steve so that it didn't seem like the interrogation that they were subtly trying to do.

"Have you always slept for such short amounts of time?" he asked trying to sound casual, but he was already feeling a bit uncomfortable, like he was not going to like how this talk came out.

"Yeah, even when I was little, but it was _much worse_ then, just over an hour a night. My parents were always complaining since I would keep waking them up during the night because I would get bored," Vic told them, taking a drink of water, but she seemed to have slightly hesitated, leaving something out, and not going any further with her explanation. So far he noticed that she did not really like to discuss her parents, but they would not rush her. Maybe after they had been together for some time she would tell them what all may have happened between them. "But it has gotten slowly better over the past few years, an hour at a time, so now I'm up to about three hours a night."

An hour at a time? Over the past few years? Bucky had to take a deep breath to calm himself, but after hearing that comment, he knew the question that he had to ask. Could they really be this connected?

"Would your sleeping habits have gotten better around the week before you were in the hospital?"

Vic had been lifting the bottle for another drink, but her arm froze as she looked at him.

"Yes…that was the second time it had gotten better. How did you know?"

Steve then turned his head to look at him, giving him a curious look, to which he just tilted his own head as if the answer should be obvious, since _he_ had already managed to figure it out. When Steve's eyes widened, he knew that Steve had finally figured it out.

"Was the other time a couple of months before the alien invasion of New York?" Steve asked turning to look back at Vic, but since he had asked the question, he had to know.

"Yes," Vic answered a bit hesitantly, then she sighed and dropped her head. "Another strange connection, right?"

"It looks like it," Steve answered. "The first time your sleep increased was probably around the same time that they found my body frozen on the ice sheets in the Arctic and I was revived. They described it as a similar state to that of hibernation sleep."

"I remember when they announced on the news that you had been found alive. They didn't go in to details as to _when_ it had actually happened, but by the time they had let the world know, I already had been sleeping an extra hour a night," Vic said, while her eyes seemed to focus on Steve. She then turned to him, asking, "Alright, then. What about the second time, the one you mentioned with the hospital?"

"I was released from cryostasis for the final time about a week before the Helicarriers incident where Steve and I fought."

"Cryostasis? You mean like the kind they have in sci-fi movies?" Vic asked putting the water bottle onto the countertop in front of her. He had hoped to wait a little while before having to bombard her with all his history, some details that _he_ was still trying to deal with, but with the strong connection that the three of them had, they needed for her to know.

"Yes, for the most part. When I was a captive of HYDRA's, working for them as the Winter Soldier, to keep my programming from failing and my memories suppressed, one of the things that they would do was put me into a chamber that would freeze me. The cryostasis also prevented my body from aging, which was probably the only benefit I received because I am able to be here now, with the two of you. I would sometimes go years between them letting me out for short amounts of time, completing a mission, and maybe some additional training. When they were done, I would be put back under. This went on for seventy years, until the Helicarriers incident, when Steve was able to start my memories to emerge, and also take down HYDRA so they _couldn't_ put me back in," Bucky explained to her with as much calmness as he could muster, not wanting to scare Vic, who seemed to be processing the information.

"So, this happened to you many times over the past twenty-six years..., didn't it?" Vic asked, faltering a bit with the time for some reason, with her face starting to clench up a slight bit, not like she was frightened, but more like she was sad.

"Yes," he simply said.

"Was it usual for you to have been out of cryostasis for no less than two weeks before having to go back in?" Vic asked.

"That _was_ the standard time for me to be operating, as they called it, when I was released. When a mission was completed in less than two weeks, they would have me training, in either combat or on weapons, sometimes with new technology which had been invented, until the full two weeks had passed. How did you know?" he asked, trying to think if he had ever mentioned the timeline to Steve.

"There have been times over my life when I would have spans of extended sleep, by getting an additional hour of sleep. They would always last at least two weeks, a few times a bit longer. But, it never stayed around until the past few years," Vic then looked over at him, trying to see his expression, which had slowly gone to a frown as her words were spoken. "Is it possible that every time you were allowed out, that I was feeling the effects of you being awake? And that once both of you were unfrozen, that my own sleep was affected so that I'm now sleeping around three hours a night?"

"It would seem so," Steve answered, leaning forward onto the countertop as if he needed the support. Bucky could see that he too was not happy at learning about this. "But Victoria, there's something else that we _actually_ wanted to talk with you about, concerning your sleeping habits."

"Is this going to be good or bad?" Vic answered trying to put a small smile on her face, given the depths of the recent revelations.

"Not bad," he responded, not sure if she would take what they were about to tell her as being good.

" _That_ sounds a bit ominous," Vic said, looking over at him before taking a long drink of her water.

"When we went to your room this morning looking for you, we noticed all of the pillows that you have on the bed. Is that also a normal thing for when you sleep?" Steve asked.

"Yes, I've always slept better with them. When I'm traveling, if I can't have the additional pillows, I may sleep my normal amount of hours, but I will wake up many times during that time. That's why when I finally decide to live in a city, a couple of good pillows are always one of the first things that I buy," Vic said looking between the two of them.

"Have you ever noticed how they seem to form something?" Bucky couldn't help but add, a bit eager.

"Two walls. Or at least that's how I've always thought of them. Why?" Vic asked not seeming to have figured it out, just like he had guessed this morning.

"Have you ever considered that they _may_ represent the two of us?" Steve asked a bit more dignified that he probably would have spit it out.

The look on Vic's face showed that it _never_ had even occurred to her. She just stood there, leaning on the cabinet as she began shaking her head no. After another moment, he watched as her face suddenly turned a bit red, which he was finding out was not normal, and that it seemed to take a unique topic to embarrass her, which this definitely qualified as. He watched as she looked to her left and then to her right.

"Excuse me," Vic said, before suddenly dropping down to the floor behind the counter, hiding from the two of them. He looked over at Steve, who had a very amused look on his face from her stunt. As he started to walk over towards where Vic was, Steve also stood up so that he could make his own way over.

Coming around the island's cabinet, he saw that Vic was sitting with her back against the cabinet, her knees drawn up with her arms wrapped around them and her head buried, hidden between them, similar to how he had been last night. He walked over so that he was once again on his side, her left, and slid down the cabinet so that he was sitting next to her. Steve did the same maneuver of her other side, his side. He was really _liking_ the idea of having a side when it came to Vic.

"I…I mean we…we didn't mean to embarrass you, Victoria. But, when we saw the shapes of the pillows, that thought just came to us. The fact that you don't sleep long normally, _that_ we _just_ figured out. We had _no idea_ that your sleep was linked to us like that. But, we wanted to talk with you about trying something that _may_ help you get into a better sleeping habit, _if_ you are willing to listen," Steve told her in a soft, calm voice.

"I think that I already know what ya'll are going to suggest, now that you brought up the shape of my pillows," Vic said not lifting her head at all.

"We know that this is all very new to you, for all of us really, but, if there is the slightest chance that with us being near, you while you are sleeping, will help you get into a longer, better sleeping habit, wouldn't it be worth trying?" he asked hoping that he had been as tactful as Steve would have been. Right now, he just wanted to take her into his arms, carry her into the bedroom and just lay down next to her, holding her tight, hoping that they were right.

The fact that she had felt every time he had been released out on a mission, out killing for HYDRA, infuriated him. She should _never_ have felt such a connection. The fact that the soulmark seemed to be linking them so strongly was highly unusual. He wondered if it may have something to do with the different serums that flowed through each of them. That may be something to have Bruce look into at a later time, once they were ready to have the others know the extent of what they were finding.

"I'm not sure," was all that she said lifting her head a slight bit, resting her chin on her knees. He watched as she gave a slight chuckle. "Usually, when I get offered to have someone in my bed with me, _sleeping_ is not what they are talking about."

At first, he found her comment funny, but then it turned to a slight irritation as he pictured her with other men. Vic must have sensed something because she leaned over and bumped into his shoulder, getting his attention.

"I've dealt with a lot of _drunk_ guys over the years, and I've _never_ taken them up on the offer," she responded, which actually made him feel a bit better. But now, he had a whole _new_ category of questions that he wanted to ask her. Now was _definitely not_ the time to seriously discuss any previous sexual encounters, he knew _that_ without a doubt.

"But, would it be something that you would _consider_ trying, even for one night, as a test?" Steve asked not seeming to be phased by her joking comment. He had expected that Steve would have made him do the actual asking, being too embarrassed to do it himself. "There is always a chance that it may take a couple of nights, or even being around us for a longer time, before you notice any change in a sleep pattern."

"As a test, it may not be that bad of an idea, especially since in two months, I'm going to hit my coma day, as I call it. Being here, with ya'll, maybe it won't happen at all," Vic said figuring that she would explain the strange term she had just used, especially since it did not sound good. He nudged her shoulder and tilted his head in her direction so that he knew that he was waiting on her to continue.

"Once a year, during January, anywhere between New Years and the end of the month, there is always one day where my body shuts down completely, and I end up sleeping all the way through an entire day. I've always done it, since I was young. The first couple of times when I was really young, it really scared my parents, thinking that I had died, but then, they left me alone and let me sleep. But when I got older, they figured it was due to the soulmark and…" she trailed off, not finishing her thought.

"And _what_ Victoria?" Steve asked a bit sternly, hoping to make her answer, but he knew that her answer was not going to be good.

"And when they found me in my deep sleep, my coma, they would try and wake me up. At first it was simple stuff, making me stand, constant loud noises, but as I got older, they just became more determined."

"Vic, what did they do?" he asked as his anger began to grow at the thought of her parents possibly hurting her for something that was beyond her control.

"No, don't worry about it. It's in the past," she said, turning to look at him before turning her gaze to Steve. "So, this test would be just like having a sleepover, right?"

"Yes, we used to stay over at each other's houses all the time when we were young," Steve answered letting her change the subject, for now.

"I've never been to a sleepover. My parents would probably never had allowed it anyways, but I also didn't have any real friends growing up," Vic said sighing, before growing quiet as she considered the suggestion. They both sat there silently as they waited for her to come to a decision. "Alright, but let's try and keep it platonic for right now, agreed?"

"That won't be a problem," Steve answered with a smile, as the two of them, at the _same time_ , turned to stare directly at him.

"What? You _both_ just _naturally assume_ that _I'm_ going to be the troublemaker?" Bucky responded with just a bit more than a hint of sarcasm, while knowing that they were probably both right. "So, are we going to get to this movie, or just move directly to cuddling in the bed?" he asked with a playful devious grin and a wink to Vic, to which he only received a groan of amused annoyance. Definitely not like other dames.

"Movie, but let's get changed first," Vic said as he and Steve stood up, before both turning and reaching back down to each offer a hand to help her up. "You know…now we have to decide whose bed to try this test out in? What happens if it doesn't work and I'm up all night? It would just disturb the two of you."

"Well, odd man out has worked for us so far," he shrugged, holding his right hand out in a fist, ready to play.

"Why not?" Steve said, as he and then Vic both held out their hands.

He counted to three, and found that both he and Steve put out a one, while Vic was a two.

"Well, looks like we'll be testing out my bed again," Vic pointed out as the three of them walked down the hall, all of them having retaken each other's hands after completing the game.

"Tony would just love to know about us trying this test, but even _I_ think that this may be left between the three of us for now, agreed?" Bucky asked knowing that Vic may end up joking about this, but he worried that if she became too uncomfortable with others knowing what was happening, that even if the test worked, she may put a hold on all of this.

"Yeah, agreed," Vic said.

"Definitely," Steve replied with a nod. "Five minutes."

The three of them broke up, each going to their rooms. He quickly changed into gym pants and a tank top, similar to what he had worn last night. He was still a bit amazed at how casually Vic seemed to be around his arm. But as he looked at himself in the mirror, he began to wonder if doing this test was a good idea for him.

What happened if he dreamed of something that made him swing out with his arm? There was a chance that he could hurt her, which rapidly became a major worry. If he ever did _anything_ like that, even unintentionally, he didn't think he could deal with it. Maybe he should talk with Steve and just let him try staying in the bed with her tonight, just the two of them, if the Punk could even handle a situation like that.

Opening up his door, he saw that Steve's was closed, with Vic's being left open only a little crack, like she wanted to make sure that she was not shutting them out, he thought. He only had to wait a minute before Steve opened his door, so that he could motion for him to come into his own room. Once he was inside, Steve partially closed the door, leaving a crack similar to Vic's.

"Steve, I don't think that I should go through with this test," he started, his mind whirling with all the things that could go wrong. "What happens if I reach out and grab Vic while I'm sleeping? I could crush any bone that I hold onto. Or what if I dream of punching someone and my body duplicates the motion? Steve, I can't take the chance that I'll hurt Vic."

"I don't think that you have anything to worry about. Since you've been working with Wanda, the nightmares have stopped. It's been months since anything like that has happened, unless you weren't telling me," Steve said.

"No, they have stopped, but think about what _could_ happen. We just found her, and I won't risk hurting her, or with a worst case scenario, both of us losing Vic when we just found her. If I ever did something like that..."

"I think that you are being overly paranoid. If I actually had a fear of something happening, I would say so, but I trust you," Steve told him, placing a hand on his shoulder in support. "I've watched over you since coming here and I've been concerned that you may have some type of relapse, but you have _never_ shown the _slightest_ troubling signs. Even yesterday in the parking lot, you recovered _so_ quickly, probably thanks to Victoria's presence. I think that I was actually too scared for you. But now, I _know_ you are fine, and I'm _not_ worried, and I don't think that you should be either."

"No, I just can't risk it! When the movie's over, I'll leave the two of you alone and you let her know, alright?"

"No…that is _not_ alright!" he heard from the door as it opened to reveal Vic standing there, probably having heard everything that they both had just said.

"Shouldn't this be _my_ decision, since this test is to see the effects it has on _my life_?" Vic asked stepping into his room, her eyes never leaving his.

"That exactly what I'm worried about: _your life_. You don't know how many people I have killed with this arm, and I'm not going to risk adding you to that number!" he stated very firmly.

"So, what you are saying is that as soon as I have found my soulmates, that I should become afraid of one of them?"

"When it comes to this, then yes," he said flexing his arm making it calibrate on purpose.

"That is _not_ happening! I've already told you...I know about your arm, I know that you killed people and, I will say this as bluntly as I can...I don't _fracking_ care! The two of you may have waited a long time to find me, but you don't seem to get that I've waited a long time, too. _Most of it_ being told how evil I was, as well as how _horrible_ my soulmates would be. No matter how many times I heard it, I kept telling myself that _no matter what_ , I would _never_ be afraid of my soulmates. And now here _you_ are, trying to prove my parents and everyone I grew up with that they were _right_!"

All he could do was stare at her as Vic had yelled at him.

As he listened to her, thinking about what she was saying, he knew that she was right. He really hated the idea of proving her parents right about _anything_ , after only hearing a few partial stories from her about them. He looked over at Steve, who had not spoken since Vic had entered the room. He was standing there with a sneer on his face like he had just won a war, one that Vic had actually fought. There was no way, between the two of them, that he could win this argument.

"I'm scared of hurting you," he simply spoke the truth, staring Vic in the eyes.

"Then we will get past it together," she calmly smiled at him, reaching out and taking a hold of his left hand. He adjusted his hold, knowing that he was not putting any pressure on her fragile hand. She then turned to Steve, who was now wearing a large smile on his face, happy at the outcome of the heated conversation. Turning him towards the door, they automatically adjusted themselves to be back on their sides of Vic. She took their hands, leading them out of his room and down the hallway. "You know, if you try pulling anything like _this_ again, giving me this excuse, then I'm going to make you sit and watch _The Lion King_ over and over until 'Hakuna Matata' gets stuck in that cute head of yours. Maybe _that_ will help drill some _sense_ into ya."


	22. Sleepover Time

When the movie was over, there was a strange quiet throughout the place, as if someone were to speak about the 'test' that it would be called off. They all headed to their own bedrooms to get ready for bed, both of the guys giving her a small reassuring smile as they disappeared into their doors.

Opening her own door all of the way, the wall of pillows drew her eyes to it. Now that they had pointed it out…it was _so_ obvious. How had she _never_ seen it? She had been doing her walls for years, since first living with Wade. Was she trying _not_ to see it? Was it because of her upbringing?

Walking over to the bed, she pulled the first pillow close to the edge. Staring down at it, she began to remember all that they had told her about what they had been through, being frozen in ice and the cryostasis chamber. How they could have gone through having to deal with all that and still be here alive? But then there was what Bucky especially had been through.

Every time she had gotten that extra hour of sleep throughout her entire life, it was because he had been freed from the prison that they had kept him in. All so that HYDRA could torture him with some device to remove his memories and then send him out into the world to kill for them.

Thinking of what the two of them had been through, Vic took a punch at the pillow before her. How could anyone do that to another person? She punched the pillow again, as she tried to picture them in their frozen sleep. Lost and alone on an ice sheet…tortured and isolated in a frozen coffin. It was a horrible mental image. Another few punches were given to the pillow before she gave it a spinning flight towards the closet door. The pathetic, fluffy thump that it made was _not_ satisfying at all.

All that time of them being headlines on the news, when other people had been gossiping about everything that was going on, she had just ignored it, thinking what 'would the personal lives of the Avengers matter to her'. Now, here she was, smack dab in the middle of all of it.

Heading into the bathroom, she saw in the mirror that her eyes and face were slightly reddened, even though she had not actually let the tears fall, her face still pretended that they had. Vic started to get ready for bed, washing her face, brushing her teeth, but she would take a shower in the morning before heading out shopping with Natasha.

It would be strange to not have to get up in the morning and go to work somewhere. That usually only happened when she was moving. She would have to think about what to do job wise by at least Monday next week. She didn't want to think about how jumpy she may get if she started to get bored. Vic really hoped that she didn't get the urge to move again.

Thinking about the next couple of days, she couldn't remember the last time her life actually had so much on her To Do List. Looking for a job, shopping, finish moving, Thanksgiving, and then she may have three days of down time to spend with the guys. That brought a smile to had face.

Offhand, she couldn't remember ever just taking a day for shopping. When she bought something, it was out of a temporary necessity. Now, she could buy something because she either liked it or wanted it. She wouldn't have to worry about whether it would fit on her bike or not. But what if she needed to? What would happen if _this_ didn't work out? She knew that sometimes, for whatever reason, that soulmates just could not be happy with each other. That there was something that just was... _there_ , so that they were not happy with the other.

Could something like that happen to them? What about if they went out on a mission, like they had mentioned, and when they got back, they just wanted some alone time, but now, she was always going to be here. Would they get tired of her being around? Could she be nothing more than a temporary distraction for them?

Then there was the fact that they were Avengers. Superheroes who went out and did incredible things. While she would be here, working a normal eight-hour job. She was not Natasha, who had been specially trained to be a spy and assassin for years. She was basically a nobody that just happened to have a matching soulmark. How long until they grew bored with her mediocrity? Or got fed up with some of the weird habits that she'd been trying to hold back on? She'd almost slipped up a couple of times with dates, by giving the exact length, but if she was careful, then she should be able to handle it. Hopefully, nothing new caught her attention for a while where she would need to complete a new hobby.

And what about when the reporters started to hound them? The hate-filled articles that would surely come, condemning a three-person soulmark. The guys would not be able to handle that for very long before wanting it to stop, and the easiest way would be for them to ask her to leave. She would just have to be on the lookout for the signs that they didn't want her here anymore.

Staring at the spot on her chest where the soulmark was, using the mirror, she decided that she would have to wait until another time to deal with that topic. Thinking about leaving did not help to get rid of the redness of her face. Vic decided she would just enjoy the now, and dread about the future she just needed to enjoy being here until that time came.

Opening the bathroom door, she found Bucky sitting looking slightly uncomfortable at the corner of her bed, looking out of the window.

"I should have known you would get here before Steve," she grinned, starting to walk over to the light switch and turning off the bedroom lights. She then moved over and turned on the nightstand lamp, away from the window, on Steve's side, as she thought of it.

"I want you to know that I still have reservations about doing this," he said not looking at her.

Climbing up onto the mattress on her knees, she made her was over so that she was now behind him. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she let her hands rest on his chest while her cheek touched the side of his.

"Well…it's a good thing that you were outvoted then," she said looking out over the city at the magnificent, scary view. Bucky then turned his head to look at her, and she saw a strange expression cross his face. "What?"

"Have you been crying?" he asked just as she heard footsteps behind her, which meant that Steve had finally arrived.

"I thought that it was considered _rude_ to bring up to a lady when she is not looking her best," Vic said releasing her arms from around him and crawling back a foot or two.

"Victoria, if you feel that we pressured you into trying this sleepover, and it's too soon, we _do not_ have to do it," Steve said coming over to the edge of the bed.

"That was not why…" Vic then sighed having been caught. "Great…I just _basically_ admitted that I was crying."

With that phrase, Vic then fell face first onto one of the walls of pillows, using them to soften the fall, her arms wrapping around the pillow where her head was so she could hide in it. She lay there for a moment, wondering how she could tell them what had bothered her. Would they think that she was weak, and that she couldn't handle learning anything else, and stop telling her anything they may think would upset her? At least her worries hadn't been bad enough that she needed to lay down and breathe for a bit. That was when she felt the pillow being tugged from the bottom, and suddenly it was gone from her arms.

"That's my hiding spot!" she pointed out, looking over her shoulder at Bucky, who was holding it up as if displaying a trophy. She rolled over resting upwards on her elbows.

"You need to tell us what's wrong," he said looking over at Steve for support.

"Victoria…if anything is bothering you, we want to try and help," Steve said resting himself on the edge of the bed, one leg on while the other rested on the floor.

"It's nothing, really," she said looking between the two of them, Bucky at her feet on the left, Steve by her right side. Neither one of them seemed to accept that as an answer. "Ya'll aren't going to drop this, are you?"

"No," Steve answered while Bucky just shook his head, holding her pillow in his lap.

"Fine," she said pushing herself up so that she was sitting cross legged on the bed, each of them almost in view. "First, both of you get a bit closer, because if I'm going to get whiplash while in bed, it will be from an extracurricular activity, and not just talking."

Vic watched as Bucky dropped his head snickering while Steve's face turned a bright red. Once they were over the shock of her comment, they each moved so that the three of them were forming a triangle, similar to how they had at the park. She had her back to the cushioned headboard with her legs crossed. Steve and Bucky were sitting similar to each other, leaning back on their hands with their legs in front of them, almost reaching to where she sat. They never could have sat like this on a smaller bed. She would have to thank Tony once again for getting such large beds.

"I can't believe how strange the past few days have been," she started thinking of how normal her life had seemed just days ago.

"This is not even strange to us," Steve offered with a smile. "Well, maybe sitting here on the bed with you is, but not anything else that has happened."

"This _cannot_ be the first time you've been in a female's bed, right?" Vic asked him, then looking to Bucky for a genuine answer.

"No," Steve simply answered which kind of brought a smile to her face. She had wondered about their history when it came to women, but she didn't want to bring it up too soon.

"As funny as I think it would be to reminisce about Steve's _almost_ non-existent sex life, you are evading the topic as to why you were _crying_ ," Bucky stated, steering the topic back to where she hadn't actually wanted it to go.

"Fine," she huffed a bit before grabbing another pillow and placing it in her lap, giving it a death grip with her hands. "First, I was not actually crying…no tears fell. Second, it was because I was thinking of something and it made me angry. When I came in the room and saw the pillows making my wall, I started to think about all of the times when I would sleep the extra hour during my life, and that it was because of what was happening to you."

Bucky's face slowly began to drop from a restful look to one that had apprehension.

"It's not bad…well, technically…I guess it was, since I was thinking about what you were going through, how you were being hurt and used, while I was just happy to get an extra hour of sleep."

"You were angry because of how I was treated?" Bucky asked.

"Yes, of course. Why wouldn't I be? I don't understand how they could think of doing something like that. It's like they have no principles, or the ones they do have are so twisted they can't even see it. I just started hitting a pillow to get rid of the anger, and that's what started my eyes to get red…so, not crying. I have a tendency to hit stuff when I get upset, but I guess that most people do."

"When was the last time that you felt anything like this?" Steve asked.

"That's easy. The night that I got your note," which got her two very confused looks. "I thought that maybe it was a trick that someone was playing. Or maybe that ya'll would stand me up while watching from a distance as I waited. I ended up not going to my job that night and heading over to Mike's to work the bags for a while to get rid of some of the worry that I let grow."

"You know, I thought that _you_ were going to stand _us_ up that morning at the park," Bucky then said. "I kept checking my phone to see where the tracker on your bicycle was, and it had not left your apartment yet. We had no idea about your motorcycle. And then, when I saw you with the wig and glasses, I had no idea that it was you."

"I could tell that you were upset about something, but it never occurred to me that it was because you thought that _I_ would stand _ya'll_ up…that's what _I_ was worried about," Vic responded.

"Well, I'm glad that it all worked out in the end, pillow punching and all," Steve answered, moving his foot so that it touched her leg slightly in a gesture.

"But, there is one other thing that I want to say now, so that it doesn't come up in the future," Vic said looking between the two of them. "I don't want you to hold back telling me something because you are worried how it will affect me. If it will make me sad or angry, if it has to do with either of you, don't hide it. Don't tap-dance around a topic, just tell me. Agreed?"

Steve seemed a bit more open in his expression after she said that, while Bucky seemed to have a bit of hesitancy on his face.

"What?" she said, using her foot to hit his leg gently to get his attention.

"There are a lot of things in my past, stuff that has yet to get out into the public due to the sensitivity of the nature of it," Bucky replied with a lot of sadness in his voice.

"I'm not asking you to tell me every single detail of your life tonight, but when you are ready to get something off of your chest, I will listen and will not judge you at all. Remember, I'm very easy going," Vic said tapping his own leg again.

"But there is _one thing_ that I think you need to know now, especially since you've met Tony, and are living in the Tower," Bucky said ominously.

"Alright?" she said drawing the word out for two seconds. She watched him take a couple of deep breaths, begin to crush the pillow in his hands, and even look over at Steve for support, to which he only nodded.

"On one of my missions, back in the early ninety's, I was sent to retrieve a case and eliminate the people in the car carrying it. The man and woman in the car with it…were Tony's parents. He's known about it for some time now, well before I came to live at the Tower," Bucky stated.

 _That_ was a bit unexpected. Quickly her mind began to replay the couple of times when he and Tony had been together in the same room, examining their interactions a bit better now. At the club, they had sat with their bodies turned away from each other, even though they were next to each other. At dinner, Tony had not really spoken directly to him, but they had been in the same conversations during the meal. Tony also was the only one to refer to him as Barnes, when he did speak to him. Tony was keeping a distance from him. He may be letting Bucky stay in the Tower, but it probably had more to do with Steve than anything else.

"That's why he doesn't seem to talk or interact with you that much," she stated.

"Yeah," was all that Bucky said.

"During the time that Natasha and I were on the run before the Helicarriers incident, we discovered that HYDRA had ordered his parents deaths. Once I was able to get in touch with Tony, I let him know what we had discovered, since I was not sure what information had been leaked with all of the records during the fall of SHIELD. I didn't want Tony to learn about it from the press. Tony was the one to find the actual file, explaining _who_ had carried out the mission. It wasn't until much later, once Sam and I found Bucky and brought him back here, that he told me about his memory of that night having already come back to him. That HYDRA has used him like that. We both knew Howard Stark back during the war, so he recognized him during the memory," Steve stated calmly.

"Howard even recognized me that night, calling me 'Sergeant Barnes', but my programming was so intact, that it didn't even register to me that he was saying my own name," Bucky's face was grimacing as he seemed to be remembering the event.

"Hey," Vic said tossing the pillow from her lap at Bucky's chest. "Don't go getting yourself depressed in my bed. No matter how many times you think about it, you cannot change the past. You just have to think about how you are _not_ going to be forced to do anything else like that _ever again_. Now, when you kill someone, it will be bad guys who deserve it."

"That sounds _a lot_ like what I've been trying to _drill_ into his head for the past year," Steve said, which got him a pillow swung into his chest.

"Fine," Bucky said, seeming to be a bit more cheerful after hitting Steve, and with a smile said, "Then since it's still a bit early, not even eleven yet, what are we going to do?"

"Skip right over that possible _sexual innuendo_ and say that _I_ want to hear about some of the _craziest_ things that the two of you have done. I'm sure that there has to be a few due to the serums," Vic said grabbing another pillow from the bed and shoving it behind her back for a bit of extra support, giving Bucky a smirk at redirecting his possible topic of conversation.

"Yeah, there are a few things," Steve said with a chuckle.

"Ok, spill it, Popeye," Vic pointed at him while Bucky snickered at the name.

"There was a SHIELD mission where I jumped from a moving plane without a parachute," Steve responded with a hesitant smile.

"Why would you do that?" Bucky asked, not seeming to have heard about this one himself.

"We were over the ocean, and it was a night stealth drop," Steve answered like that should take care of any further questions.

"But you couldn't have been that high up?" Vic asked not really believing.

"We were over five hundred feet, at least," Steve said nonchalantly.

"Punk, I guess you forgot about not doing anything stupid," Bucky was shaking his head in disbelief, pointing a finger right at Steve's chest, "If you try anything like that around me, and I'll punch you with my left arm again."

"And I'll be there cheering him on," Vic added, kicking Steve's knee gently while smiling.

"If I thought that there was a danger, I would have put on a parachute. I didn't need it at the time," Steve said.

"Fine…so," she said turning to Bucky, "What about you?"

"I've done a HALO drop from nine miles up, _with_ a parachute. But, there were times on mission when I had to jump long distances over buildings, with a significant drop. Sometimes a couple of stories difference," Bucky said.

"How far do'ya think that ya'll can drop without getting hurt?" Vic asked curious.

"I'd say at least seven stories," Bucky said shrugging his shoulders.

"Straight down…with no help?" Vic asked knowing the look on her face.

"Yeah. Steve can at least do the same," Bucky said to which she looked at Steve and he only nodded in agreement.

"So, then…what was the craziest thing that you've done?" Steve asked her.

"Ok, so you know what happens when I get near a clear high window, but I don't have that fear all the time. It has to do with how the height is viewed, like the windows going to the floor here. Or an open high ledge without supports. So, one of the times when I was traveling across the Blue Ridge Parkway, I went to Grandfather Mountain. They have a long suspension bridge that is about eighty feet from the ground, but the elevation itself is a mile high. The bridge takes you to a freestanding spire rock. One way off or on. After a couple of tries, I finally managed to walk across it," Vic said suddenly feeling a bit small sitting next to the two of them, and not in a physical way. "I know, compared to ya'll, that's nothing. It wasn't as strong of a fear like the window the other night. More of a slight dizzyness."

"But for you, that sounds like a bit of an accomplishment," Steve said.

"It was. I was so proud once my feet hit the stone on the other side, but then I turned around and was _shocked_ to discover that I was going to have to go back across to leave. The two of you have never probably even been on the Blue Ridge, have you?" she asked.

"No, I don't think so," Bucky answered. "I'm not even sure what it is."

"Same here," Steve duplicated.

"It's a scenic road that runs through the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina and Virginia. A single lane road high in the mountains with lots of twisty-turning roads. Very fun on a motorcycle. Lots of hiking trails, camp sites, and waterfalls. There was even a place where I was able to zip-line across the tree canopy. They had a long platform, so by the time I was over nothing, it was too late to go back. I think the thrill overrode my fright. I was between cities, so I spent almost a month traveling it, stopping and camping everywhere I could," Vic said remembering the fun, alone, hikes through the woods. She had often thought about what it would have been like to have her soulmates with her, every time she saw an interesting sight. She'd had nobody to share it with.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Steve asked.

"Just thinking about how much I've done, and all of it has been alone," Vic answered honestly.

"Well, that is going to change from this point forward," Bucky said. "We have a lot of down time, and when we do, we usually just spend it sitting and not really doing anything. So, I think that when it comes to long periods of down time, you should be in charge of making us get out and do stuff. Especially if it is something that you've done before and have enjoyed."

"You would be willing to leave your fates up to me? That definitely tells me you are a bit brave, reckless, and crazy. What if I want you go on a ton of roller coasters or carnival rides? Which I actually like, by the way," she asked curious. What she was not expecting was the look from the two of them, they seemed shocked.

"What?"

"It's just the fact that you brought up zip-lines and carnival rides so close together. It's a strange coincidence," Bucky answered.

"How?" she asked

"The last mission during the war that we were on together, we were in the Alps. We were preparing to take a zip-line off the mountain onto a very fast moving train. Bucky joked that I was paying him back for him taking me to Coney Island and getting me sick on the roller coaster there. That was the mission where I failed to get to him in time," Steve said before turning to Bucky.

"We've been over this, Punk," Bucky said reaching over and giving Steve's arm a simple punch with his left one.

"Still hurts every time I think about it though," Steve answered.

"Will the two of ya' tell me about it?" Vic asked softly, knowing that this was going to be more difficult for them than her.

They both started telling her about the mission to get Zola, which led to a quick explanation of how Bucky had already been experimented on by the mad scientist. They told her about the zip-line, getting separated, fighting HYDRA soldiers, and how the one with the strange cannon gun shot a hole in the train. Steve's voice sounded proud as he told of how Bucky had picked up his shield to stop the soldier from shooting him as he was down and helpless. As she listened to how Bucky was hanging on to the rail, she could picture him dangling over and then falling into the deep ravine, and she could _easily_ imagine where her fear of falling came from.

Bucky then took over the story for a short bit, telling her of how the Russian soldiers had found him, and how later on he had been turned back over to Zola. Steve mentioned how Zola was supposed to have been working for SHIELD, but instead, he had helped to reform HYDRA inside of it. Bucky explained, in what she considered a very calm voice, how his arm had been replaced. He didn't go into detail about the procedure or his programming, but it was not necessary. She knew that it had to have been painful to experience, and even worse to relive.

"How strange that fate had the both of you kept alive by different forms of freezing, so that seventy years later, you would find each other again, and almost no time has gone by…age wise," she said looking between the two of them.

"I think that we are both just amazed that fate waited to have our soulmate be born so long after we were," Bucky replied with a chuckle. "We were so anxious to find our match, I'm sure I saw the soulmark of every dame in Brooklyn."

"I'm sure that you did, Jerk," Steve said shaking his head.

"What?" Vic asked with a smile on her face, figuring a good story was coming.

"That one over there would have a different girl on his arm every night, sometimes two, by the time we got to high school," Steve answered pointing directly at Bucky so that there was no doubt as to who was being spoken of.

"That's not fair. I was trying to find our soulmate, Punk," Bucky said with a smirk.

"And once you saw that they didn't have the matching soulmark?" Steve then pointed out.

"Everything after that was just practice," Bucky replied with a lot of confidence, she noticed.

"So, did you have much practice with stalking back then, or is that a new hobby which you just picked up?" she grinned at him, eliciting a laugh from Steve, which got him _another_ pillow strike to the chest from Bucky.

"Alright, laugh it up, Punk. I'll remember that, darlin'," Bucky said giving her a slick smile at her taunt, to which she only stuck out her tongue. "So, are we ready to give this sleepover a try?"

"Just so the two of you understand, that if this doesn't work, and I don't fall asleep, if I crawl out of bed, don't bother following me. Just get some sleep yourselves," Vic told them, starting to toss some of the extra pillows still up at the headboard down towards the foot of the bed, on the ground. "I'm used to not falling asleep till about three and being up before six."

"I just hope you don't snore," Steve grinned, looking at her then moving so that he could lift the covers off of the bed and crawl underneath.

"I hope she talks dirty in her sleep," Bucky said, doing the same. That earned another groan from her.

"Has he always been this bad?" Vic said turning to Steve.

"Actually, he used to be, and it's only _just starting_ to come back," Steve said pointing a finger at Bucky.

"Great…so it's my own fault," Vic said pulling the covers down and sliding her legs underneath. She had two of the large pillows behind her head so that she could sit up a bit, letting the two of them get comfortable before she would worry about positioning herself. She was not sure if this was going to work, but if it did, what would it mean for her always-on-the-go energy? Would she not have as much energy for some strange reason? As the guys quickly made themselves at home in her bed, she looked down between the two of them and noticed something, causing her to make a 'hmm' sound at her discovery.

"What?" Steve asked from her right as he reached over and turned off the only lamp.

"I just find it curious that both of you are back sleepers," Vic said.

"During the war, we slept however, and wherever, we could. Lying on a field, or huddling next to ten other guys during winter to keep warm, was nothing unusual," Bucky said putting his left arm up under his pillow and head. "But I already prefer this."

"Well, I'm a side sleeper, and I roll to both sides during the night, so you have both been forewarned," Vic said as she lowered herself a bit more down onto the bed. They were each still a good foot or more away, not trying to crowd her, or make her feel uncomfortable. She grabbed the one extra pillow that she had been using behind her head and moved it into her standard bear hug to the chest.

Rolling over onto her left, she took a deep breath and tried to get comfortable. She could already feel the wonderful heat coming off of the two of them and was glad that she had kept on the shorts and tank-top from when she had watched the movie, instead of trying to cover up a bit more. If this worked, this may be the last night the comforter saw the top of her bed, she thought with a smile. Just then she realized that they had forgone any goodnight kiss...maybe to not make her feel uncomfortable.

"Vic rolled towards me," she heard Bucky mumble, knowing there was a smirk on his face. Reaching out, she jabbed him in his lower side with her fingertip, provoking a sudden jump from the left side of the bed.

"Don't be like that, Jerk," she mumbled once he had realized what it had been. There was a chuckle from behind her.

"Fine," he said settling back down.

As the next few minutes passed, Vic began to wonder how long she was going to end up lying between the two of them. Both of their breathing had evened out, so she guessed that they had both fallen asleep quickly. Probably another habit they had picked up. Luckily, it seemed that neither of _them_ snored.

She opened her eyes and looked out over the form of Bucky sleeping, into the bright night sky of the city. There were a few of the taller buildings visible that had scattered lights still illuminating some of the rooms. She began to wonder what the people in those rooms were doing, because nothing could beat her story of _sleeping_ with her two soulmates for the very first time.


	23. Breakfast and Blackmail

Opening his eyes, it took Steve a moment to remember where he had fallen asleep last night, then the smile grew over his face.

Their sleeping test.

He hoped that Victoria had as good a night's sleep as he felt that he had last night. As he went to stretch, he felt something lying across his chest.

Looking down, he found that Victoria's left arm lying there, her hand curved over to hold on to him, her fingers twitching against his t-shirt every once in a while. The bed's covers were all over the place, the comforter down at their feet totally unnecessary, while the thin, top sheet was crumpled over the three of them, barely covering anything.

Steve glanced over at Victoria, who was still fast asleep even with the morning sunlight beginning to come through the window. He saw that she was lying on her right side towards him, a _lot closer_ than when they fell asleep. Her face was almost up against his left arm where he could feel her warm breath slide over his skin.

Glancing over further, he could see that Bucky was also awake, still lying on his back, and just looking over at Victoria.

"How did you sleep?" Steve asked very quietly as to not disturb her.

"Great, but she is _definitely_ a mover," Bucky whispered with a wide grin. "I could get used to it. But maybe not the death grip she had on my hand though."

"What do you mean? Her arm is over me," Steve said.

With a grin, Bucky then lifted his right arm, showing him how the two of them had their fingers intertwined, her right arm lying behind her back to get at his hand.

"This was all her…I swear. Check out her feet," Bucky whispered, using his left arm to lift the thin sheet so Steve could see. Her feet were wrapped around Bucky's lower right leg, pulling it slightly towards her. That was when they discovered that Steve's left leg was bent outwards and situated between Victoria's knees. He had not even noticed. "How can she even manage to sleep like that? Is she a contortionist?"

"Shut the frack up and go to sleep," they both heard mumbled from the twisted form between them.

"She curses like you, Steve, even in her sleep," Bucky joked before uttering, "Ow, watch those claws woman! She poked me in the side again, without even having to let go of my hand!"

"Victoria, it's morning," Steve said as gently as he could so she would understand. He placed his right hand on top of her arm, gently rubbing the bare skin, wishing he had slept _without_ a shirt on.

"What?" she heavily breathed as she opened her eyes to find him staring over at her.

"The sun is up…it's morning," he repeated another way.

He watched as the she then seemed to take in her situation, her body's exact positioning, which included their captured limbs. The fact that her face turned instantly red meant that she understood what had happened during the night.

Victoria then released the two of them from her holds, and rolled over so that she was then face down on her pillow. Her hands came up to the back of her head, as if trying to hide, yet again. He could even hear a bit of mumbling coming from her, but no actual words were audible. Steve would almost swear that it didn't sound like English as it was so muffled.

"She adorable. We are definitely keeping her," Bucky grinned, sitting up on the bed and flexing his right hand, trying to get some feeling back in it. Had her grip really been that good?

After a few moments of Victoria hiding and talking into the pillow, with a few foot kicks to the bed for good measure, she suddenly lifted her head.

"Wait…you said it's morning? I slept all night?" she asked turning over and pulling herself up to rest on her elbows, looking out of the window at the brightening sky. "I _never_ sleep all night. How long was I asleep?"

"FRIDAY, can you tell us when Victoria fell asleep and what time it is now?" Steve asked knowing that the AI would have the answers.

" _Miss Victoria fell asleep at 11:42 last night. The current time is 7:08_ ," the voice answered.

"I slept for over seven hours? I've _never_ slept that long before," she said looking a little bewildered. "That's not normal."

"Actually, Victoria…that _is_ normal," Steve answered taking her hand into his and giving it a reassuring squeeze. "It seemed that our little test worked."

"What happened to my chest pillow, the one I was hugging?" Victoria asked.

"You mean _that_ pillow?" Bucky asked, pointing towards the large window near the bathroom wall, where the pillow was lying against it. "During your first rollover my way, after leaving it there to grab Steve the _first_ time, it went flying since it was in the way of letting you latch on to me for a while. You have a very impressive arm to make it fly that far in your sleep."

Even he had to admit, making it cross the large room while sleeping was remarkable. That was when he noticed that there was no other furniture besides the bed and nightstands in the room. They were going to have to see about getting Victoria some other decorations to go around the place.

"Do you feel like you rested better?" he asked her as she stared at the distant object.

"I feel fine. Not like some mornings when I just wake up and can't fall back asleep, but I'm still tired. Those days I usually just push myself through until I'm fully awake. Other times, I'll lie in bed until time to get up, or find something to do," she said starting a couple of stretches herself. "But since it worked, what does that mean for the three of us? Are the two of you going to be trapped sleeping with me so ya'll don't feel guilty if I don't get enough sleep? Because I really don't want that to happen."

"Let's just take it one day at a time," Steve answered, lifting her hand and giving it a good morning kiss. Bucky, on the other hand, leaned back down over the bed and kissed her forehead.

"At least you don't snore," Bucky joked as he moved back off of the bed, dodging the easy swipe that Victoria sent his way. Heading towards the door, he said, "I'm going to go scrounge for some breakfast."

Now that Bucky was gone, he rolled over towards Victoria, a smile already appearing on her face as she guessed what was about to happen. Leaning over, their lips met with a simple kiss, but then, he felt Victoria's free hand take a hold of the back of his head. As her fingers nicely scratched over his skin, she pulled him closer for a firmer kiss.

Leaning down on her, he let his other hand run down her side, feeling her body under the thin shirt he wish was gone. Victoria took the action to lift herself up slightly, allowing her chest to rub against his. They stayed like that for a minute, as his hand learned the curve of her hip. It had been so long since he had felt anything close to what he was now experiencing. And even then, it had _not_ been as nice as this.

When he pulled back, he felt an instant loss when her hand left his neck, but he was not going to take it too far. Neither one of them would rush Victoria into anything, especially after already 'getting into bed' with her.

"That certainly makes up for not getting a goodnight kiss," she smiled up at him, running her hand over his chest where his soulmark was under his shirt.

"We didn't want it to get strange...well, stranger," he grinned at her, "Does that mean we can get one tonight?"

"Maybe," she slyly said, "if I find two certain someones in my bed again."

"I have a feeling that you'll be finding us in your bed a lot," he raised his eyebrows in a teasing gesture, and getting a final kiss from her.

"I hope so," she then winked at him. He wondered how long the proper time to wait before being together was nowadays? But, even if they had to wait months, he knew that Victoria would be worth it.

"You have a day of shopping to get ready for. What did you set up with Nat the other night?" he asked remembering how when the conversation after dinner had moved to clothes and shopping, he and Bucky had hastily left the immediate area.

"Natasha was going to meet me up here at eight, and then we were going to head to a couple of stores that she said would have the items I told her that I wanted to get. Pepper even suggested a few more. Nat mentioned that there was some type of service that would bring the bags back here, so we didn't have to carry them around," Victoria said, running her fingers through her hair.

He remembered at some point during the night while she had slept facing Bucky, he had woken for a moment and reached out to touch it as it shown in the light from the outside. It was just as soft as he thought it would be.

"Yeah, Tony has an in-house service that drives to locations, picks up purchases, clothes or food and groceries, and brings it back here. They will bring it to the floor and drop it off. If it's groceries, they put away anything cold or frozen, leaving the rest out. FRIDAY also keeps track of them so we keep our privacy, so no snooping," he answered standing up and reaching down to grab a hold of the top sheet.

Victoria moved to the other side of the bed and told a hold of it. Together they spread it flat sheet over the bed, tucking in the corners and making it nice and flat once again. He went about the normal way he had learned in basic to make a bed, and Victoria seemed to easily match his moves. In the end, they had a very nice, military style made bed.

"I'm used to being the one doing the deliveries, not making them happen," she said as they both grabbed the comforter.

"Well, take the day to get used to it. You've been on the go for too long. Have some fun today. I just hope that shopping with Nat doesn't get too bad. I did it only once, and I swear, never again," he said as they pulled the thick grey comforter over the bed. "You sure you don't want one of us to come?"

"Like I said…its bad mojo for a relationship. Besides, that's probably why you had such a bad time with Natasha, shopping is not for you. And remember, I have an entire wardrobe to purchase. It will probably take all day," Victoria told him, stacking the pillows near the headboard. She then turned around and began to stare at the one resting against the window. He heard her whisper as she moved towards it, "I can do this."

"Would you like a little help?" he asked while walking around the bed to where she was staring at the object.

"We may as well test this connection," she said holding out her hand for him to take.

Intertwining their fingers, he let Victoria take her steps towards the window as he followed along. Even though she was hesitant, as they finally ended up right at the window and pillow, he felt not a ping of the fear that they had all experience last night. Victoria then reached down and picked up the pillow, even taking a moment to look out of the window before turning around to him.

"Good going," he said knowing that for her it had to be a big accomplishment. She indeed looked very pleased with herself.

"Why, thank you," she said with a formal looking curtsy that she had to have learned from somewhere. When she stood back up from it, she tossed the pillow across the room, into the headboard. "It seems like either touching or being really close does help."

"It would seem so. That is good to know," he said as they then walked towards the bedroom door. Victoria detoured to the bathroom, and he watched her pick up a hair clip. Spinning it all into a single twist, she then lifted it up and secured it behind her head before making her way to him. He so wanted to kiss all over her now exposed neck.

"So, what does breakfast entail for the two of you?"

"Let's go find out," he said, taking back a hold on her hand, liking the soft feel of it. Making their way down the hallway and into the kitchen, he could already smell the coffee going. "We are both black coffee drinkers, how about you?"

"I can't stand the stuff," Victoria said taking one of the stools while Bucky was digging through the fridge.

"Didn't you say you worked in a coffee shop?" he asked hoping that he had remembered correctly.

"Yes, in Seattle…but I don't actually _drink_ it. I'm also a tea drinker. And not that unsweetened stuff ya'll drink up here. I mean Southern sweet tea, the kind I was raised on," she said with a bit of a smile.

"Alright, there's oatmeal and scrambled eggs or cold cereal?" Bucky said pulling a carton of eggs and the milk from the fridge. He watched as Victoria stared quietly at Bucky for a moment, as if not understanding him. "What?"

"That's it? Out of that fully stocked fridge?" Victoria asked.

"We don't do a lot of cooking around here. We usually get by with the basics and having a lot of take-out," Steve said moving to the stool next to her.

"May I?" she asked pointing at the fridge. Bucky then waved his hand in its direction, letting her know she was free to look around. "Where do you keep the dry goods?"

"The door to the right of the fridge," Steve answered as she made her way around the island, while Bucky passed her, taking a quick kiss on her check and receiving a poke in his side in return.

"Is there anything the two of you do not eat? Any dislikes?" she asked from where she had stepped into the walk-in pantry.

"Not really, I think we will eat about anything," Bucky answered, taking a seat on his stool, leaving Victoria's free for her.

They then watched for the next minute as she moved from the pantry to the fridge, seeming to take inventory of everything on every shelf. He knew that there were a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, some they used often, some not so much. But he was slightly worried when she started to pull out a variety of items from both places and lay them on the counter.

"Mixing bowls?" she asked staring at them from behind the colorful items and boxes from the pantry.

"Cabinet at your feet on the right," Steve answered watching as she disappeared behind the island to dig through the very little used cookware. She brought out two of the larger metal bowls.

"Knives and a cutting board?" she next asked.

"Right hand drawer," Bucky answered, while he supplied, "Over the oven."

Victoria took to both locations and quickly produced a large wooden cutting board. She hesitated for just a moment to admire the professional chef's knives that also really saw little use. Mostly used for cutting sandwiches in half or for slicing fruit up. He was a bit surprised when she chose on of the largest knifes, swiping it quickly a couple of times over the round sharpener.

She then turned to the large gas cook top and turned the large center flat griddle on before picking up some of the vegetable items from the countertop and beginning to wash them.

"Do you need any help?" Steve asked starting to feel bad now that he was just sitting back and watching. She was supposed to be getting ready to go shopping, not cooking for them.

"Maybe. Could you pull out a whisk, frying pan, strainer, spatula, a serving platter, plates for us, measuring spoons, dry measuring cups, silverware, and a liquid measuring cup?" she raddled off over her shoulder as she made quick work of washing the food items.

By the time he had the requested items on the counter, she had moved on to cracking over half a dozen eggs, all with one hand, and not a single shell piece in the bowl. Neither one of them could do that.

Next, she was beginning to work on the vegetables. He was a bit amazed at how well she handled a kitchen knife, dicing a green pepper in almost no time, followed by an onion and then mushrooms. He looked over at where Bucky was sitting quietly just watching her work, his eyes following her hand movements as she used the knife. Unfortunately, he remembered first hand Bucky's proficiency with a tactical knife, but that did not coalesce into being useful in the kitchen.

"Where did you learn to handle a knife like that?" Bucky finally asked when she had finished chopping and was starting with the dry goods.

"By the time I was thirteen, I was in charge of cooking for the farmhands and learned the basics. But when I lived in Hawaii, I worked as a sous chef at a restaurant. I studied Chef Sawada and it helped me to get better," Victoria told them as they stared at the bowl where she had mixed a lot of ingredients in.

"So, what are the two of you planning on doing today?" she asked moving everything over to the stove-top.

As he heard the sound of sizzling, he tried to look around her but he couldn't see much from his vantage point. Eventually the smell hit him and Bucky, causing the two of them to take a deep breath.

"We don't really have anything planned. Just more down time," Steve answered watching as she worked. Thinking for a moment, he then turned to Bucky, "Maybe we should get in some practice for Thursday?"

The groan that his comment made told him that Bucky was still not thrilled about what Tony had wrangled them into.

"What's Thursday, and don't you dare say Thanksgiving," Victoria asked over her shoulder, holding the spatula menacingly in the air over her head.

"Tony wrangled some of us into appearing in the Thanksgiving Day Parade. We are supposed to do a gauntlet where one of us has to get to the button that will set off the fireworks on the Stark Industries float," Steve told her, looking forward to the event.

"I still don't think that I should go, not with the negativity out there towards me. It would ruin the event, if the reporters started going off on my past," Bucky stated trying to sound firm, but they had talked numerous times about this. He didn't know what else to say to make him not be, basically, scared of being in the public eye.

Instead, they just sat there silent for a couple of minutes as his friend brooded over the possibilities of what could be brought up. He knew that there had to be some way to get Bucky out of this funk that happened _every time_ the group was requested to do some social event. Even during the event in the lobby when Bucky had spotted Victoria the first time, he had refused to be up on the stand with them, but at least offering to be backup for security. The press had not even mentioned Bucky during that conference, or even noticed that he was in the room with them.

As he watched Victoria's back while she worked, he noticed that she was swaying, as if listening to music that only she could hear. Looking over a Bucky, he saw that he was also focused on her, a smile on his face, which had been a rarity over the past year. Seeing Bucky looking so much like his old self, brought a smile to his own face. Turning back to Victoria, they watched as she began to gather the items she had been cooking onto the platter directly in front of her, where they could not see it.

"So, are the two of you still hungry?" he heard Victoria ask as she turned around from the stove with a large platter of homemade blueberry pancakes and omelettes, placing it on the island before her.

The two of them could only stare for a moment at what she had somehow produced.

"We are _definitely_ keeping her," he heard Bucky mumble as he reached out for the platter.

Victoria suddenly pulled it back away from him, making sure it was well out of reach, on the far side of the island.

"Will you go out there and be with Steve in the parade, putting on a good show for everyone? _And_ not give a hoot about what any reporters might say about you?" she asked while sliding the massive plate of food slowly back and forth over the smooth countertop between her hands.

Sitting back and crossing his arms, suddenly becoming very serious, Bucky asked, "So…it's to be _blackmail_?"

"Yes…otherwise, I'll just pass this over to Steve. I'm _sure_ he could eat _all_ of it," Victoria remarked while nudging the platter a bit to his side, _well_ out of reach of Bucky's grasp.

"No…don't do that!" Bucky stated, sounding panicked with his arms reaching for the food, before dropping his head in defeat. "Fine…I'll go."

If Steve had known that the way to get him to agree was through his stomach, he may had tried something similar last week when he had started to be hesitant about participating. Then he wondered how much was due the food, and how much was due to Victoria. She then gave a winning smile and pushed the platter back into Bucky's reach, seeming _very_ happy with the outcome of her blackmail.

"Catch," Victoria said then sliding their three stacked plates over the countertop, him catching them, and placing one in her spot.

The three of them then sat and ate quietly, mostly due to the two of them filling their stomachs with her wonderful cooking. Of course, they ate at least twice as much as she did, but she did put away at least three pancakes and a small omelet.

"Are ya'll ok with doing dishes since I cooked?" she asked as she put her fork down, finally finished with her own meal, placing her hands on their backs as she stood.

" _Not_ a problem," he heard Bucky say around a large bite, reaching for more syrup.

"I'm going to go get ready now. Let me know when Natasha gets here if I'm not back out," she said patting the two of them on their backs before heading off down the hallway to her room.

Barely any time had passed before they heard the sound of music coming from her room. It sounded like a rock song, but when the vocals started, it was that of a female singer. Victoria was singing in the shower again. They listened as she sang while finishing off their plates.

"Is this what all soulmates feel like when they finally meet?" Bucky asked him, finally pushing his empty plate up onto the counter out of the way. "I feel better this morning than I have since coming to the Tower."

"You sure that is not just your _stomach_ talking?" Steve asked pushing his own plate away, with his own stomach completely filled.

"No, I was awake for almost an hour before you woke up. I didn't move except to turn my head, so that I could just watch Vic sleep, and don't even _start_ with the stalker jokes. From the moment I woke up, I just felt more relaxed than I _ever did_ from just sleeping," Bucky said turning on the stool and then walking around the island.

He began to gather the different items that Victoria had used, filling the sink with water and carefully dropping everything in. There were still a bit of omelet and a couple of pancakes on the platter. Maybe a mid-morning snack, he thought.

"It could be another connection due to the soulmark. Being together last night _did_ help Victoria sleep better. Maybe it had an effect on us also. I do feel pretty good this morning, too. Even having a soulmark for three, I don't think that our connection matches any others like it. I'm wondering if the two of us having the different serums in our systems somehow altered the connections, made them stronger, in some cases. Remember the pillow she threw in her sleep? Victoria was able to walk right up to the window and grab it while I held her hand," Steve said rising from his stool.

Opening up a drawer, he pulled out a towel to start the drying process.

"Really? She got that close? I didn't feel anything," he said handing him a clean mixing bowl. "I thought the same thing about the serums."

" _Captain and Sergeant, Miss Romanoff is requesting access to the floor_ ," FRIDAY informed them over the speakers.

"That's fine FRIDAY, let her in," Steve answered putting the dry bowl away as the elevator doors opened.

Nat, dressed in a warm jacket with another thrown over her arm, stepped a couple of feet in and then suddenly stopped, looking around. He heard the singing stop, which probably meant that Victoria was just getting out of the shower. She didn't seem to take long ones, from what he had noticed.

"What's wrong?" he asked watching Nat curiously as she examined their place.

"Your place _never_ smells this good," she answered, starting to move again with a destination in mind, after spotting the remaining items still sitting on the platter on the island. Pinching off a piece of pancake, she ate it, moaning in approval at the taste. "There is _no way_ either of the two of you made this."

"Nope…it was all Victoria," Steve answered as he continued to dry the next item he was handed. "Aren't you a bit early?"

"I was hoping to catch you all in a compromising position, but instead, I see that Victoria has already domesticated the two of you," Natasha smiled, sitting on a stool and pinching off more pancake.

"She made breakfast, so we are just cleaning up," Bucky said, making quick work of the dirty dishes. "Vic just went back to get ready. It's going to be a few minutes before she's back out here"

"That's fine, I'll just finish these off," Nat was already taking a second pancake and ripping pieces off to eat.

"Bucky's finally agreed to join us on the float, thanks to Victoria," Steve said putting away more dishes.

"How did she manage that?" Nat asked between bites.

"Blackmail," Bucky grumbled in response.

"She threatened to not let him have any of the breakfast she cooked if he didn't," Steve informed her with a smile.

"My kind of girl," Nat answered finishing off the last of the pancakes fairly quickly.

So much for a mid-morning snack.

"Be careful out there today, and don't wear her out like you did me that one time," Steve told Nat as he finished putting away the last item.

Bucky was already finished with washing dishes, and moving over to the couch to turn on the TV.

"I'm just there as a friend, and I'm not even planning on looking for myself. Besides, Vic already told me what she needs, I'm just there to help her out," Nat told him, leaning on the countertop. With a knowing grin, she asked, "So, Rogers, what's your favorite color of lingerie?"

"Wholesome white!" Bucky loudly called out from the couch, suddenly having his attention interested in the discussion.

Steve balled up the towel he had used to dry the dishes and threw it straight at his head, having it ended up caught instead of smacking him like he had hoped it would.

" _Someone_ seems to be in a good mood this morning," Nat commented looking curiously at him, nudging her head towards where Bucky was back to flipping channels, looking for anything to watch. That was probably the second joke she had ever heard him do. The first would be telling the group about Victoria's hat comment.

"We think that having Victoria around is having an effect on us…a good one," Steve said coming around the island to take the furthest stool from her. "We're going to eventually talk with Bruce and see what he thinks of some of the connections that we made."

"Like that fact that she boxes, like the two of you?" Nat asked.

"That's just one of the similarities," Steve said as he heard the sound of footsteps coming from the hallway. Victoria was walking while braiding her damp hair in a long single strand.

"Morning, Natasha," Victoria said coming over to the island while wrapping a holder around the ends of her hair. "They were supposed to let me know you were here, instead of making you wait for me."

"It's fine. I was able to finish off the pancakes you made. Where did you learn to cook?" Nat asked.

"Growing up. It was one of my chores, but I've also worked in restaurants," Victoria answered.

"I brought you one of my heavier winter coats after I saw that the temperature was not going to be getting very high today," Nat said picking the coat up off of the center stool and handing it to Victoria.

"Thanks. This may be easier to wear than my biking jacket. Are you ready to head out?" Victoria asked sliding the black coat with a fur-trimmed hood on.

"Yes," Nat said walking towards the elevator.

"We'll be back some time after lunch," Victoria told them, then she walked over and gave him a hug, which he returned, along with a kiss on the cheek.

Making her way to the back of the couch, she leaned over and gave Bucky a kiss on his cheek also, while he whispered something to her. She gave a slight giggle and a playful smack on his right shoulder, making him wonder what that was about.

Once they were on the elevator, before the doors closed, Natasha added, "Try to not let Tony blow up the Tower again while we're gone."

"Again? So this is a normal concern?" Victoria asked looking a bit curious.

"With Tony around…yes."


	24. Shopping

"How did I let myself get talked into doing this?" Bucky asked once the elevator doors closed on the training room floor, and started to head up to their living floor a few hours after Vic and Natasha had left. It was about lunch time and they had both been sparing for the gauntlet, and for fun, with both of them now needing to shower.

"I seem to recall that _blueberry pancakes_ were involved," Steve reminded him, giving his shoulder a firm pat while chuckling. "It's not going to be as bad as you think. We'll go easy on you."

"If you think I'm worried about physically running the gauntlet, then you're wearing that silly winged cap too tight. I'm more worried about what people are going to say…"

"Will you stop it with that?" Steve said exasperatedly, putting his hands on his hips and dropping his head. "You are worried for nothing. Most people out there have moved on to the next thing. We barely even get recognized on the street. The few who still have a problem with what happened just need someone to hate, to blame, and they've chosen you, instead of the real culprits…HYDRA."

He knew that Steve was right, but he didn't like the idea of his past bringing Steve, or any of the others, into a bad spotlight.

"You already agreed to participate this morning. If you don't stop worrying about it, I'll just tell Victoria," Steve threatened him.

He knew then that there was nothing he could do. If Vic were to talk with him, tell him not to worry, he knew that he would do as she asked. Just like last night after she had yelled at him. Anything she asked of him...

"That's a low blow, Punk," he informed him, but he only received a smile in return. Steve now knew exactly how to get to him.

As the door to their level opened, they were both stopped in their tracks by a large group of assorted bags, all from different shops. Some were large, others small, but they all seemed to have items filling them to the top.

"I'm suddenly _real thankful_ that Vic _didn't_ want us to go with her," Bucky said, taking a step over the bags closest to the elevator so he could exit. He saw Steve doing the same on his side.

Looking at the items near the top of the bags, they all seemed to be clothes, jeans, shirt, sweaters, some winter, but also more than a few summer-looking ones.

"I think that Nat has found her match when it comes to shopping," Steve told him as he reached to feel a large bundle of soft looking material sticking out of one bag. He glanced at the different store names of the bags, not having heard of any of them.

But one large, pink bag grabbed his attention due to the name, _Victoria's Secret._

"What does this store sell?" he asked, pulling out a tissue wrapped item.

"Secret stuff," Steve chuckled as if he knew, but decided to go with a useless answer.

Unwrapping the tissue a bit, he found a couple of small colorful pieces of triangle lace.

"What is this?" he asked, but as he thought about it, he suddenly wrapped the tissue back over it, and quickly put it back into the bag. "That's _not_ what I remember panties looking like."

"Before Victoria walks in and find you _stalking_ her unmentionables, how about we move these bags to her room for her?" Steve asked, picking up a couple of bags with each hand. He took an extra moment and took hold of every remaining one, following where Steve had disappeared down the hallway to her room.

Heading into the closet, Steve was lining up the bags underneath the hanging bar, which only had four shirts on it. On the shelves on the side, he saw the outfit she had been wearing at the club the other night. On the floor, he spotted the pink slippers that she had also been wearing when he dragged her into the corner, along with her tennis shoes. Overall, he couldn't believe how little Vic had started the day with.

"You know, I think that Vic's closet is the size of her old apartment," he commented, putting the bags down in a similar pattern.

"That sounds about right," Steve said, looking around the empty room.

It seemed that all of their rooms were set up almost identical, even the closets. There was a large hanging bar running the length of the closet on the right, drawers at the far end for small items, and open shelving on the left side. Vic had put some of her work and exercise clothes on the shelves, but as he glanced around, a single item caught his attention.

"How?" he said reaching up to take a hold of the lidded milk glass container from a higher shelf where it sat all by itself.

"I know. I saw that when I was helping her pack the other night. I couldn't believe that she had one just like my mother used to have. She said she found it in an antique store around here," Steve told him, coming over to stand next to him. "Victoria is using it to store cash in."

Opening up the lid, his curiosity getting the better of him, he instantly noticed that the jar was totally empty.

Holding it out for Steve to look into, he said, "Not anymore."

"She took all of that money with her today? She shouldn't be walking around with that much on her, it could be dangerous!" Steve sounded worried.

"How much was in here?" he asked.

"I'd say a couple of thousand!" Steve answered. He turned to look at him, not believing what he had heard. "Victoria said that it was supposed to be her road trip and moving money. Said she'd had problem with debit cards in the past while traveling and always carried cash now."

"She's with Natasha, so I don't think we have anything to worry about…which I can _barely_ believe that I just actually said. Besides, judging by the bags, she's probably spent quite a bit of it," Bucky retorted.

As he went to close the lid, something nudged at his memory.

Tilting the lid to look at the underside, his eyes scanned the raised lip all around...until it rested on the single chipped piece missing from it.

The piece that _he_ had accidentally broken off decades ago. It looked _exactly_ the same.

"Steve…this doesn't just _look the same_ as your mother's, this _is_ your mother's jar," he informed him, stunned at the discovery.

"What do you mean? There's no way," Steve replied.

He held the lid out closer for him to see.

"Don't you remember? We were trying to sneak a couple of piece of the caramel candy that your mom used to keep in here. When we heard her coming, I closed the lid too hard, chipping off a piece that made a perfect square shape. Look," he then handed the lid over to Steve so that he could see for himself.

"It was the only time my mom got mad at you where you could _not_ sweet talk your way out of being in trouble," Steve grinned at the memory, running his finger over the missing area. "The other night, I didn't remember about that so I didn't even bother checking. I just figured that it was identical, not the _actual_ jar. After I was approved by Dr. Erskine, I packed up only clothes to take with me into basic training. Everything else left in the apartment, I passed off to the neighborhood women. I don't even remember who I may have given this to."

"Even with all of the other crazy connections, I can't believe that Vic ended up with this," he commented, taking the lid back from Steve and putting it on the jar, replacing it on the shelf.

"Victoria also told me that the night when I spotted her soulmark, on Wednesday, that Friday was supposed to have been her last day of working at the strip club," Steve informed him, heading out of the closet and towards the hallway.

"So if Tony hadn't dragged us there…" he started following him out of the room.

"We may _never_ have met her. Victoria would have left town. I doubt that even if she had another delivery to the Tower, that either of us would have been in the lobby, or that we would have had a chance to see her soulmark. As far as I can tell, she keeps it covered out in public," Steve stopped at his door, both of them still needing to shower after the workout and test run for the gauntlet.

"But we _did_ met her," Bucky grinned, as both of their phones beeped letting them know that a message had been received. Both of them pulled out their phones, reading the group message:

 **Nat** _: Just how much coffee did Bucky give Victoria this morning?_  
**Steve** _: None, she doesn't drink it._  
**Nat** _: Then where is all of this energy coming from? She's wearing me out._  
**Bucky** _: All natural._  
**Steve** _: Just watch out for her. You know about the cash, right?_  
**Nat** _: Yes, we are_ _**both** _ _fine, thanks for asking._

A few more hours later, they had cleaned up and were sitting in the den, watching a football game, when they heard the elevator ping for their floor. A couple of more bags had arrived since they had last heard from Natasha, both of them rotating the job of taking them into Vic's room. When the doors opened to reveal Vic and Natasha laughing at something, it brought a smile to his face. They had a more items in their hands, the last of the spoils from a day of shopping.

"Hey there, boys," Natasha said as they stepped into their place carrying a hanging garment bag that matched the one Vic had. _So much for Natasha not shopping for herself_ , he thought. Vic walked over behind where they sat on the couch, placing a simple kiss on each of their cheeks while standing between the two of them.

"What's so funny?" Steve asked before he could.

"Just thinking about my _favorite guard's_ face as Nat and I waved at him just now," Vic answered. Draping the bag over her shoulder, "Have fun _not_ shopping today?"

"We think so after seeing all of the bags that kept coming in," Steve said.

"Speaking of which, where are they?" Vic asked.

"We took them and put them into your closet for you," he said reaching over his shoulder to touch a strand of her hair that was hanging down close.

"You didn't have to do that," she said before giving both of them another kiss. He was really starting to like having her so close. "I'm going to go put this in the room."

They watched as Vic walked down the hallway, hopefully with the last items. Natasha placed her own bags down next to the table before she walked over to where they were sitting. The two of them then noticed a physical change in Nat as she walked around the edge of the couch and fell down to sit next to Steve.

"There is nothing natural about having _that much_ energy. And I had to chase after Tony years ago," she said putting her head back to rest on the couch.

"You should have tried following her on her bike for a few hours. We actually hope that being around us will calm her down a bit, but guess it hasn't happened yet," Bucky said, taking a drink of his soda.

"I'll consider today payback for when I took you shopping, Steve," Nat said, taking her shoes off and rubbing her feet. That was when Vic came back down the hall, smiling at the three of them sitting together on the couch. She made her way over to his left side, the only space left for her to sit down on it, totally ignoring the two empty chairs, which he was glad for.

"So, what did the two of you do today?" Vic asked starting to remove her own boots.

"Well, Bucky agreed to be the one to run the gauntlet, after Pepper talked with him," Steve said turning to Natasha to watch her expression.

He could hear the groan from her.

"We have to go up against him again?" Nat said sounding a bit depressed.

"What do you mean again?" Vic asked pulling her legs up underneath her with her knees slightly over his legs.

"When Nat was with me back in D.C., while Bucky was under the influence of HYDRA, she went up against him one-on-one," Steve answered, bring back _another_ time filled with guilt for him.

"Who won?" Vic asked nudging his leg with her knee.

"Well, before Steve, Sam, and I were taken prisoner, he shot me in the shoulder," Nat said giving him a pointed look, but he saw the corner of her mouth turn up a bit. Was Natasha trying to be playful...about almost getting killed?

"You shot Nat?" Vic sounded amazed, before feeling her smacking his left arm in a simple gesture.

"Hey," he said turning to look at Vic, barely believing she had done that.

"By the way, Vic," he turned to look back at Nat, "that was the _second_ time he had shot me," Nat _had to add_ to the conversation.

Before he could look from Natasha back to Vic, he felt another smack on his arm.

"You shot her twice?" Vic asked shocked, but she didn't actually look angry.

"You know that doesn't hurt, right?" he supplied, moving his arm from his side and putting it on the couch over Vic's shoulders, pulling her in a bit closer, hopefully lessening her striking distance.

"It kind of makes _me_ feel better," Natasha told him with a smile. "But seriously, we have to go up against him?"

"Yes, Pepper thought that showing Bucky off as the newest Avenger, with a bit of what he was capable of doing, would be good for publicity, giving people a chance to see what he brings to the team," Steve told the two of them. "At least this time, he won't be trying to kill us."

"That's actually a good idea that Pepper had. No wonder she runs the company and not Tony," Natasha teased, turning a bit so that she was sitting sideways on the couch facing them, particularly at him. "As long as he promises to _not_ shoot me again."

"Oh, he promises to _never_ shoot you again, otherwise," Vic said out loud, before moving so that her mouth was right next to his ear as she finished, by whispering only for him to hear, "He'll find himself sleeping back in his own bed…alone, while I snuggle with Steve."

"I absolutely _promise_ to _never_ shoot you again!" Bucky then quickly and firmly responded, turning to Natasha, raising his hand as if giving an oath.

"Steve, she _is_ good," Natasha said, picking up her shoes and standing up to retrieve her bag. "I'm going to head to my place and probably take a nap. I'll see the three of you later at dinner."

"Thanks for going with me today. I hope it wasn't too bad for you," Vic said.

"I'll let you know once my feet recover," Natasha said as the elevator doors opened. "Later."

Once they were alone, Vic turned back to him, looking as if she were thinking about their discussion.

"With what HYDRA did to you, you would have killed Nat, wouldn't you?" she plainly asked.

"Yes, both she and Steve were designated as my targets. Luckily, Steve showed up just as I was about to kill her and he stopped me," he said thinking back to the fight, how close he had been to firing a grenade at her. "That was the first time you felt the two of us fighting."'

"I'm glad that you didn't, Nat is fun to hang out with. Also, I didn't mention any of our connections to her today. I wasn't sure exactly how much ya'll would want anyone to know," Vic said leaning back on the couch, resting her head on his left arm.

"Eventually, they will all probably know everything, but we have time before we need to talk and let the team know," Steve replied picking up his own soda and taking a sip. "Did you get everything that you would need for winter time? There seemed to be a lot of summer items in those bags."

"Yes, but buying clothes out of season is when you will get the best deals, so I got a few extra things. Besides, getting stuck between the two of you all the time, I will need more summer clothes than winter," Vic grinned as she began to play with the hem of his t-shirt.

"Were you able to find what I mentioned this morning?" he asked, lifting is eyebrows a few times, wondering if she had taken him seriously.

"Yes," she answered with a large smile coming over her face. "Nat thought it was _hilarious_ when we found and got them."

"What are you two talking about?" Steve asked, not having heard Bucky's funny request this morning.

"We?" he then asked, not sure if he heard correct.

"Yes, _we_ ," Vic answered. Poking him in the side, she said, " _Someone_ made a special request for Avengers 'unmentionables', specifically for Captain America ones. I just happen to have found panties with your shield on them."

"You didn't?" Steve asked his face a bit shocked and a shade redder.

"Of course I did," Vic said with a smile. "But, I _also_ happened to find some Winter Soldier ones, gray with a red star on them."

"What?" he asked, not believing what he had just heard. They had made _panties_ symbolizing _him_?

"Yep, and I bought both pairs, of course, while Nat got Hulk, and Hawkeye ones. We agreed to not tell Tony that we both didn't get his. Nat said that he had probably already bought some for Pepper," knowing that if Tony knew they existed, then Vic was probably right. Giving them a smile, she told them, "I wanted to get the Black Widow ones, but Nat said that it would be creepy for the two of ya'll to be _lusting_ over me while wearing them."

"That was a _good call_ from Natasha," Steve then said, probably having the exact same visual going through his head.

Now, he just wondered how long it would be before they would be able to _see_ her wearing those panties.


	25. Hanging Up and Out

After sitting with them for a few minutes while they watched the football game that had still been going in the background, Victoria said that she was going to try and organize her clothes. It was only a few minutes later that they once again heard the sound of music coming from her room. But this time, they did not understand any of the words that were being sung. They could hear the original singer, but over that was the sound of Victoria's voice.

"What is she singing?" Bucky asked him as if he knew the answer.

"I have no idea," he answered listening while trying to decipher the language style. "Something Asian, but I'm not sure what."

"Should we go in there with her? She's just working in there alone, while we are sitting out here. This may be a good time to talk some more," Bucky said looking a bit hopeful that he would back him up.

"Why not?" he said as the two of them stood and made their way to her door, which was once again barely cracked open. He had noticed that Victoria never shut her door all the way, making him wonder if there was a reason why. Knocking on the door, they didn't hear her call out to them, she just continued to sing with the song. Pushing the door opened slightly, he looked around the door to the closet where he could tell that she was.

"Victoria, is it all right if we come in?" he called out.

"Yeah, I'm in the closet," he got as a response, the music dying down so it was just background noise.

"We thought that you might like some company or help while you worked," he said seeing that she was sitting with her back to the wall underneath the hanging bar while staring at the shelving on the other side of the closet. She had moved some of the bags to make room for her to sit, putting them in the center walking area of the closet.

"Sure, grab some floor," she said, "if you can. It didn't seem like this much when you don't have to carry it all with you."

"We were a _bit_ surprised when we got back up here and found the area at the elevator filled with bags," Bucky said moving a bag on the door wall and taking a seat so he was looking over the entire closet. He moved further in and took a seat on the open floor area near the back of the closet. He noticed afterwards that they had once again taken up their usual sides for Victoria.

"Now, I just have to figure out how to organize everything, and sitting like this is really becoming uncomfortable," she said leaning to one side and removing her cellphone from her back pocket, putting it onto the floor next to her. She then did the same for the other side and pulled a billfold from her other pocket. Opening it up, she pulled out a large pile of cash. Folding it over as she stood, Victoria lifted up the lid of the white jar and deposited the money inside.

"You shouldn't have been walking around with that much cash on you. It could be dangerous if someone saw it," Bucky said voicing his own thoughts from earlier.

"I have a feeling that it would have been _more dangerous_ for anyone who tried to do something. Beside," she said figuring she was talking about being with Natasha, then setting the lid down gently on the jar before sitting back down, "Today was the best way to get rid of having some of it around."

"We are not trying to nag, but we are going to worry," he said.

"I've started to pick up on that over the past few days. If ya'll are that worried, how about this? I won't leave here again with that much on me, unless at least one of the two of you are with me. Deal?" she said looking between the two of them.

"Deal," he answered as Bucky seemed to relax some, making him feel a bit better at how well she took their _maybe_ over-protective comments.

"What are you listening to?" Bucky asked as the song changed to another one with foreign lyrics.

"FRIDAY uploaded my playlists so that I could listen to them on the room speakers. This is my Japanese anime songs. I'm guessing that the two of you probably haven't seen much anime, if any?" Victoria asked talking out a pile of socks from a bag, placing them on the floor.

"No, I don't think we have," he answered.

"Since you were singing the lyrics, does that mean you understand what they are saying?" Bucky asked. He saw a look cross over her face, the same one that she seemed to get when they asked about something that she probably didn't discuss with others.

"Yeah," she simply said, seeming really hesitant about continuing.

"You don't have to hide anything that you can do from us, even if it's something like your talent with the piano," Steve said knowing that she had worried about it days ago. Victoria had slowly started telling them of other stuff, but she could still be wary, thinking that they may judge her. She took a breath before picking up more items and putting them away into drawers.

"I can speak Japanese. When I started to watch anime…years ago, once I left home, I picked it up," she admitted, but not really looking at either of them and sounding a bit hesitant at one point.

"We both can speak other languages. I know Russian and Romanian," Bucky said.

"And I learned French back during the war," he supplied.

"I knew about the Russian from the other night when ya started cursing from Tony and Natasha listening in on us," Victoria said, but still seeming a bit hesitant about this topic.

"Do you know any other languages?" Bucky asked, also noticing her apprehension and trying to get her to open up to them.

"I've learned a few through the years," she said working on the small clothes items, but Steve noticed that it seemed more like fidgeting. "To graduate high school, you were required to have two years of foreign language, so I took a year of both French and Spanish."

"That's not unusual for nowadays," Steve supplied. "But that would just be the basics of the languages, right?"

"It should have been, but since I read the first year books of each, I went to the teacher and asked to borrow the more advanced years books, to complete them," she supplied, seeming to be opening up a bit.

"So then, you know four languages?" Bucky asked.

"Not exactly. I've _kind of_ picked up a few more," Victoria said now looking between the two of them. She then sighed and seemed to make up her mind about something. "Do both of you _promise_ to not freak out?"

"There is nothing that you can tell us that will make us _freak out_ , Vic," Bucky answered firmly. She looked over at him and he tried to give her a reassuring smile of encouragement.

Victoria then took a seat on the floor where she had been when they came in to find her.

"Ok, then, here it goes. Back in Springfield, where I grew up, there was an older lady who lived down the road that taught me the Gullah language, only found in the south along the coast. While I was living in San Francisco, I learned to speak Mandarin, since I was staying in a small apartment in Chinatown. When I was living in Hawaii, I learned to speak Hawaiian. Not too useful in New York, or anywhere else for that matter.

"When I lived in Chicago, there is a large Polish population, so I added it. I also had a deaf neighbor in Chicago, so I learned American Sign Language. There are a lot of metal bands that like to use Latin in their lyrics so I thought it would be fun to add it. And when I started at the messenger service, I would hang out with some of the guys that like to get together and play Counter Strike online...and I kind of picked up Russian," Victoria told them as she stared at the floor, almost like she was guilty of something.

"So when I started cursing the other night…" Bucky began.

"Я все поняла, что вы сказали," Victoria answered him in Russian. The way that Bucky's face turned to shock, looking at her, told him that with whatever Victoria said, she must have spoken the language properly.

"But, you only began working there since around the spring time. You've learned Russian over the past few months?" Steve asked not sure if he was really understanding.

"Yeah, I'm a fast learner. I use an online program to finish learning a language once I pick up on the basics, like with Russian from playing online games, but those were mostly curse words," Victoria smiled as she finished telling them that. So far, they had not heard a single real curse word from her. "If I focus on what I'm learning, then that's all it takes."

"That's amazing," he said thinking about how long it had taken him to pick up French being fully submerged in the country. Then he remembered this morning when Victoria had been talking into her pillow after waking up. So he decided to ask, "Were you speaking a different language this morning? After you woke up and saw how you were lying in bed?"

"Yeah," she answered. "That was just a bit of Gullah."

"Didn't you say you were only in Hawaii for two months total?" Bucky then asked remembering her story from the other night.

"Yeah, but I learned that one mostly for fun," she said pulling a shirt out of a bag. "So, eleven languages plus Morse code."

"Have you ever thought about working in a job as a translator?" Steve asked curious about her answer. Being able to do such incredible things, as they were learning, but then she chose simple jobs that anyone could do.

"No, jobs like that would mean a detailed background check and I try to avoid those," she said standing up to hang up the shirt she had taken out.

"But, you don't have a criminal history. Why would that worry you?" Bucky asked.

"I don't have an educational background that would be useful. Companies don't want to her that a simple high school grad just quickly picked up a language. They expect years of learning it from a credited college," Victoria was moving to hang another shirt up. He knew that she was right. Having her natural ability was one thing, but she was right that a company would demand proof, not just the ability.

"Is that why you take such simple jobs, like waitressing and bike messenger? Because larger companies won't hire you?" Steve wondered.

"Kind of. You're forgetting that I've been moving around _a lot_ and for a _long time_. That _also_ doesn't look good on a resume. Working for a larger company with a 'career' job, by the time I could accomplished anything, I would have gotten the urge to move on, so I stick to learning trades that can be used anywhere," Victoria said seeming a bit easier talking with them now that they knew a bit more about her. "But, I also tried having a desk job for a short time. It didn't work out. I got bored trying to sit still for eight hours a day, but there were nights when I didn't even sleep for three hours before having to start over. Working bike delivery was one of the first times that I actually enjoyed working. Between it, and waitressing at night on weekdays, I was able to use up some of the energy I had, and sleep a bit better."

He watched as Bucky sat back against the wall as she spoke, wondering if he was thinking the same thing. There was a very good chance that if he asked Tony and Pepper, that there was probably somewhere inside of Stark Industries that Victoria may be able to work at. Between her multi-languages, all the skills she had acquired, as well as being able to learn new skills from just reading about them, there had to be _something_ that she could do.

But, would she even consider accepting a job that someone else helped her to get, if he were to ask Tony and Pepper? Victoria was very independent. It may be something to bring up at a later time. There was not an immediate rush for her to do anything this week concerning finding a job. Maybe around Monday would be a better time, after the holiday and weekend were over. Besides, it may be selfish, but he wanted to spend more time with her, and Bucky undoubtedly felt the same.

Standing up, he reached inside of a bag and removed a shirt, putting it onto a hanger before handing it to Victoria. If he was going to be here, he may at least help. She seemed to be sorting the shirts into some configuration. Bucky also stood up and began to help, the three of them working quietly as more music continued to play softly in the background.

Eventually, they heard her begin to hum when the song changed to a soft melody with a female singer. Enjoying helping her unpack, as the song continued, Victoria began to sing softly as she worked folding jeans and placing them on one of the available shelves. Moving to another bag, they just listened, looking at each other every once in a while, wondering if she realized what she was doing. When she moved to the pink bag that Bucky had tried to look through, he watched with a smile as she began to unwrap the top bundle.

"So, do I even have to guess who went through this bag?" he heard from behind him as he saw Bucky's head drop slightly at being caught.

"I _only_ looked inside because of the _name_ of the store," Bucky honestly admitted, turning around to face her. "I had no idea what the _secret_ was until I had already opened one of the wrappings."

Victoria was leaning on the drawers smiling, looking like she was in the mood to tease. Reaching down into a different bag, she pulled out two items. Holding up the two sets of cotton panties, they could see the symbols on them that she had been talking about earlier: his shield and a red star. He could feel his face turning red as he looked at the items.

"I cannot believe that they even _make_ something like that, but that you also _purchased_ it," he said looking down at the replica of his shield.

"Wait until ya'll see me _wearing_ them," she grinned, opening up one of the drawers and placing them inside. He had to take a hard swallow as a picture of her in them crossed his mind once again.

Reaching down into another bag, he found that the item inside was one large heavy shirt, a sports jersey of some kind. Holding it up to inspect, Victoria saw him and got a wide smile on her face.

"That's probably my favorite purchase today," she said coming over to take it from him.

"What exactly is it?" he asked.

"Chicago Blackhawks winter pullover jersey," she said holding it up to her. It was a men's size that easily swamped her as it hung down to just above her knees.

"You couldn't root for a New York team?" Bucky asked reaching over to feel the heavy cotton material of the hoodie.

"Nope. I worked at the United Center when I lived in Chicago. That's where I learned to love hockey. Working there, I was able to watch them practice, as well as the games, and I also met the team," she said picking up a hanger to put it on. "Do the two of you even _have_ a favorite hockey team?"

"Not really, we've just seen a few games," he answered folding up some of the now empty bags and putting them on the floor outside of the closet.

"Well, you can either adopt my team, go for the New York Rangers or Islanders, and don't get me started on the stats of the Sabers. Or ya'll can pick more symbolic teams," she said placing a stack of funny colored socks into a drawer.

"Symbolic teams?" Bucky asked moving over so that he was leaning on the drawers next to her.

"Sure, I would guess that you would choose the Dallas Stars and Steve would choose the Washington Capitals," she grinned, closing the drawer and staring Bucky down, seeing if he would argue. "But if you do...we would be a house divided."

Steve chuckled a bit at her logic, and finding her choice of teams for the two of them amusing, while the two of them continued to stare at each other for a few moments.

"Fine, Chicago it is," Bucky answered, sighing heavily, but finding her staring Bucky down amusing. There were grown men would not make eye contact with him. Victoria then turned to him, her eyebrows slightly raised in questioning, wanting an answer.

"Chicago," he then also relented, not really caring that much.

She then reached over and wrapped an arm around each of their necks pulling them into a group hug. But he did not expect the kiss that he suddenly found planted on his lips from her for a few seconds before she then turned her head and gave Bucky a similar one. When Victoria pulled her head back, she was smiling at the two of them, and she had not yet released her hold on either of them.

"You have chosen wisely," she said looking at him, before she moved her right arm which was holding Bucky, so that she pulled his head closer for another deeper kiss.

As they were kissing, she turned slightly so when her left arm pulled him closer that he was pressed against her back, her head tiled to the side so that he would have access to her bare neck. Taking the chance that Victoria seemed to be offering, he wrapped his arms around her waist, kissing the spot that he eagerly wanted to. He then felt Bucky's arm slide over his own at he tried to hold onto her waist also, from her other side.

When they broke off their kiss, Victoria turned her head around and leaned in to give him another kiss, her tongue slipping between his lips easily. As they continued to kiss, he then felt her entire body turning towards him, while their four arms were still around her waist. Bucky, now positioned behind Victoria, began pulling her body into his own, but his own grip prevented him from stealing her away. With both of them holding Victoria's waist, she was firmly pinned between the two of them, while Bucky took over kissing the spot on her neck he had just been at.

Victoria's hips then gave a circular motion, causing her to rub against his own hips before moving back to press into Bucky's. He moaned slightly at the feeling, wanting her to keep doing it, which she did a few more times. With each swipe of her body against his, he could feel himself becoming harder. Hearing the similar moans coming from Bucky, he was no doubt feeling the exact same pleasure.

Steve was not sure how long the three of them stayed like that, reveling in the experience from all three of them becoming so intimate together for the first time. Pulling back from kissing her because he needed air, Victoria quickly turned her head so that she gave another firm final kiss to Bucky's lips, before the three of them slightly moved apart, their arms dropping the different holds. He noticed that all of them were breathing heavily, a series of smiles plastered on their faces. Steve knew that they could have taken that a bit further, but they had all held back.

"I've been thinking about doing that all day," Victoria said, leaning back to rest herself against the drawers, while Bucky put his arm up onto the wall, and he reached over for the hanging bar.

"Anything else you've been thinking about doing?" he asked giving her a wink as he teased her. Both Victoria and Bucky both laughed at his bold comment.

"And here I was thinking _he_ was the one with the dirty mind," she answered still laughing, pointing a thumb at Bucky.

"I am…he just said it first," Bucky responded which made him laugh at the comment. That was definitely his old friend coming through.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation Note: Я все поняла, что вы сказали – Russian for: I understood what you said.


	26. Confessions

Tony had been watching the three of them since they arrived on the floor for dinner. There seemed to be a slight change to their mannerisms towards each other, something a bit…more…than had been there just yesterday. They were freer with their words, as well as their touches.

But, every time that he saw Vic reach over to touch Barnes, it gave him a slight sinking feeling in his gut.

It wasn't that he didn't like Victoria, he'd already decided that he did. But, it was the fact that she was _Barnes_ soulmate...since he still was not sure if Barnes deserved to have one anymore.

Once Steve had finally been able to track Barnes down, it had taken a while get him back to New York. And he had eventually relented about him staying here, as well as becoming an Avenger. But, all of it was for Steve's benefit. There was no way he was allowing Steve to live alone with a possible unstable assassin, who had already tried to kill him... _twice_.

When Steve and Natasha had come to him after the events in D.C., and told him about the information they had found concerning HYDRA's involvement in his parent's death, it had slightly broken him. Believing that it had been an accident was easy to deal with, those happen all of the time. But, finding out that they had been killed on purpose, it had been probably the worst moment in his life, surpassing his time being held prisoner in the desert.

Pulling all of the information he could from the internet dump, he had locked himself away for days as he went through the files, especially the ones Nat had redacted. But, when he had come across the files concerning the Winter Soldier's involvement, Barnes' involvement, it had taken him to a darker place, seeing it actually in writing. It had all been the truth.

Showing the records to Steve, the group had decided to go to the Siberian base where Barnes had been kept in cold storage at that time. Where his father's serum had been taken, to be used to create more Winter Soldiers. Overall, the entire base seemed to have been deserted for the past few years.

The strangest part, at that time, had been finding the five dead cryo-frozen soldiers, each with a bullet to the head. Someone had been at the location weeks before they had arrived, and it seemed that they had a vendetta against the corpses.

It was months after Barnes had already been living at the Tower that Steve was finally able to get out of him that it had been he who had ended their lives. Barnes had not wanted someone to wake them, and control them as he had been done, to do their own evil purposes.

In a way, Tony had been glad. He didn't want to see his father's work perverted for HYDRA in any way.

There, not only had they found the file footage of his parent's car crash, there were film and video recordings of the procedures that they had put Barnes through. Then there were the mission reports, evidence of Barnes'...actions. For decades. They had gathered all of the paper files from the storage rooms and brought them back here, where they still sat on one of the secured floors.

It had taken him multiple attempts to try and watch the older films of Barnes trying to be initially programmed, as well as being wiped, over and over again, later on in that Chair. There were numerous videos that he could not finish watching, as well as Steve, who would be motionless and expressionless, until he had just stood and walked out.

He knew logically that it was not Barnes' fault for the actions that he had been ordered by HYDRA to do for all of those decades, but he was still the one to have actually done his parent's killing.

Besides, he was here, and easy to blame.

But as he watched Vic touching Barnes, touching that damned, spectacular metal arm that had killed so many other people, he began to wonder how she could do it. How could she stand knowing what he had done? Steve had already politely told him that they did tell her about Barnes being responsible for killing his parents, so that she didn't find out by someone else mentioning it.

But nobody ever brought it up. It was a taboo topic inside of the entire Tower.

Rising up, he headed over to the bar for another drink.

Hearing Victoria laugh, he looked over and found her still being detained by Rhodey while he continued to try tell her _all_ of his stories as War Machine. Everyone else in the Tower had heard them numerous times, so finding someone new here to tell, as he stopped by on his way through town to get to his own family's Thanksgiving gathering, had been a wonderful surprise for him. He had been happy to meet Vic, but finding out that she was the third soulmate to Steve and Barnes, that had been a shock.

"So, Vikki," he said loud enough so that everyone in the room attention was suddenly drawn to him, of course, "can we get another party trick tonight?"

He watched as her lips became small thin lines, but as she turned to face him, there was a smile on her face, but not a happy smile, more like a devious grin.

"Sure…but I need to talk with you somewhere private first," she said, standing up to walk over to where he was still standing behind the bar.

Glancing over to where Steve and Barnes were sitting with Bruce, Pepper, and Natasha, he noticed that their conversation ceased and saw their two expressions growing concerned.

"Follow me," he told her, picking up his Scotch and walking around the bar to stand next to her. That was when Vic took the glass from his hand, and placed it back onto the countertop. She then took his arm, wrapping hers around his, and then said, "Lead the way."

He began to lead her towards the gaming room, where all of the video game systems were hooked up. As they passed the group, who had been disturbingly quite since Victoria had made her request, he saw her wave her hand in a downward motion while looking at Steve and Barnes, indicating that they needed to stay where they were. He saw their expressions growing with more concern as they also looked towards each other, as if needing to see what the other was going to do about the strange situation that was now happening.

Leading Vic into the game room, he tapped the button on the wall to shut the door to give them some privacy. Not that it was totally private, since the wall between them and the other room was an insulated glass to cut down on the sound of the games traveling across the large outside room.

"Tony, there is a couple of things that I wanted to tell you, so I may as well get it out of the way now," Vic started off by putting a smile on her face as she looked out of the glass at all of the others now intently watching them. "First, thanks again for letting me be able to stay here. You didn't have to do that."

"I did it for Steve," he very bluntly stated.

She got that same look on her face that she had before they came in here before she continued.

"Not for Bucky. But I wouldn't have expected you to. Not with what he was made to do. The _only_ reason he is _here_ is because of Steve, right?" she asked shocking him a bit at her bluntness.

"Exactly. That man sitting out there killed my parents…killed my mom," he said with a bit more force than he had actually intended to. But he did the same thing every time someone brought up this topic, owing as to why it was so rare.

"Explaining _why_ you have been giving him the _stink-eye_ all night, every single time that touched him, or talked with him, or laughed at something he said. So, since you need to get something out of your system...you can either _talk with me_ about it, or I want you to give me _one hard punch_ across the face, right now," she firmly stated, dropping her head slightly as she gave him the most determined look he had ever seen on a female, including Natasha.

"What?" he said standing up straighter and taking a small step back from her. "Why the hell would I punch _you_?"

"Because every single time I have seen that look of _disapproval_ on your face tonight when I'm with Bucky, it _feels_ like a punch to the face. So, I figure that I may as well let you _get it out_ of your system, and just let you _do it_ for real," she said, taking a step forward to close back the distance that he had put between the two of them.

"Victoria, there is no way _in hell_ that I am going to _hit_ you!" he firmly stated.

" _Why not_? It's not like I _haven't_ been punched before," Vic informed him, putting her arms behind her back to remove any defense she had, giving him the opportunity to go ahead with what she told him to do.

He looked out the window at his friends sitting there, wondering if they had any idea what they were talking about. He really hoped not. Steve and Barnes were standing so they were able to look over the couch at them talking. He then specifically looked at Barnes, standing there with real concern on his face. He may not be able to hear them talking, but Barnes, Steve, and Nat would know that with her stance, that there was _something_ going on between the two of them.

Turning back to look at Vic, softly, he honestly answered, "I can't help the way that I feel."

"And I don't expect you to forget your parents, or simply forgive Bucky. But I am asking that you try to understand, that no matter what he may have done, he and Steve, they are my soulmates. Every nasty look that you give _him_ , it hurts _me_. I may not have known the two of them for long…Montana, it's only been a few days, but I do _not_ believe that the man that I have come to know, would have ever _willingly_ killed your parents. Do you think that if someone went to him right now, and asked him to kill them, that he would do it?"

Tony stared at the strange woman standing in front of him, talking about something that nobody in the next room had mentioned for months, for fear of angering or hurting him. He took a few moments to think about what she was asking of him. He had watched some of the videos of the torture that they had initially used on Barnes, when they had started his programming into the Winter Soldier. It had taken a long time to break him, he had resisted for so long, before the conditioning had started to take effect on his mind. There was also the footage of during his time with the Howling Commandos, where he had seen the real James Barnes, the friend that had protected a weakling named Steve Rogers, long before he was actually able to defend himself.

"No," he said taking a deep breath.

"Do you think that he took any _pleasure_ in what he did to them?" she then asked him, shocking him again with her bluntness. When he didn't immediately answer, Vic continued, "Because if you _do_ , then I _demand_ that you hit me."

"Victoria..." he started before she interrupted him with..."It's either 'no' or a punch, Tony...so which is it?"

It had been so long since anyone had confronted him and stood their ground like she was doing. And they both knew the answer to her question...

"No! I do not believe that he enjoyed it."

He watched as Vic's posture eased at his admission, a calmness in her eyes that reminded him of his mother.

"What if you could do something about the way you feel? Do you like feeling this way every single time you are around Bucky? This consuming anger at something that is in the past, that hurt both of you in different ways, which can never be changed? Which depresses you just a bit more each time you let it?"

Tony looked at her, knowing that what she was saying was right. The automatic clenching of his jaw, the tightness of his shoulders, the sense of loss...but, could it get better?

"No, I don't like it," he finally relented, throwing his arms up in the air. "There, I said it!"

Victoria smiled at him a bit, then said, "Then _what_ are you going to do to help yourself to _start_ getting over it? To help you finally realize it's in the past, and to _not_ let it control your future."

It only took him a moment to think of the answer and Tony could not believe the strange feeling that radiated through his chest as he made the decision, even without first having to inform Vic of it. Just thinking of doing the simple gesture made him feel a bit lighter...just a bit less stressed...maybe 12% happier.

"I will try, but with absolutely no guarantees, to _try_ and stop the _stink-eyes_ at Barnes."

"That's all that I ask, because I think that dealing with your _egotistical tushie_ would be much more fun than avoiding being around you," she grinned at him, finally dropping her hands back to her sides, finding himself chuckling at her words and admission. That was also the first time someone had actually admitted to that out loud. Vic then continued, "But the real reason that I asked to speak with you privately is that I have already told you once not to call me Vikki."

"That's why you really wanted to talk?" he asked, not sure if he heard her correctly. "All of _that_ seriousness was on a _whim_?"

Victoria then rolled her eyes at him, saying, "You _really_ need to lighten up sometimes and have some _fun_..."

Tony's mouth was now open, but he didn't know what to say to that comment. Was Vic saying she felt _he_ was a _prude_?

Wiggling a finger at him, "Before a fly lands on your tongue..." she told him, so he closed his mouth.

"And yes, I've given you a warning already. So that you understand, I'm going to tell you something that both Steve and Bucky do not know, and you are not allowed to tell them," she said looking out of the window, and giving a smile at the group still intently watching the two of them. "Eventually, I will, but I think they may be a bit too high-strung right now. There is only _one time_ in my life when anyone used the name Vikki. Back when I was younger, it's what the other kids I went to school with used to call me."

"So, it's what only your _friends_ call you?" he asked still not understanding.

"No, it's what my _bullies_ used to call me," she said turning back to face him. The look that came over her face was not a happy one. She took a deep breath before continuing, crossing her arms in front of her, making it seem as if she were closing herself off.

"In elementary school, the other kids would make fun of me, teasing me, calling me names. They would not let me touch the playground equipment saying that I would infect it with my evilness, due to my soulmark being for three. In middle school, they became brave enough to begin to touch my stuff. Ripping up any homework I had done, throwing my schoolbooks out of the moving bus, tossing my backpack into mud puddles. By the time that I reached high school, they moved up to the next level. Every Monday, there was a certain group, of boys and girls, that would hold me down as they took turns punching me. My arms, stomach, legs, even my face. They used to call me Vikki Hickey because of what the bruising I had for the rest of the week looked like. I was bullied for all twelve years of school. Not a single friend the entire time."

He stared silently at Victoria as she finished telling him of what she had been through, feeling a twisting in his gut as he digested what she had said. While he had been in school, the other kids used to tease him for being the smartest one in class, in particular for being so much younger than they were, but _never_ had he ever had anything like what she was describing happen to him. He couldn't even imagine what it would have been like to be repeatedly beaten over and over every week for years.

"So…I'm asking you nicely, for the _last_ time, please _do not_ call me Vikki _ever_ again," she said looking at him.

He could see the distress on her face from thinking about the events as she made the request. Now, he thought that he understood enough.

"Vic, you will _never_ hear that name cross my lips again," he said with all sincerity that he could call upon. He finally saw her give a real smile again, the kind that she had been giving to Steve and Barnes all night.

"So, we good, landlord?" she asked smirking at him, which he found that he kind of liked.

"Yes, little drummer girl, we are good…as long as I get another _party trick_ ," he said, crossing his arms while smirking back at her.

Vic then looked over at all of the video game systems that he had acquired through the years as they came out. She walked over to where all of the gaming disks were shelved, sorted by system, then alphabetically. Running her fingers over the cases, looking at the titles, before stopping on one and picking it up.

"So, you any good at this?" she asked holding up one of the Guitar Hero games for him to see. It brought a wide smile to his face.

"Of course, I hold the highest score for every song. A handful of perfect scores on high are there also," he proudly stated, coming over to stand next to her.

"Really? A couple of perfect scores?" she asked, but he could hear in her voice that there was something there. "High? Not bad…"

" _You_ any good?" he asked, opening up the cabinet next to the shelves, showing her the numerous gaming guitars used for the different systems. All of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games were his favorite, to the point where he had purchased every song that was available for downloading. He looked over at her for an answer, but all he saw was a smile on her face.

"If you can get this monstrosity of a system going, I'll go get the others in here. I'll give you a party trick," she instructed him with what he would consider an evil smile, walking over to the door and heading back out to the group.

It only took a moment to start the system, and when he turned around, he saw that Pepper, Rhodey, Bruce and Nat were walking towards him, while Steve and Barnes were talking with Vic. He saw her shaking her head, as if she were refusing to answer something, probably what they had spoken about. He wondered if it would get her in trouble with them for not answering.

"Want to tell us what _that_ was about?" Pepper asked coming over to put her arm around his waist.

Vic was now flat out refusing to even speak, it looked like. She did seem to have a stubborn streak in her.

"Not really. We just needed to have a small chat. Everything is fine. Vic is going to play a song for us," he answered, turning around and pulling out the guitar that she would use. Pepper gave him a look for not explaining what had happened, but she didn't press the issue…for now.

"Is she going to try and go for one of your toys?" Rhodey asked taking a seat on the chair off to the side of the room.

"Nobody mention the competition to Vic, understand? I didn't tell her about it since she might get nervous, and I want to see what she is capable of. I may have _finally_ found somebody to compete with," he evilly grinned, as he watched the three of them heading to the game room. "I'll let her know afterwards."

As they walked into the room, he heard a groan from Steve as he saw Tony holding the guitar. He still loved to torture everyone by playing when he was in the mood. Sometimes he would have FRIDAY put the music over the Tower internal comm systems to _really_ annoy everyone.

"Silence everybody, no talking," he said pointing at Steve, as well as Barnes.

He doubted that they had thought to mention the long standing competition that he had set up. It gave all of the Avengers incentive to play and compete with him. But to date, nobody had been able to win anything, which he was actually a bit disappointed in them about. He passed the guitar over to Vic, curious as to how good she was.

As she began to click down the list of songs, he was a bit surprised when she stopped on what he considered the bane of his existence on any of the games, _Through the Fire and Flames_. He looked over the group watching, wanting to see if their expressions were as curious as his own, and he was not disappointed. He made them all suffer through it _numerous_ times.

Even with all of the practicing that he had done, he could barely make it through the song set on medium difficulty. So, when Vic moved the difficulty to expert, he felt sure that she was joking.

Hitting start, Vic turned to face him, with a smile on her face.

"Did you know that there are thirty-seven hundred twenty-two notes in this song?" she ask turning back around as the screen changed to the fret to start the song.

As she stroked the strum bar once, he could not believe what he was seeing. Somehow she was playing the entire first riff with only her left hand on the fret. Standing back up quickly from the other couch where he had sat next to Pepper, Bruce and Nat, he moved around the corner of the room so that he could watch. Vic didn't seem to even take notice as he had moved. When the next section of song started, she finally began to strum the instrument.

When the song eventually got to the beginning of the lyrics, he then heard her voice join the on-screen singer's voice. The loveliness of the sound carried through the room stronger than the one coming through the speakers. The minutes continued on as he watched her play without a single mistake. But as the song got to the middle part, the impossible riff that always made him stumble, he saw a smile come over her face as she then turned to face him.

Making eye contact with him, Vic was continuing to play the song without even looking at the screen. He looked over at the television, watching as the counter on the side showed that she was still at the highest multiplier as well as the screen flashing her note streak at every one-hundred notes.

When the riff was over and the final chorus began, Vic closed her eyes as she sang, showing off her incredible vocal skill.

As the song ended, Tony moved to stand directly in front of the screen, and he saw that she had indeed made a perfect expert 100% with just over a million points. Turning to face Vic, she was now calmly taking the guitar off of her shoulder, walking it over to the cabinet, and placing it back on the stand.

He wanted to say something, but he was too in shock for a single word to come out.

"So…how was _that_ for a party trick?" he heard Victoria say, as she was now sitting herself down between the two men who were shocked into speechlessness, just as he was…hell, just as the _entire room_ was. "I used to work in a bar that did Guitar Hero Nights when the game was so popular."

The group could only stare at her with goofy smiles while their mouths were open, which he knew was what his own expression was.

Closing his mouth, yet again tonight, he turned around and carefully closed the cabinet doors, taking a moment to digest what had just happened.

Two vehicles were now gone from his beautiful collection.

Leaning forward, he hit his head on the closed cabinet doors as he sulked.

Rhodey's shock finally left him first, and he fell into a fit of laughter that had tears falling down his face. It had finally dawned on him as to _exactly_ what they had just witnessed. Hearing something from behind him, he turned to see both Pepper and Natasha begin to lose it, following Rhodey's example, all of them laughing at him _finally_ being beaten at his _favorite_ game. Only Bruce remained quite, maybe still impressed more with her skill than at his loss.

Looking over at Victoria, he saw that her expression had turned into anger as she made a point to examine the face of everyone in the room. Vic then quickly stood and bolted for the door. Luckily, he was close to it so as he reached out, he was able to grab onto her upper arm, stopping Vic from fleeing the room.

"Let go," he heard her growl in a deep voice, filled with resentment, while yanking hard trying to free her arm. He saw her right hand slightly raised while balled into a fist, ready to strike out. Both Steve and Barnes, who had not expected her to run from between them like that, had stood just as she had left the couch, but he held up his other hand to motion for them to stop when he was able to grab her. Rhodey, Pepper, and Nat had stopped laughing as she had bolted, not understanding why she was doing it.

Moving so that he was in front of her, he saw that her face was taunt and showed that she was furious, and he realized that she believed that everyone was laughing at her ability, at what she was able to do.

"Victoria, listen to me, nobody is laughing at you!" he sincerely told Vic, looking her straight in the eye. "What you just did, that was amazing, just like last night at the piano. Nobody here would ever make fun of you for what you can do! They are laughing at _me_!"

Looking over her shoulder, Tony could see the worry on both Steve's and Barnes' faces at knowing that Vic was angry. Their body language spoke volumes to wanting to move to be with her. But, he had inadvertently caused this, for her to feel that she was being teased, as she had just told him she had been during school. He could only imagine the painful memories that it must have brought to her.

A simple, "Why?" was all that she could manage to spit out.

"Because of the competition that I set up when I became addicted to playing these games years ago," he said as he watched her beginning to slightly calm down.

"Competition? I don't understand," she said not grasping his too simple explanation.

"I decreed years ago, that anyone able to play any song on hard, and get a perfect score, would be able to select _anything_ in the garage as their own. Anyone who achieved a _perfect_ score on _expert_ could have _two_ toys. They are laughing because I just lost a competition that _nobody_ has _ever_ been able to accomplish over the past few years," he told her as he finally release her arm, knowing that she would not try and run again, and luckily the fist was gone.

"I didn't do that for a car. I was just trying to mess with you," she said glancing partially back at the quite room to see what the others were doing. The others had sobered up their expressions and grown quiet as he had explained.

He took a hold of her hand and walked her back over to where her soulmates were. Still remembering their talk, and with what just happened, Tony made a point to pass her hand that he was holding off to Barnes, who gave his head a simple nod in thanks. It wasn't until he had done it that he realized that he had smiled back at Barnes.

"Well, too bad, because tomorrow, we are heading downstairs to the garage and you will select from whatever toys I have in there," Tony said moving back over to the couch to sit next to Pepper.

"I'm _not_ taking a car from you, Tony, for doing… _that_. It wouldn't be right," Vic waved her hand towards where the guitars were, as the two men sat her back down between them, each of them now taking a hold onto a hand. "What I did could be called cheating. All I did was copy the pattern."

" _That_ was not cheating, and the point of the game is to copy the patter...and it is _two_ toys, I believe. Wherever the skill comes from, it is still yours. I watched as you played. I will humbly admit that I will _never_ be able to do that, and I can do _many_ incredible things, _thank you_ ," he said taking a slight bow as he was still sitting. "And don't even get me started on your singing. Why the hell were you working in a strip club if you can sing like that? You should be on Broadway."

He watched as Vic almost said something, but then closed her mouth, as if she thought better of it. If she didn't want to say, he was not going to push her right now. Pepper then gently pushed her leg against his to get his attention. He saw her nod back towards the main room, and he got the hint that it was time to break up the party.

"Well, I need to go wallow in a drink...or three. A wake for every single first place ranking I'm about to lose," he whined, standing up and offering his hand to Pepper, who stood. As they walked towards the door, he made a point to turn around for a last time and pointed to Vic to get her attention. "Tomorrow, garage...and no Iron Man suits."

"I was hoping that you wouldn't think of that," Vic playfully called out, giving him a smile as he and Pepper rounded the corner.


	27. Explanations

Right as Tony and Pepper were walking out of the room, Natasha got up, took Vic by the hand, dragging her up and down the hallway towards the bathrooms, before he or Steve could ask anything. Bruce and Rhodey sat there for a while before Rhodey finally spoke.

"Man, I'm sorry for laughing, but I had no idea that Victoria would think that I was laughing at her," he said looking over at him and Steve. "But seeing someone finally put Tony in his place when it came to that game..."

"We are not exactly sure why she acted that way. Victoria has mentioned being worried about showing people some of her talents, but we've told her that nobody here will judge her. If I'd known she was going to try and run, I would have stopped her before she got off of the couch," Steve said leaning forward to put his arms on his legs.

"We need to go have a talk with her," he said staring in the direction of the hallway. "I still want to know why she and Tony needed a private chat to begin with."

"Alright, when Nat finally releases her, we'll head downstairs," Steve agreed.

They talked with Bruce and Rhodey for almost ten minutes, telling Rhodey about what Vic had already shown the group that she could do. He asked that the next time he was in town, knowing their night was over, that he would love to hear her play the piano, and they said they would ask.

When he heard the sound of Natasha's shoes on the floor, he stood up and headed for the door, not bothering to wait for Steve.

"Well, it looks like we are going," he heard Steve tell the others as he rounded the corner, heading right for Vic, who had a smile on her face talking with Natasha, until she turned her head and got a good look at him. She then stopped walking, her eyes slightly widening as she took a side-step away from Nat, putting some distance between them, as if she knew what he was about to do.

Without stopping, he lowered his torso while reaching out with his right arm. Wrapping it around Vic's waist, he lifted her up onto his shoulder and continued down the hall to where the elevator was without missing a step.

"This isn't embarrassing at all," he heard Vic say as he felt her hands plant on his back so she could look up. "Guess I'll see you tomorrow, Nat."

"Good luck," he heard the Widow say as he pressed the button for the elevator.

"Natasha," Steve said as he quickly passed her, trying to catch up to them.

Stepping onto the elevator, they headed to their floor, where he was determined to find out exactly what had transpired with Tony, as well as why she had tried to run when they had told her that nobody would judge her. When the doors opened, he stepped into their place, but then he stopped.

"Where should I put her?" he turned to ask Steve.

"How about _down_?" Vic supplied with her own answer.

"Your bed," Steve decided, which brought a smile to his face.

"What?" Vic said turning her body in the direction of Steve.

Trudging down the hallway, he pushed his door open and walked over to the bed, where he placed his left arm behind her back before gently dropping Vic on to his bed, with minimal bounce. She just lay there with her arms wide at her sides, forming a t, staring at the ceiling.

Vic then started to comment in a funny sounding voice, " _Hey Vic, we would like to talk with you. Mind if we head downstairs? Why no, I was just coming to get the two of you so we could_."

"I will concede, that _could_ have been handled better," Steve glared at him, as he shut the doors to the bedroom. "But I believe that Buck has gotten both of our intentions across."

He still found it amusing that he called him Buck only when he was serious about something. Steve then came to stand next to him on his right as they both stood looking down on Vic who had not bothered to move yet.

"So, I'm just going to let the two of you being the interrogation," Vic was still lying down, but crossing her legs while putting her hands behind her head. She actually looked comfortable, which slightly irritated him. Shouldn't she at least be worried?

"Victoria, would you care to explain why you dragged Tony into a private meeting?" Steve asked crossing his arms over his chest, to which he decided to match.

"He called me Vikki. I already _warned_ him at the club _not_ to do that," she firmly stated, turning her eyes down so that she was looking at the two of them. Moving her arms to her sides, then pushing up to rest on her elbows, she stared at the two of them, smiling. "That's adorable! You're both trying to intimidate me!"

They'd had grown HYDRA agents in front of them during interrogations that had talked from just being alone in the same room with them, like right now…and here Vic was saying they were adorable?

"That's it?" Steve asked, looking over at him, to which he just shrugged since he had no idea.

"Yep, I told him the first day we met, it's either Victoria or Vic. _Never_ Vikki," she the tilted her head back so that she was looking at the headboard. Reaching back, Vic grabbed two of his pillows and shoved them behind her head, making herself even _more_ comfortable. He noticed that she then slightly turned her head and took a breath, inhaling the scent from his pillow. He had to bite his tongue slightly to keep from smiling at the strange, intimate gesture.

"There is no way Tony would just do what you asked, without some kind of explanation, so what did you tell him?" Steve asked, pointing out a fact. It was a well known fact that Tony _always_ did whatever he wanted to. Only during missions could Steve have _some_ kind of control over him. They kept staring down at her, both of them probably wanting to sit down next to her.

Vic closed her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest, duplicating them, then answered, "Natasha suggested just getting it over with, like ripping a Band-Aid or a bikini waxing, so here it goes. I explained to him that I do not like that name since the kids in school who bullied me about my soulmark used to call me Vikki Hickey."

"Bullied?" he spit out, sounding a lot calmer than he actually felt.

"Yes, bullied. You know...teased, picked on, and _laughed_ at. Then there were the trippings, pushes down the stairs, the rocks being thrown, and the weekly beatings. Ya get the gist," flippantly waving he hand while keeping her eyes closed as she spoke, probably making it easier to tell them. That's what she was talking about last night when she had mentioned her high school reunion.

Dropping his arms, his fist began to clench, hard, making his arm calibrate.

"Stop that right now! Both of you!" Vic firmly stated, now looking at both of them, making him look over at Steve who had a look on his face that he had not seen outside of a firefight. "Either ya'll calm down, or I'll walk out of here!"

"I'd like to see you try," he said as Steve took a step away, turning away from the bed slightly. What Vic had been through sounded a bit like what Steve had to deal with when he was younger. Except it seemed to be Steve who somehow caused most of his fights, trying to do something courageous, before it backfired and got him beaten to a pulp. Vic didn't have it that way, she had not deserved to be treated like that all because of a soulmark.

"Why don't ya'll just sit down before you faint," Vic told them, putting her arms back behind her head. Looking over at Steve, he nodded his approval so they both sat on the edge of the bed near Vic's feet. When they were positioned, Vic continued. "This was years ago, and it's in the past, so don't worry about it."

"That doesn't mean that we can't be upset," Steve said.

"And what does _that_ accomplish? There's _no point_ in getting upset. It was because of them that I agreed to start learning how to defend myself. Granted, I may not be able to go seven-to-one when fighting, but who can. Well, maybe the two of you could," Vic said tapping both of their hips with her feet, which were situated between them, trying to joke about what had happened. She should be angry, just like they were. He had trained Steve for a few weeks at boxing to try and help him fight off bullies, and it seemed that Vic had done the same.

They sat there for a few moments, him thinking about what she must have gone through during school. He remembered most of the times when he had to defend Steve when he had been small. To think that a group of kids would gang up on a single female, it just seemed impossible. Times had changed so much since they were young.

Steve then calmly asked, "So, when the others started laughing at _Tony_ , you thought it was directed at _you_ , didn't you?"

"Yeah. I've already talked with Nat, and she explained a bit more, as well as apologizing for everyone again. They had no idea what was happening. If anything, I'm now more embarrassed that I thought they _were_ laughing at me. I know that you've both said that nobody would, just like last night with the piano, but when I heard them, it was just too familiar."

"That's not the only thing that you and Tony talked about, was it?" Steve asked taking him from his thoughts.

"No," she answered a bit more hesitantly, then giving a heavy sigh, "I kind of, also, told Tony to punch me in the face."

"Vic!" he yelled more than he had meant to.

"Calm down, dude! _Obviously_ he didn't," she was adjusting the pillow under her head slightly.

" _Why_ would you tell him to do something like that in the _first place_?" Steve asked but he could hear the strain in his voice.

"Because I was _sick_ of him giving Bucky the stink-eye all night, every time I was near him. I told Tony that every time he did that, it was hurting me, so I told him to get it out of his system, and just do it for real and punch me," Vic answered.

"You should _not_ have done that!" he said as his arm sounded off again.

" _Too bad_ , because I _did_! In my own way, I just pointed out to him that mentally hurting someone could be the same as physically hurting someone. We talked, and he agreed to try and work on his attitude towards you," she said, touching her foot to his side.

Steve then turned to him, "That's why he offered you, instead of me, Victoria's hand, and then smiled at you," reminding him of the strange event. Had she really stood up to Tony just for him? Tony usual habits were either to avoid or ignore him, or annoy him, so when he had held her hand to him, he hadn't understood why.

"So, you two calmed down yet?" Vic asked as she started to take off one of her boots. "Because there's a hockey game starting in a little while and I want to try my new – hopefully lucky - jersey out."

Turning he could only watch as Vic removed her other boot, exposing the purple polka-dotted pink socks that she was wearing. How could he find the things hideous and funny at the same time? Reaching out, he took a hold of her left foot so she knew they weren't done yet, but the action got a small giggle out of her. Was she ticklish? Rubbing his thumb over the bottom of her foot, Vic's eyes grew wide as she jerked her foot away from him hard, but he was not letting her go yet.

"Stop that!"

"What you did...telling Tony to hit you, you will _never_ do that again. Do you understand?" he said rubbing his thumb over the bottom of her foot again, causing a lovely squeal from Vic.

"Steve, stop him!" she laughed out, as she tried to pull her foot away.

"I have to agree with Bucky on this one, Victoria. I believe _reckless_ would be the correct term," Steve said as he reached over and took a hold of her other foot. "Do you agree to not be so reckless?"

"This coming from someone who doesn't know what a _parachute_ is!" she was now squirming on his bed as Steve had joined him in tickling her. Seeing her body wiggle from them giving her such simple touches stirred something in him. As she giggled, she then laughingly yelled at them, "I can promise _nothing_!"

That was all that he could take. Dropping his hold on her foot, he quickly moved up her left side, taking her left wrist in his hand, pinning it right next to her head. Vic was now very focused on his eyes, her own blue eyes seeming to sparkle. There was not a hint of worry on her face from his movements.

"We are going to get a promise from you," he informed her, bringing his face down so that it was in the crook of her neck, running his stubbly cheek up her sensitive skin, causing a shiver to run through her body. As he closed his eyes and inhaled her sweet coconut scent, he felt movement on the bed and knew that it had to be Steve also needing more. When he reached her cheek, he leaned over and gave her a firm kiss on the lips, hungrily working at them.

Opening his eyes, he could see that Steve was now sitting opposite of him, Vic's right arm in his own, as he kissed her wrist. His fingers were running a line down her bare arm, on the ticklish underside, making Vic continue to squirm. Moving slightly back from her, he nodded to Steve, who then proceeded to lean in and continue the kiss he had started. He noticed that Steve then pinned her right arm the same as he was doing to her left. Vic was now helpless on the bed, trapped between them, but she didn't seem to mind at all.

"We want that promise," he informed her, running his hand over her belly, while Steve's was running over her upper thigh. He watched as her lower body slightly gyrated from Steve's touches. Seeing him touching her so easily, without turning red, made him glad the Punk had the courage. As Steve pulled back from his kiss, Vic looked between the two of them, her breathing a bit heavier than it had been moments ago.

"So...if I promise, does this stop, or continue?" she asked with a wicked looking grin on her face.

Gazing at her, he felt a calmness come over him as she spoke. He looked over to Steve and saw that he seemed to have come to his senses a bit too. Dropping his head so that it landed on her shoulder, he took a few deep calming breaths before he finally lifted his head back up. Steve had already released her hand from the bed, so that he was now just giving the back of her hand a gentle kiss.

"We have waited too long to be with you, Victoria. We are not going to let our first time be because of some random act of lust on our part," Steve told her before giving her wrist another kiss.

"So, now the two of you are just teasing me? Great, I thought that was my job," she said smiling while poking the two of them in the sides, just like she had done to him this morning, making both of them slightly jump.

"Tease all you want, we won't mind," he said reaching down to offer his hand to her to help her sit up, which she accepted. "But trust me, you'll know when we are _not_ teasing anymore."

"We actually wanted to take you out on a proper, formal date," Steve told her as he stood up. Right now, he wished they already had, but it was still too soon. They had not even met Vic a week ago yet.

"But we _do_ need a promise from you. At _least_ promise that you won't _tell_ anyone else to _hit_ you?" Steve said helping Vic to stand up on the floor. Steve then wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her in place. Coming up behind her, he slid his left hand across her right shoulder, moving her hair away so that the back of her neck was exposed. He touched the bare skin, running a finger down the few inches he saw, sending another shiver through her. Leaning in he gave the back of her neck a kiss.

"Fine," she said wiggling in Steve's arms after he given her another kiss, "I promise I won't tell anyone else to hit me."

"That's all we wanted," Steve said leaning in to kiss Vic on the lips.

"Well, that not all we wanted," he had to throw in, while pulling her shirt slightly over to the side so that he could give a final kiss to her bare shoulder.

* * *

A few minutes later in her room, Vic was lying on the floor of her closet, with the door closed, her arms spread over her head as she stared at the ceiling. After giving them her promise, she needed to a few minutes to calm herself down, and this reminded her of being back in her small apartment. When she had been lying on the bed, with both of them next to her, she had _so_ wanted them to continue touching her. She had never acted like that before, but of course, there had never been anyone to act that way for.

Then, as she thought of it, back in their day, women were much more subdued, and would _never_ act the way that she had. Would they begin to think that she was too easy? Had she messed up? That didn't even include the fact that she had partially stripped for them when she took her shirt off the other night. Steve may have joked when she had asked him about what happened, but why had she not thought about their how they may view her flashy ways? All the terms the kids in school used to call her for having two more soulmates…hussy, whore, slut…suddenly had come rushing back to her.

That was what brought on the small panic attack that had brought her to the floor right now.

" _Miss Victoria, are you feeling alright_?" FRIDAY's voice spoke to her.

"Yes, FRIDAY, I'm fine. I just needed to take a few minutes to calm down," she answered the voice.

" _Should I contact the Captain or Sergeant of your condition_?" FRIDAY asked.

"No! No, I'm fine! I just do this sometimes. It's nothing to be worried about," she said guessing that Tony had her programmed to look for any sudden medical conditions that may happen to someone in the Tower. "I just got a bit too excited."

" _Alright, Miss Victoria_ ," FRIDAY's voice said before disappearing and letting her get back to her worrying.

Neither one of them seemed to have been bothered by what she considered her immodest behavior. Of course, Bucky had to put in a joke. But when Bucky had moved to be right next to her, and then when he moved so Steve could kiss her, her entire body was screaming for them to continue. Was it bad that she had wanted both of them to be touching her, to be kissing her? But, both of them, being near her, it had not felt evil, like she had been told it was. Instead, it had felt wonderful, just like when they had kissed in the closet. If they had thought something was wrong with all three of them being together, they would have put a stop to it…right?

That's what she had always wanted for years, and it had just felt so right to feel them next to her. Even this morning when she had woken up and found that she was holding on to both of them, it had felt so nice, and not just because she had slept well. Then she had become embarrassed at what she had done. It had even been she who brought up keeping their sleeping test as platonic. Well, that had gone out the window pretty quick.

Since she was not sure how long she had actually been lying on the floor, but knowing that it had to have been a few minutes longer than she had intended, she stood up and started to change her clothes. She would love to go and punch something to finish working out the stress she was feeling, but she would have to settle for yelling at the tv, and maybe hoping for a fight or two.

Vic then took out a new pair of pajamas that she had gotten today, a shorts and tank-top combo, since she knew that soon she would be sitting between the two of them again. She pulled the large jersey off of its hanger and tossed it over her head, letting it settle onto her body. The end of the sleeves touched her fingertips and the bottom hem was just a bit longer than her shorts, resting at mid-thigh. The oversized item just felt so right...not tight at all.

Walking into the bathroom, she looked in the mirror and gave a small laugh. It looked like she was wearing nothing but the jersey. Then she realized that she was dressed exactly how she was just worried about seeming...a little too easy. Maybe Wade had been right about her sometimes dressing too skimpy. She would have to go change, she couldn't go out to sit with them and watch the game wearing this.

"Victoria, are you ready? The game's starting," she heard Steve calling out, probably from the bedroom door.

"Almost," she said realizing she sounded a bit disappointed. There was no way Steve had not picked up on that tone.

"Are you alright?" Steve asked sounding a lot closer now. Taking a step towards the open bathroom door, she saw that he had stepped into the room. She saw a grin come over his face as he watched her step into the bedroom.

"Yeah, I just need to change," she said heading towards the closet. Before she could get there, Steve took a hold of her wrist, stopping her from entering it.

"Why do you need to change?" he asked turning her around so that she faced him. "I thought that you were looking forward to wearing this?"

"I can't sit out there with the two of you dressed like this. I feel bad enough at what happened just now," she dropped her head slightly at the admission.

"Victoria, I'm sorry if we were a too forward with you earlier. We weren't really thinking about how it might scare you," Steve said rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand. "We let our emotions get a bit out of hand."

"What? Scared? No, definitely not! It's not what ya'll did, it's how I acted, what I said. I know I tease for fun, but being with ya'll like that, I thought that ya'll might have not liked me acting so provocative," she said just taking the leap and admitting to it.

"I'm telling you right now, that there was _nothing wrong_ with the way you acted just now. We would have been more disappointed if you _hadn't_ felt that way towards us. It's been a long time since we've even kissed a woman. I was even a bit worried that I wouldn't remember how," Steve confessed dropping his own head a bit with a cute smile.

"Even with the _practice_ you had with _Natasha_?" she said grinning at him, but she noticed he didn't turn red this time.

"I still can't _believe_ she told the two of you about that," he said shaking his head. Pulling her into an embrace, he gave her a strong, possessive kiss. "Don't ever think that we don't like you just the way you are. Remember, don't change anything about yourself for us. If you are worried about _anything_ , just talk with us. Deal?"

Instead of answering, she leaned up to give him a kiss of her own, knowing that she would _already_ be breaking that deal, thinking about worrying once the public found out about them, as well as what may happen because of it. But, if they would get upset about something that happened years ago to her, how would they handle the press? "Come on. The game's probably started."


	28. A Full Day of Working

The next morning Vic woke up to the feeling of someone running their fingers over her arm, caressing it softly. She then became aware of that same arm being draped over a nice, warm, firm chest. Since she was lying on her left side, it could only be Bucky. Stretching her body just a bit, she then realized that there was an arm lying over her side, touching her belly, holding her to another very warm, hard body…Steve. She could definitely wake up like this for a long time, she thought with a grin.

After the hockey game had been over, and of course the Blackhawks had won, they had shut down the living room and gotten ready for bed in their own rooms. Without even discussing it, the two of them had appeared in her room, leaving just enough room between them for her on the bed. She had crawled down the middle of it, their eyes bugging wide due to the slight show she was giving them, feeling better about continuing the teasing after talking with Steve. But this time, they had exchanged goodnight kisses before falling asleep, her hand grabbing a hold of Steve's left arm, instead of a pillow this time, as she rolled on her side.

"Morning, darlin'," Bucky said, leaning over to give her forehead a kiss. Seconds later, she felt another kiss being planted on the side of her neck from Steve.

"What time is it?" she asked deciding that she did _not_ want to get out of bed.

"Just before seven," Steve answered, pulling her slightly closer to him. When he did, it started to pull her arm off of Bucky's chest.

"Watch it, Punk. You can't steal her like that," he said rolling over onto his side towards her and wrapping his arm over her midsection, which only resulting in him pulling his own body closer since Steve's hold was too strong to move her back towards him. Now, she was fully nestled between the two of them.

"Nope, not awkward at all," she moved just slightly, actually trying to snuggle closer to the both of them. The three of them then laid like that for almost half an hour before her stomach began to growl loudly.

"Sounds like its breakfast time," Steve said before planting a kiss on her bare shoulder.

"The two of you are getting a cooking lesson," she informed them, reaching down to take Steve's hand in hers. "How have ya'll not learned to make a real breakfast since living here?"

"There's a really good diner within walking distance," Bucky said, giving a cute smirk.

"That figures," she mumbled, poking him in his stomach with a finger from the hand that was currently holding Steve's hand. Bucky jumped back slightly.

"Couldn't you have stopped her, Punk?" he asked as he moved away to prevent her from doing it again, releasing her from his hold.

"I didn't want to," Steve informed him, now pulling her tightly to him, laughing at winning their earlier competition as Bucky got up.

"I'll remember that tomorrow during the gauntlet," Bucky pointed at Steve as he stretched in front of the large window wall.

"One day soon, I want to head to that building," she started, pointing with both of their hands, out of the window at a nearby skyscraper, "and look through these windows myself to see if you really can't see inside."

"That can be arranged," Steve said kissing her shoulder again before rolling over and getting up out of the bed himself. "Worried about putting on a show?"

"Nope. Wondering how much of a show to give," she said sitting up, stretching, and then, with a lot of purpose, starting to crawl like a cat seductively down the bed towards the foot of it. She made sure to sway her hips side to side, to emphasize her point.

"That is really _not_ fair," Steve said shaking his head, while Bucky could only stare at her.

"I know," she whined, getting up off of the bed and heading into the bathroom, giving them a wicked smile, as she closed the door.

Once the three of them met back up in the kitchen, she got right down to teaching them what she considered some of the basics. While she had Steve cracking eggs, she got into a two minute argument with Bucky about how he was attempting to hold a knife to chop vegetables.

"I don't care how you think you should be holding the knife. This is produce, not a person, and I know what I'm talking about," she said once again moving his fingers slightly so that they were in the appropriate position, while also trying to get him to hold the mushroom correctly.

"Can't you go correct Steve about something he's doing wrong?" Bucky asked, starting to finally slice the proper way, but very slowly.

"Yeah, I'll get _right_ on that," she sarcastically told him, while pulling out the dry goods from the pantry. "Do you have a waffle iron?"

"I don't think so," Steve said as he cracked an egg and then began to remove the shell pieces.

"Pancakes again then," she said getting the items to mix the batter with.

" _Miss Natasha is requesting entrance to your floor_ ," FRIDAY said over the speakers.

"That's fine, FRIDAY," Steve answered. The elevator opened up and Nat walked in still wearing her own silky black pajamas but with a fluffy, thick red robe on over them.

"Good morning, mind if I invite myself to breakfast?" Nat said sitting down on one of the stools, watching the three of them working.

Opening up the fridge, she searched for meat, bacon or sausages or ham, and found nothing.

"Not at all. How can grown men not have bacon?" she asked aloud, pulling the milk out. "How are groceries handled here?"

"There's a set grocery list that gets delivered every week. Mostly basic items. We've never bothered to add or change it since we don't cook much," Steve told her, finally whisking the eggs. Looking over she saw Bucky still working on the vegetables. She was going to have to make him practice a lot more. Steve had told her that he was good with a knife, but from what she could see, his dicing technique was slow and sloppy.

"You know, Bruce may have some bacon," Nat supplied to the conversation.

"Can you find out if he does?" she ask Nat starting to get the utensils out.

"FRIDAY, open a channel to Bruce," Nat requested.

" _Open_ ," FRIDAY responded.

"Bruce, you still asleep?" Natasha asked.

" _Not anymore_ ," she heard Bruce mumble as an answer. " _What do you want, Natty_?"

"Do you have any bacon?" she asked.

" _No, but I know that Tony does_ ," Bruce told her. " _That man is addicted to it_."

"Hey, Bruce, it's Vic. Grab Tony, Pepper, and the bacon and come to our floor for breakfast," Vic said as she started to calculate the quadrupling of the recipe for pancakes in her head.

" _Be right there_ ," Bruce said, sounding a bit happier than he had been moments ago after being woken up.

"Steve, double the eggs you just did," she said heading back over to the fridge for more vegetables. Plopping them down in front of Bucky she received a groan from him. As she was mixing up the batter, she kept correcting Bucky's grip, which earned a coughing covered-up laugh from Natasha. Bucky glared at her sitting across the bar, as Nat suddenly became _very_ interested in her nails. A few minutes later, Bruce and Tony appeared with bacon in hand.

Bruce was wearing blue flannel pants with a t-shirt that had the periodic table of elements on it. Tony looked a bit like he usually seemed to. He had on an old Van Halen t-shirt but his long, black pajama bottoms had little Batman symbols all over them. The hair on both of their heads were in competition as to whose was the fluffiest this morning.

"Where's Pepper?" Steve asked working on more eggs.

"Conference call to eastern Europe," Tony answered, putting the package of bacon on the counter. "She been up for over an hour, which is just another example as to why I gave her the company."

Picking the bacon up, she opened it and filled the warm frying pan that she had waiting for it, as everyone began to chat. Seeing that Bucky was only about half way through the extra vegetables, she walked over to him.

"Pass it over," she was holding out her hand for the knife. Pinging his silver arm with a flick of her finger, she informed him, "You're on bacon duty."

He grumbled as he handed the knife over and moved to the stove. She could see the three guests giving each other looks of not understanding until she started chopping the vegetables up. Vic had copied Chef Sawada's technique, so she moved more than twice the speed that Bucky had been going at.

"That's something I never thought I'd see," Tony commented, "Someone better at knives than Barnes."

"I've worked as a sous chef for a bit, while he worked at doing _other_ things with knives," she said finishing up with the vegetables, but not fully explaining her ability. Scooping them up in her hands, she dropped them into the waiting eggs, which happened to be on the counter next to Bucky. Giving him a kiss on the cheek, she said, "He'll get better with practice."

That got a laugh from everyone, including Tony, which she was actually very happy about. Everyone kept chatting for the next few minutes while she worked on the pancakes, Steve the omelets, and Bucky the bacon. She pulled out plates and silverware for everyone, and Natasha and Bruce began to set the table.

The pot of coffee went quickly as did the orange juice, and everyone was enjoying themselves as the large group sat at their table eating, joking, and talking.

"And you said that you didn't need a table this big," Tony said reaching over for more bacon. "Don't you know that I'm always right by now?"

That got most of the people at the table to roll their eyes.

"So, have you thought about which of Tony's toys you're going to take from him?" Bruce asked on his second omelet.

"Not really. I still don't feel right about how it happened," she said taking another bite.

"You have to. We've been waiting _years_ for someone to be able _wipe the floor_ with him," Nat said, giving Tony a sweet smile.

"If you don't, I'll just sign two over to you of my choice," Tony said reaching for even more bacon.

"Fine, but later this afternoon. I need to finish getting the rest of my stuff out of the apartment today," she said finishing her meal.

"Out of curiosity, when can I get the three of you into the lab for some tests?" Bruce hesitantly asked. Just from the way the two of them had talked about Bruce over the past days, she had known he was curious. "I really want to see how much of a connection you have."

She looked between Steve and Bucky, both of whom just shrugged.

"How about we try for next week? We've found a few things you'd probably like to know and maybe over the next few days, we might find more," she said picking up her plate, taking it over to the sink.

"Great. I'll start to work on my questions," Bruce said picking up his, Tony, and Natasha's plates and bring them to the sink. Steve and Bucky soon joined her at the sink with the rest of the dishes from the table, the three of the forming a line, washing, drying, putting away, without speaking a word. Glancing over her shoulder after getting the feeling of being watched, she saw their guests all smiling at them as the sight, finding the scene of them working together amusing.

"Alright, break it up," she said waving her hand to shoo them away. "Go find a bad guy or something."

After everyone had left, once they thanked them for breakfast, with Tony even giving Bucky a nod, she headed to her room to get dressed. Bucky had said that he would take her to the apartment in a SUV to get the rest of her items. By the time she was ready, he was sitting on the couch waiting, smiling since he was getting some alone time with her, she knew.

* * *

When Vic opened the apartment door, he took a step inside and stopped. Looking around, he found it smaller than it had appeared from the window. There was not a lot of belongings inside of it but he noticed that every surface was clean, even if it was old and needed work. It was cold inside of the small room, with no visible radiator, which explained the small portable heater on the floor by the window. That was what she had been messing with the other night as they watched, he realized. Both of them left their coats on due to the chill.

"Steve had that same look on his face," Vic said, pushing him further in the room so she could close the door. "You two have been hanging around Tony too long."

"It's not that," he told her, walking over to the window and looking out. There were other windows across the small alley which allowed him to see inside some of the other building's apartments. He check the area and found nothing alarming from across the small alleyway. "Our old place in Brooklyn was nicer than this and it was in the forties."

"It worked fine since it was just me, and only a temporary place for a few months, before moving on again. Trust me when I say I've lived in worse," she said pulling out a trash bag from under the sink. Walking over to the closet, she began to toss the remaining few clothing items and her wigs inside of it. There was a small single person tent in a carrying bag at the far back, which she put next to the door. He had asked if they needed to stop somewhere for boxes, but she had told him it wasn't necessary. She really seemed to do stuff in her own way.

"You were supposed to be leaving town tomorrow," he said turning away from the window and leaning back onto the wall next to it. They had been _so_ close to never having met her.

"And now, I'm not," she said giving him a smile as she tied the bag to prevent the items from falling out. "Unless you're trying to give me a hint."

Taking three steps to where Vic was standing, he wrapped his arms around her, giving her a firm kiss.

"Absolutely not!" he stated as she wrapped her arms around him.

"You sure? I could always…" she started to say before he quickly moved to plant her on her back on the sleeping bag and air mattress, his own body atop of hers.

"Don't even joke about it!"

"You know, when Steve was here the other night, _he_ was a perfect gentleman," she said reaching up so that her hand ran through his hair.

"His loss then," he smirked, as she pulled him down for another kiss.

As they continued to kiss, he felt Vic's hand sliding down his left arm, until she reached his hand, intertwining their fingers. He pulled back slightly, still a bit unsure about how to handle her touching him.

"Stop doing that," he heard Vic say as she moved their hands so that they now rested on the mattress next to her head. "Did you even notice this morning when running your fingers over my arm, but especially when you tried to pull me away from Steve, that both times, you were using your left arm?"

He had not even thought about it at the time, but Vic was right. Without even considering what could happen, he had automatically used it gently while he had tried to get her back from Steve. He had gripped around her waist, pulling at Vic, and he had not hurt her. How had he not thought about it or even noticed?

"So, are you going to stop worrying about something happening?" she asked running her free hand through his hair.

"I didn't even think of it this morning. I'll try," he said giving her a kiss. Vic then lifted their hands and brought them close, giving his metal fingers a kiss, smiling at him.

"It's chilly in here. Let me get finished packing so we can get out of here," she said.

"I can think of something that would warm us up," he leaned over and began to kiss her neck.

"Oh, you can reach the space heater?"

"That's a low blow, darlin'," he told her as she grinned up at him.

Wanting to give a bit of payback, he nudged his right leg between hers, spreading them just enough. The look on her face as his thigh slid over her groin area was one he had not seen in over seventy years. Between the sound of her breath catching as her eyes closed at the sensation she was feeling, he felt his own body growing with anticipation.

Lowering his chest just enough to press firmly against Vic's, his lips captured hers, as they began to fervently began to kiss. Her nails raked firmly through his hair, creating a delightful sensation to pass over him. His own hands he kept off of her, wanting to take it further, but knowing this was not the time or place. He _did_ let his leg glide over her a few more times, receiving a lovely moan each time.

They kissed for only a little while longer before lifting himself up and moving to lie next to Vic on the small mattress, rolling onto his back. That was as far as he would take a bit of private time…at least for right now.

"Yeah, definitely warm," Vic then said turning her head to glare at him with a knowing grin on her face. He couldn't help but smile at having proven a bit of his capabilities as Vic stood up to finish working.

It didn't take her long to get the last of the items together. She only had a single plate, bowl, cup, and silverware pieces. Besides two sizes of pots to be able to cook with and a few utensils, she didn't have anything. Tossing a lot of dry pasta and some cans into another bag, she then pulled out a couple of plastic grocery bags for the items from the fridge. The last items were the sleeping bag and mattress, which she deflated and rolled up, tossing it into the milk crate that she used as a nightstand.

As they headed down the stairs with everything in a single load between the two of them, she stopped him on the first floor before knocking on a door to an apartment. An older Asian lady opened up, giving Vic a warm smile as well as a hug. They then began to talk in what he guessed was Japanese, since it sounded so much like what she was singing yesterday.

He heard his name as Vic reached around to touch him on the arm. The lady then gave him a small bow before reaching with outstretched arms towards him. He understood that she intended to give him a hug, so he bent over so she could put her arms around him. He hadn't had a neighborhood lady do that since the forties, when he would help out around the apartments. As she pulled away, she pointed her finger at him, speaking rapidly at him.

"Mrs. Ogawa is telling you to be good to me. I just told her that you are one of my soulmates," Vic explained to him. He gave the lady a smile as well as a nod of his head so that she knew he understood. Vic then went back to talking with her for a moment before handing her the small space heater, which she accepted with a bow. After a final hug goodbye, they headed to the vehicle, loading in the bags they had brought down.

When they were only a few blocks away from the apartment, Vic suddenly pointed to a parking space and told him to pull in.

"I'll be right back," she said jumping out of the vehicle, before he could even ask why they were there, and heading inside a small local bakery. Now he understood what Steve had been telling him about the other night, when she had done this to him. A few minutes later, she came out with two large boxes. Opening the back door, she placed them on the floor of the back seat. Getting back inside, she looked over at him, saying, "Alright, let's go."

"Care to explain?" he asked, pulling back out into traffic.

"A special dessert for tonight, for everyone," was all that Vic told him, reaching over to take his hand that he had sitting on the armrest. He wrapped their fingers together as he drove them home.

* * *

"Alright, guitar goddess, it's time," Tony commanded as the elevator doors opened not long after lunchtime. He had paged Victoria at lunch to expect him to personally give her a tour of the garage so that she could chose her prizes.

"Fine," she groaned, standing up from the couch where they all had been comfortably sitting, just starting to watch the very beginning of _The Green Mile_ , another pick from Victoria that they had not yet seen. Before standing, she gave him and Bucky a kiss on the check, saying, "I'll be back in a little while."

"You don't want us to go with you?" he asked, sure that she would want some help dealing with Tony.

"Nope, watch the movie, I've seen it," she said heading into the elevator. She gave them a wave as the door closed.

Turning back to the tv, they un-paused the movie and let it play. It did not take long before both of them were intently watching the movie, not even paying attention to the time. When the movie ended, _that_ was when they both realized just how long Victoria had been gone.

"Where are the two of them?" Bucky asked as he glanced at a clock, realizing that three hours had passed since they had headed to the garage.

"FRIDAY, where are Tony and Victoria?" he asked the AI.

" _They are in the garage, Captain_ ," the voice responded.

Turning to Bucky, he could only shrug his shoulders, not sure what was taking them so long.

"You as curious as I am?" Bucky asked him.

"I believe so," he said standing up and stretching from sitting for so long.

The ride in the elevator did not take long, and when the doors opened onto the garage level, their ears were assaulted with the loud sound of classical metal music being pumped through the speakers.

"Well, _Tony's_ definitely on this floor," he said as they stepped out of the elevator, looking around for the two of them. They could hear the sound of pieces of metal striking concrete coming from around one of the walls breaking up the large room. Heading in that direction towards the working mechanical area, they could hear the sound of raised voices as they got closer to wherever they were.

Rounding the concrete wall, they stopped walking at the sight before them. Both Tony and Victoria were standing under the raised hood of one of Tony's classic model cars, arguing about something, with lots of hand gesture from both of them.

What stopped them in their tracks was the fact that not only was Tony shirtless as he worked on the engine, but Victoria was also shirtless while still wearing a tight sports bra, similar to what Natasha wore sometimes during practice. It looked a lot like what they had seen her wear that first night through her apartment window. She had pulled her hair up into a messy ponytail with numerous escaped sections, which seemed to be being tied with a piece of string. The two of them not only matched in their shirtlessness, but they were both covered in grease on their faces, arms, and torso.

"No, torque it to what I told you, otherwise, it's going to crack the cylinder head," Victoria was saying pointing at whatever Tony was working on.

"Fine, but this better work," Tony whined, leaning further down into the engine.

"This is _not_ rocket science, which is probably why you _can't_ do it!" Victoria chided him, brushing a large messy chunk of her grease-smudged white hair off of her face with the back of her hand as she straightened up, finally noticing that he and Bucky were only a few feet away. A wide grin came over her face at seeing them. "Hey guys!"

"What are you doing?" Bucky asked starting to move, so he followed as he stared at her nicely exposed form.

"Trying to fix all the problems that _someone_ caused," she was turning her head slightly to make sure that Tony could hear her response, to which was a muffled bit of cursing from Tony.

"Let me rephrase that. Why are you not wearing any clothes?" Bucky then asked as they reached the car.

"I am wearing clothes, just not a shirt. I only bought it yesterday, so there was _no way_ I was going to ruin it trying to get this engine running right again," Victoria said reaching over for a dirty hand towel, wiping some more black onto it from her hands. "How was the movie? You both liked it, didn't ya?"

He could only chuckle as he realized that Victoria either couldn't tell that they were a bit worried, and shocked, to find her in such a state of undress, or that she didn't care…which he quickly decided was more likely. Tony finally stood up from doing whatever to the engine, and stalked around the car towards the driver's door.

"FRIDAY, cut the music," Tony said as he walked, "and add that song to my playlist."

Reaching inside, he turned the key, bringing the large engine roaring to life.

After a few moments of listening to the engine running smoothly, Vic smirked at Tony, "Told you, Spare Parts."

"Fine!" Tony whined, turning the car off, and heading over to the workbench, dropping the tool in his hand onto it. The entire thing was covered with an assortment of items, with not a hint of order.

"So, no more touching the cars without me?" Victoria ask as she picked up a couple of tools from where they were scattered on the floor, bringing them over to the bench and adding them to the pile.

"Yes, but I better be getting my money's worth," he said starting to pack away the items carelessly into a large, free-standing tool box.

"If anything, with all the problems just on this car, I may decide to start charging per individual repair," Victoria stated before giving Tony a slight punch on his arm, a greasy black streak appearing in the shape of her knuckles. "I'll be as rich as you in no time."

"Wait, what is going on?" Steve finally spoke up, raising his hands in the air, getting the two of them to look over at him.

"I hired Vic here to be my private mechanic, which works out great since she lives upstairs now," Tony told them smiling, shutting the drawer once the last tool was deposited inside. "She's a regular Mona Lisa Vito."

"They are _not_ going to get that reference, Tony," Vic pointed out, tossing a dirty rag at him.

"You hired her?" Bucky asked looking over at him, the shock visible on his face.

"Yes, Barnes, I did. Vic here just helped me with a problem that this car's had for two years," Tony informed them, grabbing the shirt he had been wearing earlier and tossing it over his shoulder. Smacking his greasy hands together and rubbing them, Tony said, "Now, if you will excuse me, I'm going to go find Pepper and give her a big hug. See everyone at dinner."

Steve chuckled as Tony walked away waving a hand over his shoulder at them, determined to ruin whatever outfit Pepper was currently wearing. Turning back to Victoria, he saw her laughing at Tony's comment as she tried to wipe her hands clean with a rag, which was not happening, as she walked back over to the car.

"Can one of you carry my shirt for me? I'm going to need a shower," Victoria asked closing down the hood and turning back to them. Pointing at Bucky, she then added with a smile, "Alone."

Seeing her the way that she was now, shirtless covered in grease with a large smile, he could not imagine Victoria being any more attractive...


	29. Cookies for Everybody

Everyone was hanging out on the party floor after dinner, which now included Sam, since he had arrived from D.C. He had also been talked into being included in the gauntlet, since he was already invited to Thanksgiving at Clint's tomorrow. Sam greeted Steve with a couple of manly hugs, which he always thought was funny when they did it, but as usual Sam just gave him a nod. During a mission, they interacted like a team, but privately, Sam still seemed to not trust him.

Not that he could blame him, since he _had_ tried to kill him... _twice_.

Vic was on the other side of the room, talking with Tony and Pepper, about what he was not sure, but they looked to be getting along. He couldn't describe how grateful he was to Tony for helping Vic out by giving her a job, not that she couldn't find one herself, but now, she would be close by, where he and Steve could protect her.

As Pepper moved over to the couch to sit near Bruce, he watched suspiciously as Vic then walked with Tony a little bit further away to have a private discussion. Both one of them had a different body language than last night, and each of them had smiles on their faces, so he was not worried about Vic trying to get herself into trouble again. What were they discussing? Both Vic and Tony pointed towards where Steve, Nat, and Sam were sitting, while not being obvious about their movements. When they were done talking, Vic headed straight for him while Tony went towards the rest of the group on the couches and chairs.

"Alright, so what's the deal between you and Sam?" Vic asked coming over to take a hold of his arm as he sat at the bar alone, nursing a drink.

When she had been introduced to Sam, she had greeted him, but he noticed she had found something about him funny. She had too much of a smile on her face for just saying hello to someone.

"I _may have_ tried to kill him, also, in D.C.," he admitted waiting for the hit on the arm like she had given him for Natasha, but it never came.

Instead, he heard her give a loud sigh.

"Is there _anyone_ here you _haven't_ tried to kill?" Vic asked nudging him with her shoulder instead.

"Tony, Bruce, and Pepper," he joked, defending himself as she smiled at him.

"Cute. Is he as bad as Tony was? Do I need to have a talk with him?" Vic asked starting to move towards where the three of them were sitting on the couches. He grabbed a hold of her arm to keep her in place.

"Oh, no. You promised last night," he reminded her, pulling her into an embrace, putting his arms around her waist, so that it did not look suspicious to anyone else that he was trapping her.

"I only promised about the hitting part, not talking," she pointed out, leaning in close to his ear, her breath warm as it slid over his skin. She understood the ruse, so they just looked to be being cozy. "During the time you have been here, have you not tried to talk with Tony, or Sam, about what happened?"

"Not really. I figured giving them their space would be best," he answered, running his fingers over the back of her hand which was sitting on the bar top.

"That seems to have worked out _great_ for you, so far," she responded sarcastically, looking over at the group of three laughing at something. It was easy to tell that the three of them had a special connection. Because of D.C., when he had tried to kill all of them. "Maybe you just need some sugar encouragement."

With that, Vic leaned over to the boxes she had sat on the edge of the bar when they had arrived earlier that night, pulling them towards her. Picking them up, she told him, "Come on."

Letting her waist go, she walked over to where everyone was now gathered on the couches, placing a box on each of the coffee tables in the center, where everyone could get to them. The two of them sat on the couch, with Vic sitting the closest to Sam on her right. Both Steve and Nat sat on the chairs further to their right.

"Alright, I got these earlier for everyone to try," she said opening up both boxes.

Inside was a large number of cookies, all of them decorated in the different symbols that all of the Avengers had taken to represent themselves. Everyone leaned in to get a better look at the sweets inside. Tony and Pepper, of course, each grabbed an arch reactor. Natasha took her own widow symbol, while Bruce took one of the green radiation decorated ones. Sam laughed as he grabbed one covered in a set of red wings. Steve picked up his shield, while he actually found one representing himself. It had a silver icing background with a red star in the center.

"There's also a Thor and Hawkeye cookies, so we can take them to him tomorrow," Vic said picking up one of Thor's hammer cookies.

He gave her a quizzical look at her choice, which she noticed.

"I am _not_ going to listen to the two of you bicker about playing favorites," she informed him, taking a bite.

"Oh, which of Tony's toys did you decide on?" Natasha asked taking a bite of her cookie. "Please tell me you chose the Bugatti. He's hidden the keys and refuses to let me drive it."

"No, I didn't chose the Bugatti," Vic said taking a bite, acting a bit hesitant with her answer.

He and Steve had been so shocked at finding her in the garage shirtless, that they hadn't even thought about asking her about the cars.

"Wait, Vic won the competition?" Sam asked almost choking on the bite he had just taken.

"Yes, but I totally cannot _believe_ her choices," Tony said leaning back on the couch and putting his arm around Pepper.

"What, did she get the Aston Martin Vulcan and the Zenvo?" Bruce asked knowing that they were two of Tony's favorites.

"She," Sam said pointing at Vic, his voice not hiding his surprise, "completed a song perfectly on expert?"

"Yes, Sam she did, and no, she did not choose either one of those, Bruce," Tony said shaking his head. "Vic, please tell them which you chose because I know they would not believe me."

"Fine," Vic answered then took a deep breath before stating, "The modified Jeep Wrangler Dragon."

"What?" the unanimous cry went out from everyone, including himself.

"What made you chose that car, Victoria?" Steve asked sitting a bit forward in his chair.

"It's got an upgraded engine and suspension, as well as all the other modifications, like a cold-air intake. The sound system is top of the line. It will be perfect to take off-road, as well as camping, with the military-grade airless tires. And, of course, it will seat all three of us," Vic finished saying giving her shoulders a shrug, as if it should have been obvious.

"You chose a car so that we could all be together?" he had to ask, not believing that Vic wouldn't choose from all of the expensive cars that Tony had lying around.

"Yeah, there's no point in having a two seater," she said grinning at him and Steve.

The rest of the group was still trying to understand how someone could turn down the million dollar cars Tony had offered-up for the competition.

"What about the second car?" Natasha asked still looking slightly shocked.

"Nope, that's a surprise," Vic said shaking her head.

"So you _did_ choose one of his expensive toys?" Bruce asked.

"Again, no," Tony said looking slightly disappointed. "I'll just say that I was shocked with the choice, but only until she explained her reasoning."

"Why can't we know?" Natasha asked sitting back after grabbing a Hulk cookie.

"I'll let everyone know at a later time, once I work out some things," was all that Vic said picking up another cookie, this time a widow one, nodding it towards Nat.

With that, the group seemed to drop the topic, knowing that if Vic wanted them to know, that she would tell them. He and Steve would ask her later in private and see what she said then. The fact that she had chosen such a practical car over the outrageously expensive ones that most would kill for, still shocked him a bit.

"Alright, now that everyone is here, I want the full story of what happened in D.C. I've only gotten bits and pieces from people," Vic said looking at all of them. They had told her about their fight on the Helicarrier, but not what all had led up to it. Bruce, Tony and Pepper joined them, wanting to hear the story in a bit more detail, it seemed.

So, Steve began telling about how he had literally run laps around Sam. Nat took over to tell about how they had found Zola in the hidden area of the bunker. He tensed up at that point, his memories flashing over his own dealings with Zola after he had been experimented on by him both times. How that mad scientist had put himself into a computer, he couldn't understand, but he was _so glad_ that he was dead now. He felt Vic's hand squeeze his reassuringly, knowing she felt the change in him.

When they started with their first encounter on the highway, he started to worry again. Vic found the part where he ripped the steering wheel out of the car amusing. But he felt her hand squeeze his hard when Nat told how she had shot at him and Bucky told how a bullet impacted on his goggles, barely missing a kill shot on him. Further on, they finally reached the part where he had attacked Sam, ripping his wing off before kicking him off the Helicarrier. He heard the slight anger in Sam's voice as he told how he was barely able to get his parachute deployed before hitting the Triskelion's roof. Vic's hand quickly began to squeeze his in rapid succession, indicating that she wanted him to speak up at this point. Taking a deep breath, he looked directly at Sam.

"Sam, I'm sorry for going after you like that. I just wasn't strong enough to break through the programming," he said not sure what more to say, but having Vic next to him made it easier to admit to. It took a few moments before Sam finally spoke to him.

"I'm definitely glad that you are on our side now," Sam admitted giving his head a nod of approval towards him. "And I should thank you for going after that automated mini-gun on the roof during our last mission. Before you took it out, a few more seconds and their targeting system would have had me."

Sam then took over the story, telling about how he was ambushed by Rumlow, that he was a double agent for HYDRA, as he was making his way through the Triskelion. He remember him _all_ too well.

"If it wasn't for the Helicarrier coming through the building, I don't know what the outcome of that fight may have been," Sam said taking a sip of his beer.

"Rumlow had years of training from SHIELD. You were lucky he didn't just pull and gun and shoot you," Steve added. "But he likes to get his hands dirty when it comes to things like that. Just like in the elevator."

"What elevator?" Vic asking the same question he was about to.

"After Pierce confronted me in his office, I was leaving by the elevator. At every floor on the way down, more agents would get on. I realized they were about to ambush me. I was able to take them all out, Rumlow included, but not get out of the elevator itself due to the tactical teams set up on every floor," Steve said recounting a fight he had not mentioned before. "I had to smash through the glass wall of the elevator, and fall into the building's entrance lobby to escape."

"How far of a fall was that?" Pepper asked.

"At least ten stories, I think. Luckily, my shield took the impact for me," Steve admitted.

"Punk, you just _have_ to throw yourself out of high places without a _parachute_ , don't you?" Bucky asked just glad that it had all worked out in the end.

"Oh, so he told you about the plane," Natasha added to the conversation.

"Yes. It seems like a nasty habit he needs to get out of," Vic informed him with a smile.

"Well, I'll be happy once we get Rumlow into a cell," Sam said. "That is one evil dude."

"He wasn't captured?" Vic asked.

"No. The Helicarrier the two of us were in crashed into the building, collapsing it on top of Rumlow, but rescuers were able to pull him from the wreckage. After being treated for a short time at a local D.C. hospital, he disappeared without a trace. His entire face and head was messed up pretty bad from burning, so that he's nothing but scar tissue," Steve told her. "Every once in a while, we receive a report of him causing trouble somewhere around the globe, but we are always one step behind him."

Sam finished up with his part telling about how he was the next one to jump from a window without a parachute, into a helicopter a few floors lower than it needed to be. Nat said that he was welcome for her catching him.

"So, taking after Steve already?" Vic teased him, getting a chuckle of him.

"Alight then, since we are swapping stories, I want to know how I can go home for a week, and come back to you two finding and living with your soulmate," Sam said taking another sip of his drink.

He started at the beginning of the story, telling them about how he had spotted Vic in the lobby two weeks before. Then Steve told about how their group had gone into the _burlesque_ club, where he had spotted her mark after taking the shot.

" _That_ was why you started _coughing_?" Tony asked.

"Yeah, I was shocked by what I saw. Remember how I took Bucky aside to talk with him right after? That was me telling him what I had seen," Steve told them.

Hearing that, Sam then loudly cleared his throat, looking directly at Tony. Lifting his hand as if he expected something to be put into it, Tony then sighed, reached into his pockets, pulling out a wad of cash. Finding a single dollar bill, he handed it over to Sam.

"Hey, you're leaving out the beginning part of that story," Vic then added as Sam put his dollar away.

"What part is that?" he asked, sure they had not forgotten anything.

"The part when ya'll first got inside, before you even made it to a table," Vic said with a devious grin. He looked over at Steve, who shrugged his shoulders not sure where she was going with this. "When Sam here came over to me, and in a smooth, sexy voice asked, ' _how you doing, my sweet cotton candy_?'"

Looking over at Sam, he watched as his mouth fell open as he remembered the event, but obviously not having realized that Vic was the same waitress that he had initially tried to hit on when they walked in. His expression was priceless.

Bucky knew that he _had_ to take advantage of this opportunity.

"So, you were _hitting_ on our _soulmate_?" he asked in a deep voice, leaning forward a bit menacingly while trying to not laugh.

None of them but Steve were used to him jesting.

"Woah, man," Sam quickly defended himself, lifting his hands in front of him, with more than just a slightly panicked look on his face. "I had _no idea_ that's who Vic was."

"Don't do that to Sam, he may take you seriously," Vic jabbed her elbow into his chest, pushing him to sit back where he had been. At that point he had to smile. "He's just messing with you, Sam."

"Messing with me? Since when does _he_ do 'messing with'?" Sam asked, pointing right at him while looking around the gathered group for an answer. Had he really been so shut-out for the past few months?

"Is that why you looked amused when you were introduced to Sam earlier?" Steve asked.

"Of course," Vic answered, patting Sam amusingly on the leg. "I've been holding in that _revelation_ in all night."

* * *

"What do you mean you are not going to tell us?" Steve questioned as Victoria refused to let them know what had happened in the garage.

"It's a surprise, so I'm not saying," was all that she said pouring herself a large glass of milk. They had gathered all of his shield and Bucky's star cookies and brought them home for themselves. The rest of the group had done the same with their own symbols, with Natasha saying she would make sure that Clint's got to him tomorrow. Since they had no idea when Thor would be back, the remainder of his had been eaten.

"So, you are going to keep a secret, from us?" Bucky asked sitting down on one of the stools.

"There's difference between a _secret_ and a _surprise_ ," Victoria pointed out to him.

"Alright, if you want to keep it a surprise, then we will wait for you to tell us," he said giving Bucky's arm a nudge, hoping that he would drop the topic.

"So, I didn't catch all of the conversation about what was supposed to happen in the morning," Victoria asked leaning forward onto the counter.

The group had stayed together much later than they usually did, talking and snacking on the cookies. Sam and Victoria had gotten into a discussion about jazz players, which ended up with the two of them sitting at the piano while she pointed out the difference in styles versus technical difficulties of the songs, Sam sitting closest to the window. They had left the two of the alone, as they sat on the couch and just listened as she played. Most of the others had done the same, until Pepper pointed out that it was getting late considering they all needed to get up early tomorrow.

"We have to get up early so that we can change into our outfits. We will be heading to where the float is off of Central Park just about an hour before the parade starts, so that we can get a final look at what Tony set up on the float. You, Bruce, and Pepper will be sitting on the main bleachers in the reserved seats for Stark Industries," he informed her, not sure if she knew about that. "When the float reaches the stage area in front of the television cameras, where you'll be, that's when we will put on the show."

"After we get to the parade's end, we'll head back here, change and then head off to Clint's for the rest of the day," Bucky supplied.

"I've only seen the parade a couple of times, and now I'll basically have a front row seat," Victoria said finishing off her milk. "I want to see the two of you in your outfits before you leave, alright?"

"That we can do," he said looking at the time on the stove clock and seeing that it was closing in on midnight. "Ready for bed?"

Both Bucky and Victoria nodded in agreement, as they headed to their rooms to get ready. When he got to Victoria's room, he went ahead and laid in the bed, getting as comfortable as he could while being alone. Victoria left her bathroom, already changed into shorts and a tank top set of pajamas. Glancing towards the door, she seemed to be looking for Bucky. Not seeing him, she quickly ran and jumped onto the bed, landing hard right next to him.

"I can't believe that you beat Bucky here," she grinned at him while she literally hopped down the bed to her spot.

"Why?" he could barely ask as his voice tried to crack, while hoping his eyes weren't as wide as he thought they may be while being pulled downward to two very bouncy items before him.

"Well, he does make more _innuendoes_ than you do," she said, raising an eyebrow as she grinned, kneeling next to him. "But maybe _he_ likes me better…"

Pulling her into an embrace, he rolled them down so that he was slightly on top of her, giving her a deep kiss. Her hands found the back of his head, holding him in place. As their tongues met, he could taste the flavor of bubblegum from the toothpaste Victoria had just used, making him hum a bit with enjoyment at it. He may be a bit more reserved about showing his feelings towards her, but that didn't mean that being with her didn't give him a warm feeling inside. Hearing a moan escape from her brought a smile to his face.

"How was that?" he asked

"Too short," she said, pulling him back down for a bit longer. After a minute, he pulled away as he heard footsteps approaching.

He knew that Bucky was making them on purpose since there had been numerous times after he came to the Tower when he would scare Steve without even trying. He nodded his head towards to door to indicate to Victoria that he was on the way, not sure if she would pick up on the noise. She had a large grin on her own face as she lay still for a few moments, probably surprised at his forwardness, but definitely _not_ upset at it.

When Bucky entered the room, he had already moved back into his spot, while Victoria was still getting herself situated in the bed under the covers.

Bucky stopped and looked at the two of them for a moment.

"You look guilty of something," Bucky accused, pointing right at him.

"Just giving Victoria a good night kiss," he casually smiled, slipping further under the covers to get comfortable. Bucky stared at him for a moment, but he seemed to take him at his word. It's not like he was lying.

And he would definitely be having good dreams after that kiss.


	30. Running the Gauntlet

 Vic knew when the two of them had gotten out of the bed because she could feel herself getting chilly quickly from them not being there, even though the room was at a comfortable temperature. How had she gotten so used to them surrounding her in such a short amount of time? They were quiet leaving her bedroom, she would give them that, as they tried to not disturb her. Listening, she heard two clicks from the hallway indicating that they had gone into their rooms and shut their doors to get ready.

Sitting up, Vic decided that the least she could do was make them something quick to eat before they left. She suspected that they would leave out of here without eating if she didn't. Or go for a simple quick bowl of cereal. It was still dark outside, with the building across the way having a few scattered lights on already, even at this early hour. Throwing on a pair of fuzzy pajama pants over her shorts and adding a pair of winter socks to warm up, she headed to the kitchen.

Putting a pot onto the stove, she figured that oatmeal would be the best bet for this morning, quick and easy. As it was starting to cook, she pulled out two apples and chopped them into pieces to be added as well as getting out the cinnamon and brown sugar. Luckily they had a toaster, so she kept adding bread slices making enough for all of them.

Stirring the oatmeal, as it was finishing up, she felt a set of arms going around her waist. Glancing down, she saw they were covered in reddish-brown leather gloves, but there was something about the feeling of him that she knew it was Steve even before she saw them.

"We left you in bed asleep," he said giving her cheek a kiss. "You could have slept longer."

"And the two of you would have left here without eating, right?" she asked reaching over to the cabinet where the bowls were. Side-stepping to reach it, Steve moved with her, not letting go, making her smile. Taking down two bowls, she split the pot of oatmeal evenly between them. As she was doing so, Steve was planting kisses all along her neck, really beginning to distract her. Passing one of the bowls over her shoulder, she said, "Here, get some toppings and go sit and eat."

"Aren't you having any?" Steve asked taking the warm bowl from her, finally releasing his hold, but getting a firm good morning kiss on the lips before moving away.

"Nope, I don't eat oatmeal," she said with a smile, grabbing the butter from the fridge for the toast. "I'm from the south."

"I have _no idea_ what that means," he said, picking up a handful of apple chunks and tossing them on top. Bucky's form then appeared at the corner of the kitchen wall, a hard facial mask in his hand.

It had been a while since she had done this, but she took a breath and dropped the adopted bland enunciation she had used for years. In her best southern lady accent, how she had spoken growing up in the south, Vic answered, "Where ah come from, we eat grits for breakfast, not sum Yankee mush."

"Yankee mush?" she heard from Bucky, dressed in all black leather except for his arm.

Turning around after picking up Bucky's bowl, she got to really look at the two of them, and she was speechless. Steve's dark blue outfit with hints of red and white, Bucky's strapped black jacket with tactical pants. There was something slightly off at seeing them dressed the way they were, especially after having gotten to know them as soulmates, not Avengers.

"Oatmeal. We feed oats to tha' animals, not humans," she informed them, continuing her accent. Steve was just staring at her, his mouth slightly open, the full spoon in his hand not moving towards his mouth any more.

Bucky saw her curiously looking over at Steve and followed her gaze. He then let out a chuckle, moving next to her to wrap his arm around her waist as he pointed to Steve.

"He had the biggest crush on Vivien Leigh after _Gone With The Wind_ came out. He loved hearing her talk. He made me see that movie _three_ times," Bucky informed her as she passed him his bowl, thanking her by a firm kiss on her lips.

"Really?" she said leaning down onto her elbows as Bucky sat next to Steve, elbowing him in the side.

"How did you do that?" Steve asked finally seeming to come back to his senses with the jolt. She noticed how Steve's eyes lingered where her shirt was gaping open over her chest, exposing her soulmark for them to see.

"Wha'? Tha' accent? This is how ah grew up talkin'. But, when ya leave the south, ya can only take hearin' ah version of tha' phrase 'ignorant redneck hick' so many times before ya learn how to drop it en'tire'ly," she said accent on. Changing back to how they had always heard her, "Turns out that people everywhere judge your intelligence on how you speak."

"Not everyone," Steve said giving her a smile as he started eating again.

"You both really saw _Gone With The Wind_ when it was new and just came out?" she asked trying to wrap her head around the timing.

"Yes...remember, that was only a few years before we both went in the military," Steve told her as they ate their meal. She grabbed a slice of toast and went to the fridge to get some orange juice. "It was the second movie we had ever seen in color."

"Let me guess, the first was _The Wizard of Oz_ , 1939."

"Just a few months apart, actually. It doesn't seem like that long ago," Bucky admitted, taking another bite.

"What do you two want to drink?" she asked over her shoulder.

"Milk," both of them answered simultaneously. Each of them then punched the other in the arm as they both said jinx.

"Interesting," she said a moment later as she put the milk and orange juice containers onto the countertop. The two of them looked over at her before suddenly realizing what had just happened.

"Victoria, we're sorry, we didn't even think of the connection," Steve said as the two of them stared with worry on their faces.

Vic just said, "Nope, it's not what you think. I didn't feel a thing."

"But shouldn't you have, with the connection?" Steve asked looking over at her like she had the answer.

"I don't know. We've never really tested it," she pointed out, lifting her shoulders in question showing she wasn't sure of the answer. "Maybe it has to do with the _intent_ behind the hit?"

"We've done jinx since we were little," Bucky said still looking a bit worried about the incident.

"And you will continue to do it because nothing happened," she pointed out taking a bite of her toast. "So, unless the two of you get into a real fight, everything should be fine."

After they finally finished off breakfast, the two of them began making minor adjustments to their uniforms. Vic just watched absently as they discussed the gauntlet, glad that they were not noticing her staring at them. How was it possible that the two of them were her soulmates? She had never even considered having two men such as them, but there they were, all dressed up and looking too good.

"We'll see you afterwards," Steve came over, taking her in his arms while planting a firm kiss on her lips. She could taste the apples on him. As soon as he let her go, she found herself in Bucky's arms, but his kiss was hinted with cinnamon and brown sugar. Bucky put on his face mask as he stepped away, which she was not sure if she liked yet. Steve was next to the den, slipping his cap over his head while his shield was resting on the chair closest to the kitchen. As they headed to the elevator together, she found herself staring again. Looking at the two of them fully dressed was very surreal.

"I'll be in the stands cheering with Pepper, and I expect a good show from my warriors," she informed them.

"Your _warriors_?" Steve asked smiling at her nickname.

"Got anything better?" she asked raising a hand in asking.

"No...I kind of like it," Bucky replied, seeming to stand a bit straighter at the phrase.

After they had left, she went to her bedroom to get ready.

"FRIDAY, how are you doing this morning?" she asked turning on the shower.

" _I am fine, Miss Victoria_ ," she responded.

"Is there a certain time and place I am to meet Pepper?" she asked starting to get undressed. It was quiet for a minute before she received an answer.

" _Miss Potts will meet you here at 8:15 so that you can leave for the parade_ ," she said.

"Thanks, FRIDAY," Vic said stepping into the shower.

She had gotten so used to having to take a quick shower due to the hot water not lasting at the apartment that she decided to take a few extra minutes and just stand under the water. Washing her hair, she realized that she had no idea exactly where they were going for Thanksgiving dinner, except they kept saying Clint's farm.

"FRIDAY, where is Clint's farm that we are going to today?" she asked.

" _I am not allowed to give out that answer, Miss Victoria_ ," the voice responded.

"Really? It's a secret?" she asked a bit surprised.

" _Yes, it is confidential information_ ," she got as an answer.

"Ok. Could you at least tell me if it is cold there so I know how warm to dress?" she wondered.

" _Yes, it is below freezing. You would be advised to wear extremely warm clothing as well as a heavy jacket_ ," she got as an answer.

"Great, that's what I needed. Thanks FRIDAY," she said deciding to get out of the shower.

Dressing was a bit harder. She had an outfit for the trip, but for now, she was going to be hanging out with Pepper, who so far had always looked immaculate. She doubted that Pepper even owned a pair of jeans, only having seen her in lovely tailored suits. Eventually, she decided on jeans with a spaghetti strap shirt covered over will a pullover fluffy sweater. The heavy winter jacket along with gloves, a scarf, and her new wool cap should be fine for this morning. Hopefully the jacket would cover her slightly dressed-down attire.

Once she was ready, waiting for Pepper to ring that she was on the way down, Vic decided to lie down on the couch and listen to some music. She told FRIDAY just to let Pepper in when she got there figuring that she would see the elevator opening. But she eventually became so wrapped up in listening to the music that she ended up with her eyes closed, singing part of an arias from _Thésée_ with her earbuds in. When the song finally finished, she opened her eyes to find that Pepper was sitting on one of the stools at the bar, happily smiling at her. Vic quickly pulled the earbuds out.

"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention," she said sitting up, wrapping the buds cord around her fingers.

"Victoria, _why_ would you want to work for Tony as a _mechanic_ when you could be out singing on Broadway?" Pepper asked shaking her head.

Knowing that she was going to have to explain herself eventually, so she may as well start now, she said, "This is going to sound strange, but I can only sing what I have heard before. If you gave me a new song and asked me to sing it, without hearing someone else do it first, I couldn't do it."

"You can't learn to sing something?" she asked standing up to come over to the couch. Vic moved over to give her plenty of space.

"No. I've tried, but I _can_ repeat anything that I hear. But say the singer misses a note in the pattern, then _I_ will miss it also. It's just how it works," Vic said leaning onto the back of the couch. "So, I only sing because I like to."

Pepper seemed to be thinking about her explanation for a few moments, before nodding in understanding.

"Well, just so you know, you sound amazing, copying or not. Just like with the game the other night. Everyone has been waiting for someone to put Tony in his place," Pepper said smiling at her.

"You're not the _first_ one to tell me that," she said feeling a bit better. She had not had one-on-one time with Pepper since coming to the Tower, there was always someone else there.

"So, with the piano, it works the same way, repeat only, no original music?" Pepper asked curious now.

"Yes, the same goes for the drums," she answered, not sure where to take the conversation without starting to sound too weird with her abilities.

"Just so you know, the next time Tony irritates me, I'm going to send him to the game room so you can play another song he has the number one spot in, so you can erase his record," Pepper told her with a wide smile. "So, I'd guess in about…a week's time, they should _all_ be gone."

"He's that bad?" Vic asked laughing.

"Yes, just wait. But, if you _ever_ need _help_ , Tony _will_ be there. The same goes for _everyone_ in the Tower, as well as the rest of the Avengers, whom you haven't met yet," Pepper added taking a hold of her hand, a clear sign that she wanted to be friends.

"Thanks, and just let me know if you need me to help with Tony. By the way, just so you know, I've already banned him from working on the cars without me there," she added.

"He told me right after ruining my outfit yesterday. I laughed for a good five minutes. Sometimes that man can get such pleasure from simple things," Pepper then looked down at her watch. "We better head on, but we should have plenty of time. You alright for walking to the stands?"

"Yeah, not a problem. I've actually cut back on how much exercising I usually do since moving in. I need to get back into it," Vic said, standing up as Pepper did the same. She grabbed her winter items from the chair where she had tossed them, waiting until getting to the lobby to put them on.

"If the guys haven't mentioned it, you can use the gym. It's a few floors down. Just tell FRIDAY to take you there. Feel free to use anything in there. It's where _everyone_ trains, so there's a bit of every type of equipment available," Pepper supplied as the elevator doors opened up. Getting in, Pepper requested Bruce's floor.

"Bruce didn't want to be on the float?" Vic questioned.

"No, 'going green' is not the best idea in public, unless there are a lot of enemies to take out. Bruce will be sitting with us," Pepper said as the doors opened, Bruce standing there putting on his own heavy coat.

"Morning," he said stepping inside while wrapping a scarf around his neck, a bright green one, that did not go with his outfit. Picking up the end, Vic held it up with a questioning glance.

"Natasha's idea of a joke. She got rid of all of my other ones, so I have to use it," he said smiling, not actually seeming upset about it at all. They all got out at the main lobby, where she wrapped up against the cold. They talked a bit more as they walked out of the lobby, into the cold morning air. The walk didn't take too long, and Vic was quickly glad for the gloves and hat.

Getting through the crowd surrounding the seating stands was the hardest part. Eventually, Pepper was able to get to the guards checking ID's and they were escorted to the seats reserved for Stark Industries, which was only the three of them. Everyone else from the Tower was part of the parade. It was well over an hour before they could see the float finally coming down the street. There were television cameras on each side of the street, getting different angles of the floats. Vic was practically bouncing in her seat by the time she could make out the Avengers finally heading towards them.

The float was make to look like some kind of multi-level industrial structure. There were poles connecting the different levels, a catwalk connecting the front of the float to a level near the back. The fact that it was decorated with green, gold, red and white really threw off the seriousness of it. Large illuminated snowflakes hung around different areas, but not where they would interfere with the show. Gold and red tinsel that was a couple of feet long, drifted in the wind as the float moved forward. Small green trees that stood only a foot tall lined the sides.

It made her think of a warehouse that leftover decorations had been tossed inside of, but somehow it worked.

Tony was waving to the crowd, of course, on the _highest_ back level located over the catwalk, near what she figured was the button that Bucky was supposed to get to. It was decorated to look like a candy cane. Sam had his wings spread, and was taking flying leaps to the different levels as they went down the street. Steve and Natasha were waving while moving back and forth over the center lower center area while Bucky was at the slightly elevated front of the float. Even with his mask covering his face, as well as a set of goggles, she could see with his stiff body language as he waved that he was uncomfortable about being there in the public eye.

She could hear the hosts of the parade through the speakers explaining to the camera what was about to happen for the people at home. They told how the Winter Soldier was to make his way across the float, while the other Avengers tried to stop him, until he made it to the upper level where the trigger for the fireworks was located. They had been given two minutes for the show, which Pepper had told her earlier was because Tony had purchased advertising time so they could show off. That meant that Bucky had 30 seconds to take down each Avenger.

Suddenly a buzzer went off, and everyone's attention was on the scene before them.

Bucky quickly moved from where he had been, heading first towards Nat. They exchanged multiple blows and kicks, both of them striking, ducking, and blocking until Nat eventually had to jump and twist backwards to avoid a swinging kick aimed at her legs. When she landed, Bucky had already moved forward and was able to grab a hold of her arm, then doing a simple sweeping move. He carefully knocked Nat onto her butt before reaching down and giving her nose a tweak, getting a laugh from the crowd.

"Did the Winter Solider just honk Black Widow's nose?" Vic heard from the group right in front of her. She had to give a smile at hearing that, glad that Bucky had decided to have some fun since he was the center of attention.

He then turned all his attentions to his left, facing Steve's direction.

As the two of them rushed each other, Steve lifted his shield, while Bucky struck out with his left arm. The ringing sound that echoed as they made contact drew an excited audible gasp from the entire assembled crowd.

But the moment they made contact, she felt her left hand ache. It was a very low, dull pain, easily handled. Two years ago, the pain had been very bad, so she knew that Bucky had not putt hardly any effort into his swing. She flexed her hand to get rid of the sensation as she intently watched the two of them dodge and parry every strike the other threw.

Finally, once their fight time was almost up, Bucky grabbed the shield with both hands and twisted it, forcing Steve into a backwards flip. When he landed, Bucky spun around while holding the shield which he then pulled free of Steve's arm. As Steve stood there unarmed, Bucky reached out as he tweaked his nose also, getting more cheers probably for both gestures, while carefully tossing the shield back towards the front of the float, letting it land on the platform he had started the show on.

Jumping strait up, at a height no ordinary person could, Bucky reached the floor of the high catwalk. Sam had taken to the air about the time Bucky tossed the shield away.

Pulling up, Bucky flipped so that he landed onto the metal grating. Sam went up high, twisting to loop in a backwards dive, then came in from behind him, rolling so his feet aimed to plant onto his back. But as he was about to make impact, Bucky ducked to one knee at the last moment, causing Sam to strike the catwalk instead, his wings folding down. Reaching out, Bucky grabbed the wing pack, using it to turn Sam around. With another tweak of the nose, he pushed Sam off of the catwalk, right into the waiting arms of Steve.

She thought it was a cute sight to see Steve holding Sam bridal style.

Stalking forward with determination, Bucky suddenly put on a burst of speed, taking a running leap up towards where Tony was still waving at the crowd with his mask folded back.

A second before Bucky landed on the platform, Tony turned and his mask slid into place. They quickly exchanged a couple of punches, neither one making contact. Then Tony spun and took a right hook at Bucky, which he grabbed with his left hand.

As the crowd watched, they saw Bucky moving Tony's arm in a wide arc off to Tony right, his suit not being able to withstand the strength Bucky was putting into the move. Vic wondered how much of _this_ was play and how much was serious. Bucky then gave a sweeping kick, striking Tony's left leg near the back of his knee, while impacting his right fist onto his chest, dropping Tony down onto his back as Bucky knelt on one knee beside him.

Reaching upwards with his left fist, in what looked like would be a strong final blow, Bucky struck down at Tony's face-plate.

Just before making contact, he stopped, and then flicked a finger from his hand onto the mask, making a loud ringing sound since he couldn't get to his nose.

Standing back up and taking a few steps to the side, Bucky then smacked down onto the bright red button on top of the candy-cane decorated pole. Fireworks then began to shoot out from every side of the float where the little green trees that she noticed earlier were. The crowd went wild at the entire display they had just witnessed. Everyone in the stand was standing and cheering, with Vic being the loudest, followed closely by Pepper and Bruce. Vic looked out at the float, seeing everyone once again waving at the crowd, as Bucky went over and offered his hand to Tony to help him stand, which Tony accepted.

As the mask opened to reveal Tony's face, there was a smile on it which made her feel a bit better.

Bucky then looked over at the stands, and she watched as his head searched the spectators. Finally, he landed on her standing there, and she could see his shoulders drop slightly, as if just seeing her had made him relax a bit. Vic waved out with her left hand and blowing a kiss with her right, before giving him the thumbs up sign, which he then returned, letting her know that he had indeed seen her.

Looking down at the base of the float, she saw Steve looking up at her from where he was collecting his shield, so she blew a kiss at him too, which she saw made that adorable shy smile cross his face. The float then started to move once the fireworks had stopped, all of them moving back to their original spots from before the gauntlet.

It would be about another hour before the parade was over, all of them probably wanting to get into the warmth of the Tower.

* * *

As the final float passed by with Santa sitting in his sleigh, he looked across the street and over the heads forming the crowd between him and the stands again. He had been taking pictures with his phone just like all of the other spectators for the past few hours.

But unlike the jolly holiday crowd, he had been paying particular attention to one certain female with white-blond hair.

Sitting between the infamous Pepper Potts, and the Hulk, she had to be somebody of importance. She had also been spotted shopping with the Black Widow.

So far, nothing but her name could be found…by chance or design?

Tony Stark himself had admitted that she was living in the Tower, but nobody had been told why. Suspicions could not be raised by asking that simple question. It might put the Avengers on alert concerning her.

There was a chance that she was just a friend or employee, but what if she was something more?

He had been paid a lot of extra money to find out what he could about Victoria Roth, and he would do just that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it was only eluded to, but yes, there is someone interested in Vic. But unlike a movie where everything has to be crammed into two hours, I can write the evolution of the situation out for a bit so that it's more realistic/dramatic. There will be little pieces of the puzzle like that every few chapters until someone finally makes his move.


	31. Heading Out

When the elevator opened up, Steve saw that Victoria and Pepper were on it, both still bundled in their winter coats. Victoria saw him as he had been about to walk down the hall to his bedroom to change out of his uniform and stepped out of the elevator with a smile on her face.

"See you in a little while," she said waving bye to Pepper.

As the doors were closing, Victoria was removing her heavy coat, gloves and hat. Dropping them all onto the floor, she then started to run right at him.

A second later, she had jumped up into his arms, wrapping her arms around his neck, somehow avoiding hitting her hands on his shield that was attached to his back.

"That was great!" she said not dropping down from her hold, so he put his arms around her to hold her in place, giving her a small spin in the hallway.

"You know that was just a show," he reminded her but not objecting to how she was showing her appreciation.

"Still impressed," she kissed his cheek, "Even though you _did_ get your shield taken away from you."

"Really?" he asked as she smirked at him.

Turning around, he put her back to the hallway wall, pressing his body firmly against hers to help hold her there. Victoria gasped slightly as he leaned forward, giving her a strong, needy kiss, as his hips nicely snuggled between her legs. He wouldn't usually act this way, but seeing her smile at him along with the teasing while latching onto him, it just felt right. This had to be the way Bucky, who was a bit more forward with his affections, felt the times that he had held her. Steve decided he would have to make sure to do this more often.

Steve held on to Victoria with his arms around her waist, but she seemed to have other ideas as he felt her legs lift up to wrap around his own waist, pulling him in tight. His arms then went underneath her round bottom to help support her up. Her scent was that of the fresh outside mixed with her coconut shampoo. They continued to kiss for a couple of minutes, before Victoria's lips moved to take a hold of his exposed earlobe. He felt her hands traveling along the edge of his cap, her fingers then tracing a line at the base of his skull, sending a shiver through his body.

He felt like a schoolboy making out with her like this.

That was when the elevator opened up, revealing not only Bucky, but also Tony and Sam. All three of them stared at him holding Victoria, her legs wrapped tightly around him, his hands underneath of her as she sucked on his ear. Bucky, now only wearing the face mask again with his eyes blacked out, goggles in his hand, stepped out of the elevator, over her coat lying on the floor, leaving the other two with their mouths slightly open in shock at the sight before them.

"Take a picture, it will last longer!" Victoria suddenly threw out at them, finally shaking them from their frozen stances, flipping them an English bird while smiling.

"No thanks! That's something I don't _ever_ want to see again," Sam said pressing a button repeating rapidly, while shielding his eyes with his other hand. "Come on doors...close!"

"So you _weren't_ joking about the bed the other day?" Tony just had to put out there with a wide smile planted on his face, his head nodding up and down.

"Goodbye, Tony," she said giving him a tiny wave with her fingers wiggling as she turned to swipe her tongue over his exposed neck, not caring about them watching...or maybe doing it because they were. Either way, he found it actually amusing that she would do such a thing. The doors finally closed, leaving the three of them alone.

"Alright you two, I would say to get a room, but…" Bucky said passing by the two of them, reaching out to flick his metal fingers onto his shield, making a ringing sound in the hallway. He then headed towards his own bedroom.

"Don't worry, you're next," was all she said as he passed by. Steve gave her, well, maybe himself, a few more moments of kissing, with a bit of hip grinding, before knowing that it was time to stop, for now. Releasing his grip on her, he let Victoria stand up, but still pressed against the wall, giving her a final kiss, before she said, "Go get changed, and I'll see you in a bit."

* * *

Standing just inside of his bedroom door, Bucky heard Vic tell Steve to go changed as he tossed his goggles onto the bed, so he prepared his stance.

Hearing Steve's door shut, he could make out the sound of her footsteps coming closer. When he was sure Vic was in position, he threw open his door and grabbed her around the waist. She let out a squeak as he then pulled her into his room, kicking the door shut behind them. A second later, he had her in exactly the same position that she had been in with Steve.

"You _did_ say I was next," he told her through his face mask.

Vic then reached up to run her hands over it, looking intently at it, as if trying to decide something. He had become use to wearing it and the goggles, so when he had come to the Tower, he'd had Steve request a duplicate copy of his original made. Steve pointed out that it was not necessary, that they had only been used to hide his true identity. But HYDRA had made him wear the mask saying that it would strike fear into his enemies...and now, he was making sure that's _exactly_ how every _HYDRA_ agent felt when they saw him.

"So that's why…" Vic softly said.

"Why what?" he asked curious as her fingertips still ran over the mask.

"Why you wear this mask…" she smiled at him.

"And why is that?" curious as to what she thought.

"Because without it, you are just too _adorable_ to be frightening," Vic answered while running her hands towards his neck so she could figure out how to remove it.

"You think so?" he asked as she pulled it forward. When it was off, Vic tossed the mask behind him and he heard it land on the bed.

With his mask removed, Vic ran her fingers over his face the same way she just had, before saying, "I know so. Of course now, you look more like an adorable _raccoon_."

Groaning at the comment, he moved his hands to her waist and gave Vic a slight tickling to her sides, eliciting a laugh from her. Leaning forward to bring his face into her exposed neck for a kiss, he could smell the coconuts on her again, but this time it was mixed with a cold freshness from being outside for so long at the parade. As her legs wrapped around him, they held each other and exchanged a number of kisses over the next few minutes before he finally pulled away, before he couldn't stop himself anymore.

"That a very _manly_ scent you have going on there, somewhere between _leather_ and _triumph_ ," she declared with a grin.

"Too bad I need to wash it away. Want to help?" he asked raising an eyebrow but curious as to how she would respond.

"Maybe next time, Gradina," Vic said giving his ear a firm bite that made him want to take her into the shower with him anyway.

Instead, he took a deep breath and eased Vic to stand on the floor, asking, "So, if I'm a hailstone, what does that make Steve?"

After thinking for a minute, she said, "How about a Flocon de Neige?" while biting down slightly on her bottom lip.

"Which is?" he asked starting to lean forward to kiss the not injured lip.

"French for snowflake," she barely got out before he captured her lips in his. He couldn't hold the kiss though because he began to laugh at the idea of her nicknames for them. "Don't worry, it's only during winter you'll hear those. You'll get new ones each season."

"I can't wait," he said getting a final kiss before leading her to the door so that he could shower and change before they had to head upstairs.

* * *

It was about thirty minutes later when the three of them finally made it to the upper level, the floor where they prepped for missions and housed the Quinjet's hanger. They had all changed into everyday clothing, but a bit on the nicer side. They all had grabbed heavy coats as well as gloves, hats and scarves. Bucky took them all and placed them into a compartment near the back of the jet that was used for storage since they wouldn't need them until they arrived.

Vic looked around at the different areas set up for the Avengers to use as large lockers. She found it amusing that Bucky and Natasha seemed to be competing on who could store the most weapons in theirs. She could tell Natasha's due to the wrist bands that she had seen her wearing in pictures. Besides all of the guns and knives, she saw that between the both of them they had an assortment of expanding batons, kubatons, brass knuckles, electric stun rods, and dart guns. Nat also had pepper spray while Bucky had grenades and, for some reason, a black metal baseball bat.

"Really?" she asked picking up the bat to look at Bucky, wondering if there was a story to go behind it.

"That was a joke gift from Natasha. I haven't had to use it yet," he said coming over carrying his leather uniform. He opened up a large drawer underneath the weapons stash, placing it inside along with his face mask.

Steve, on the other hand, was placing his uniform up on holders for it, so that it could be seen, with his shield having a center display on the back wall. It seemed a bit of a strange contrast between the two of them.

Placing the bat back down, she walked around while glancing at the other areas. Sam seemed to have a hanging area for his wing pack along with a couple of guns. Tony didn't seem to have a spot at all, so she figured he must have a special place for his suits somewhere else, probably near his workshop since he would have to do repairs on it. There was an alcove with a couple of pairs of pants and t-shirts, probably Bruce's she guessed. Another one had a couple of recurve and compound bows, quivers, lots of arrows, and numerous compartments of arrowheads of different shapes and sizes. This was definitely Clint's area.

Then there were the two other areas that seemed to be much different than the others. One had a red leather outfit hanging up, with no weapons of any kind in sight, while the other right next to it had exercise clothes and a lot of custom looking running shoes, also void of weapons.

"What's the story behind these?" she asked pointing for them to explain.

"That's Wanda's and Pietro's cubbies," Steve said coming over and indicating with a point to who claimed each area while wrapping his arm around her waist. "You'll be meeting them in a little while. While helping us deal with Ultron, Pietro was badly injured. Clint kind of adopted them so they spend most of their time at his farm with him and his family. They occasionally will join us out on missions, but they didn't have an easy childhood so he's trying to make sure that they experience some normalcy."

"Sounds like a good man," she said leaning back on him for a bit of support.

"Pietro saved his life so he felt it was the least he could do for them," Steve said, leading her back towards the Quinjet as the elevator doors opened again. Natasha, Sam, and Bruce exited arguing about Christmas music.

"Alright, three amigos," Sam said turning to them, Bucky now standing right behind her, his hands resting on her shoulders, his thumbs rubbing matching spots on her lower neck very distractedly, "When should Christmas music be played?"

"Three amigos?" Steve asked looking lost at the nickname.

"I'll show you the movie later," she supplied, enjoying the fingers still moving. Since the guys were looking at each other and shrugging shoulders, they didn't seem to have an opinion on the questioned, so she answered, "Black Friday should be the first time it's played on the radio," she answered firmly.

"Thank you," Sam said throwing his arms up in the air in victory, she guessed.

"But why not play it during November to get people into the mood?" Bruce asked.

"Because you may be sick of it after a month and a half, or even more," she threw out there.

"She has a point," Natasha said putting her own winter outdoor items in a bin just inside the open ramp of the Quinjet.

"So, are we ever going to get out of here? I'm starving," Sam said walking up the ramp to take a seat. About that time, the elevator opened up again, Tony and Pepper finally appearing.

"Why am I always waiting around on all of you? Get inside," Tony said waving his arms in a shooing motion towards the ramp, as if he and Pepper weren't the last ones to arrive. Everyone actually listened to him this time, or maybe they were just hungry like Sam. Either way, Bucky's touches ended as two hands met on her back to guide her inside of the Quinjet.

Walking up, she found that there were folding seats along the sides scattered about. Feeling a bit devious, she took one of the seat in the center of the jet, making Steve and Bucky chose two wall seats facing her.

As she saw their curious faces to her seat choice, "Sorry, no whiplash this trip," she smiled at them.

Tony walked all the way to the front, sitting down in the pilot's chair, which then pulled back and rotated so he could see out of the front. Sam hit a button and the ramp lifted up, closing them inside.

"You let _him_ fly this thing?" Vic asked Steve and Bucky, pointing a thumb in Tony's direction, making sure she was loud enough for him to hear.

"Of course, who do you think helped to build this?" Tony supplied running his fingers over various switches.

"First, I know about your mechanical wizardry with cars. Second, _everyone_ has seen the video of you crashing while flying in your suit, so there are two reasons right there that I should be worried," she grinned, looking over at Steve and Bucky to see them smiling too, while pulling a belt over her waist and strapping it down tightly.

"That video does not exist anymore," Tony said as the jet began to slide forward out of the hanger, "so it never happened."

"Don't worry," Bruce said from behind her to the right, "After we get into the air, FRIDAY takes over for the rest of the trip."

Steve did lean over as far as he could towards her, so she did the same, trying to give them a bit of privacy.

"Are you really alright with flying?" he asked with a slight worry sound to his voice.

"Of course, but it's much more fun to _mess_ with him," she said, nodding her head in Tony's direction. Steve got a smile on his face at her answer and sat back as they finally reached the end of the platform.

Glancing over her shoulder to where everyone else was strapped in, that Bruce and Natasha had taken seats near the far back while Pepper was in the seat closest to Tony, with Sam sitting next to her. They all looked very comfortable in the metal ship.

The next few minutes were a bit surreal as they took over, hovering over the city for a moment before turning inland and taking off. Bucky looked to be a bit uncomfortable while Steve was sitting there looking fine. Reaching out she took her leg around Bucky's, just like she had done with the table. When he felt her hold onto him, she noticed that his shoulders seemed to ease the tension they had a bit, calming him down like she hoped it would. Steve saw their interaction, and after looking Bucky's way, just started shaking his head.

After a few minutes, Tony turned his seat back around so that he could face the group. For the rest of the trip, the topic of Christmas songs dominated. What was everyone favorite, what was the worst out there, and so on. She tried to not get too far into the conversation for worry that it may change to the actual topic of Christmas itself, and that was not something that she wanted to share.

Eventually the three of them would talk and discuss it, but she was a bit worried about how this year was going to be so different than all of her other ones. At least she would not have to pick up a shift at one of the few restaurants open that day since she did not have a...family? How could one word hold so much meaning?

It didn't seem like they were in the air for very long before FRIDAY came over the intercom system informing them that they would be landing in less than five minutes. She glanced out of the front windows past Tony, but all she could see from her seat was blue sky and clouds. They couldn't have gone very far out of the city, but with the speed of a jet, they could be hundreds of miles away.

Tony moved his seat back into position and everyone grew quiet, anticipating the landing. From the windows, as the Quinjet landed, she saw trees rising above them. Vic felt the slight vibration as they finally landed.

Everyone began to chat as they gathered their winter items and began to bundle up before the ramp was opened. Steve handed her the things she brought, and also passed Bucky his before putting on his own leather coat. They both had multiple layers of shirts on, which she had not seen them do before. She had put on a simple spaghetti strap shirt first, then a pullover t-shirt, followed by a thick sweater. Hopefully those should be enough for once they got into the house.

"Alright, turkey time," Tony said hitting a button so that the ramp began to lower.

As she looked outside, Vic was a bit shocked by what she saw. The immediate ground right around the Quinjet was mostly clear, but only a few feet out, there was snow. Not a little snow, but over three feet worth of snow. Everyone just started to walk down the ramp, not paying attention to the outside, telling her they were used to such weather and had been expecting the sight before her. Vic, on the other hand, stopped at the top of the ramp and stared out. There was a cold breeze coming directly from in front of her, chilling her face without having to leave.

"Vic, you alright?" she heard Bucky ask from somewhere behind her. She could only nod slightly as she stared at the massive amount of white stuff. _Never_ had she seen so much snow on the ground before.

"It's snow," she said knowing that she sounded a bit shocked.

Everyone else was now out of sight, rounding the side of the jet, not noticing her hesitation with moving forward.

"Yes, it is. That happens in winter," Steve said taking a hold of her hand and starting to move down the ramp. It was the only reason that her feet finally began to move.

Reaching the ground, she walked over so that she could stand by the edge of the clearing. Trees surround the entire area so nobody outside of them would be able to see the Quinjet. Looking around, she saw that a large section of snow bigger than the Quinjet had been somehow cleared so that it had a landing area. Off to the side was a massive pile of snow that went twenty feet into the air, as well as took up a bit of space...it was all of the snow from the clearing, she realized.

"How did someone do that?" she asked pointing at the pile.

"Wanda used her powers to clear the landing pad," Bucky said appearing at her side.

They then began to lead her down the cleared path that the others had already taken, through a group of trees. Emerging from them, she saw that they were out in a country area. There were large fields, all covered with snow, a large barn off to the side, and a beautiful old white farmhouse that she could see the others had almost reached.

"That's Clint's place?" she asked not believing her eyes. Vic felt like that she almost could have been back home, if it wasn't for the pure white substance covering everything.

"Yes, nobody outside of who is here, and maybe three others, knows about this place, or about his family," Steve said as they walked down the path. The snow reached past her thighs, a bit higher in places, but that may have been from raised ground hidden underneath.

"So, really big secret? Not a problem," she said reaching out with a gloved hand to touch a higher area of snow, grabbing a handful of it. Pressing it hard, she formed a clumsy snowball that was more like a snow chunk.

"What is going on?" Steve asked stopping not too far away from the front porch steps. All the others had gone inside about two minutes ago, since they had been walking fast to get out of the cold, while she had been creeping.

"It's a _lot_ of snow," she could only say. The two of them seemed to finally understand as small laughs emerged from both of them.

" _This_ is a lot of snow to you?" Bucky asked covering his mouth with a hand, and she could tell his was hiding a smile.

"This is the most I've ever seen before. The most it ever snowed where I grew up was two inches," Vic told them holding her fingers barely apart, "and that closed the entire town down for two days. This, _right here_ , is why I was planning to leave New York."

"So then, does that mean you do, or do not, want to come back out later?" Steve asked taking her hand and leading her up the stairs to the front door.

"Oh, yeah, we are definitely playing in this later," she informed them as Bucky opened up the door and they walked inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With this chapter, and Vic being stunned by the snow, I have drawn on my own personal experience. I live in a warmer climate and the most snow I have ever seen in about two to three inches (and even that is only every 5 years or so). I have never had the chance to play in real thick snow (a foot or more). I know that probably sounds strange to anyone above the Mason-Dixon line or Europe...Russia...Norway...mountains in general...you get the picture.


	32. The Barton Farm

Their arrival had gone much like Bucky had figured it would. Vic had been introduced to the entire Barton household, with Laura giving her a sincere smile along with a hug. Natasha had disappeared into the den with Nathan on her hip. Steve was hanging onto Vic as he introduced Wanda and Pietro. But Clint, Bruce, and Tony had disappeared outside for some reason, talking about cooking the turkey.

Everyone else had gathered in the kitchen, sitting at one of the two large decorated tables, an additional one having been brought in to accommodate the larger number here today. There was also a smaller one off to the side, with smaller chairs for the kids. Cooper and Lila had been put in charge of decorating the table with leaves and different assorted looking gourds that looked mutated to him due to the coloring and strange bumps they had.

But when they had gotten into the warm house, Bucky got the same feeling like he had before of being a bit out of place. He had been to the farm a couple of times during the year, each time being greeted warmly by Laura, but there was something about the normalcy of all of it that just put him off. Maybe it was because _this_ was the life that had been denied to him and Steve for the past few decades. A house with a family eagerly awaiting for the mission to be over. Could something like this now be in their future? Could they have a family? Would Vic even consider having a family? How would they even handle having kids? Even though he liked the safety of the Tower, it was not exactly child friendly...aside from Tony.

They had not yet gotten too far into the depth of their new relationship to even go that deep into discussions of their future. It had not even been a week since they had first met her. But yet, she had agreed to move in with them so quickly, mostly because of his own interference with that topic, not that he regretted it at all. So far, everything seemed to be going great between the three of them. Even Steve seemed to be loosening up, remembering the show he had gotten earlier getting off the elevator.

But what if Vic decided that she didn't want to deal with what all comes with what they do. They hadn't gone out on a mission yet, but that could change at any time. How would she feel about them going out and dealing with HYDRA? With him killing even more? Vic may say that she's fine with his killing from his past, when he was not himself, but what about when it's tomorrow, and he's doing it willingly? She had said that the bad guys may deserve it, but Vic hadn't dealt with it actually happening yet.

"Alright, tall, dark, and broody. What's up?" he heard Vic say as her arms slipped around his waist from behind. How had he been so distracted by his own thoughts to let someone slip up on him?

"Just feeling a bit out of place," he barely spoke above a whisper, not wanting the others nearby to hear. There was no point in trying to lie to her, since he had a feeling that Vic would know, and call him out on it.

"Then follow me, because I think what you need is something that could go _so wrong_ , that it will bring a _smile_ to your face...as long as nobody gets hurt," she grinned, pulling him towards the room where they had all thrown their coats after arriving, then heading to the back of the house.

"What are you talking about?" he asked following a bit hesitantly after she grabbed their items, but he would let Vic lead him anywhere he had already decided.

"Well, the guys went out to cook the turkey. Haven't you ever seen what can happen if you're not careful when deep frying a turkey?" she asked standing at the back door.

"Why would you fry a turkey? They are _supposed_ to be cooked in an _oven_ ," he firmly stated.

Handing him his coat to put on, Vic then stopped as she was putting her coat on, looking at him curiously before giving him a sad smile. When he was ready, she opened the back door, leading him onto the back porch, which wrapped around part of the house.

Off in the distance in the large yard area, he could see the three guys standing around a large silver pot over a gas flame, all of them chatting and laughing. Vic pulled him off to the side of the porch, heading for a glider. She sat down, holding his hand and pulling him down next to her, wrapping her arm around his.

"This is your first Thanksgiving in years, isn't it?" she asked looking out at the scene before them. Wanda had cleared another large area of snow in which Clint had set up the cooking area, a good distance from anything.

"Yes. For the last two years at this time, I was hiding in Romania. All other Thanksgivings, I was either on a mission, or sleeping," he said as she scooted closer to him, probably trying to get some of his body heat. "Before that, the last time I was with Steve was the one back in forty-four, when Steve and I were with the Howling Commandos, but we were out in the field doing raids, so that doesn't count either."

"Well, then, you are definitely due for a Thanksgiving. Deep fried turkey is the thing, nowadays. You'll just have to trust me and make sure that you get some of the crispy outside skin before I do. But, when it comes to cooking it, if you don't know what you are doing, think possible _flamethrower_ ," she said pointing out at Clint who was carefully taking the hot lid off of the pot with a long metal rod. Lifting up the turkey with the same rod, he delicately lowered it into the hot oil, everything going fine. "Oh, well, no show this year."

"You _wanted_ it to flare up?" he asked looking over at her.

"It's the sadist in me," she answered, leaning her head on his shoulder, shocking him a bit with the use of the terminology. Never had he heard a _dame_ use that term before.

"What are you two doing?" Steve asked coming out of the door and heading for them. Vic held her arm out so that he could sit next to her on the empty side of the glider they had automatically left open.

"Talking turkey," she said as Steve took the seat next to her, huddling right up next to her before leaning over for a quick kiss. "This is Bucky's first Thanksgiving in a while. How many Thanksgivings have you had?"

"This will be my fifth since I woke up," he said putting his arm on the back of the glider around Vic, but with his hand coming to rest on his own shoulder, clutching it the way they used to do. "But it's the first one that I have actually looked forward to. What about you, Victoria?"

"It's been five years since I had a real one too," she simply said without elaborating.

They already knew that she didn't seem to stay anywhere long enough to make the friends that would come in useful around holidays. The guys were now walking back towards the house, since they had time before the turkey was cooked. Since Vic had yet to steer him wrong when it came to food, he would hold off his opinion of fried turkey until later.

"How can the two of you popsicles subject Vic to this cold weather? Have you no shame?" Tony asked as the group came up the steps, ready for the warmth of inside.

"Obviously, you're just jealous that I stole the spot between your snuggle bunnies," Vic threw out at him, squirming her body seductively between him and Steve, causing Clint to receive a punch in the arm from Tony for laughing.

* * *

As they waited for the turkey to cook, Laura gave her the tour of the house after she had asked about its history. There were little details that reminded her of her own childhood home. It was easy to tell that renovations had been done not only recently, but through the past decades. When they had moved in, Laura told her how Clint had started renovating each room, so that little by little, most of the house had some kind of modern updating. She noted that he had done a pretty good job on the work he had done.

Dinner was finally being put onto the tables, with Pietro setting the tables in an incredible amount of time, somewhere between two and three seconds. How useful _that_ talent could have been working some of her other jobs. Wanda had shown her a bit of her magic, taking the dishes out of the oven and floating them to the counter, setting them down on the large chopping block top. Steve had told her a bit more about the twin's history as the three of them had sat outside and talked for a while. She had always hated the cold, but being able to see actual snow, sitting with the two of them, she hadn't minded it at all.

"You were right," Vic heard from her left, where Bucky was not holding back on devouring the slices of turkey he had on his plate. "This is _much better_ than baked."

"Slow down, nobody is going to steal it from you," she said still working on the pile of assorted food she had on her own plate. Wanda had cooked two dishes from her home country, both of which were very good. She would have to ask about getting the recipes later from her.

She enjoyed listening to everyone chat and talk, learning more about the strange group of friends that she now seemed to be a part of. Most of the discussions around the table seemed to center on previous missions, all of the stories ending up with someone having an embarrassing situation happening to someone.

" _Of course_ they didn't _see_ what I had done, so when they started to charge, that's when they all fell face first into the dirt due to their boot laces being tied together," Pietro finished telling his own anecdote, bring a laugh to the entire table.

"One of the soldiers had his finger on the trigger of his gun and shot the idiot in front of him in the ass. That was the best part," Tony added reaching for another roll.

"Hey, careful, or Steve's going to scold you for your language," Natasha said lifting her eyebrow in mock.

"That was over two years ago now," Steve said dropping his head and leaning back in his chair, folding his arms over his chest.

"And yet, it _never_ gets old...unlike you," Tony supplied as the rest of them laughed. Everyone chatted and continued eating, most of the food from the serving plates disappearing quickly.

As the large group finished up and sat around the table talking, Clint put his arm around Laura before speaking up.

"Well, I think that today proves that I definitely need to take out this entire wall," he said jerking his thumb at the mentioned area, "so that we can get a much larger table. At the rate this menagerie is growing, we'll need double the space next year."

"That's a load bearing wall, Clint," Vic started to say, reaching for the last roll, "So if you're serious, you'll have to get an engineered LVL beam to support the header."

With that simple statement, the entire table went quiet, all of their faces looking at her.

"What?" she asked nervously.

"Didn't you tell Vic about the 'Rule of the Nest'?" Bruce asked desperately looking between Steve and Bucky.

"We mentioned it days ago, but didn't think to remind her," Steve answered sheepishly.

"What are you talking about?" she asked again, as Clint leaned forward in his chair, a creepy smile coming over his face.

At least four people surrounding the table stated in unison, "Never discuss construction with Clint."

"You know construction?" Clint asked looking way to happy suddenly.

"Maybe," she answered a bit hesitantly seeing the worried faces around the table, feeling both Bucky and Steve reaching under the table to take a hold of her legs.

"Come on, spill it," Clint said gesturing with his fingers for the information.

"Fine," she said receiving sadden looks from both sides of her. "I've worked construction doing framing, insulation, drywall, painting, interior trim, flooring, and a couple of other things."

"Well...we just lost her," Steve sadly stated to Bucky while shaking his head.

For the next hour, she and Clint walked around the entire house discussing past renovations that he had done as well as her pointing out where earlier work had been done before him. He had no idea that the laundry room had originally been an open back porch until she pointed out how the roof-line and wall material were too new, as in new during the 1960's. He asked her opinion on his idea of taking the wall out, which he said he actually was serious about, so they talked engineering for a while. Then it happened.

As they were discussing the different benefits of spray foam versus standard insulation, Vic suddenly felt something grab onto her. Before she could even blink, she was suddenly standing outside of the house, near the side of the barn. Pietro, Bucky and Steve were all standing there, devious grins on all of their faces.

"There you go," Pietro smiled while patting the top of her head a few times,"one soulmate," before disappearing right before her eyes.

" _What_ was _that_?" she asked as she was handed her coat and other necessary outside items from Steve. Quickly she put the coat on, now that the cold was starting to get to her. Seconds ago she had been nice and warm inside the house, now far away.

" _That_ was the only way we are going to get some alone time with you," Bucky offered as she put the gloves on. "So, we had Pietro kidnap you away from Clint. If we don't hurry and get out of here, he may find us."

"We are going for a walk," Steve said as he pulled her wool cap down a bit more over her head so that the edges covered her ears.

"How exactly are we going to walk in something that comes up to our knees?" Vic asked as they each linked an arm around hers, leading her around the edge of the barn so that they were not visible from the house.

"Wanda has already cleared a path to the pond in the woods so that anybody who wanted to could head there today," Steve offered, pointing at a cleared path leading into the trees behind the barn.

"Nice," she said as they began to walk.

"We should have remembered to warn you about Clint and his 'house of renovation'. You can't stop him when he gets on a roll about it," Bucky said wrapping his fingers through hers. After they had been walking a short ways, she wanted to see how Bucky was doing now.

"Are you finally feeling better about being here today?" she asked Bucky while squeezing his hand a few times.

"For the most part," he told her.

"Why would you not feel like being here?" Steve asked looking over at him.

"It's not that. There's just something about seeing Clint and his family that's just…" he drifted off, not knowing the best way to put it.

"Foreign," she supplied.

"Yeah," Bucky agreed.

"Do you feel the same way, Victoria?" Steve asked sounding a bit different than he usually did.

"Mine's different. My family wasn't the most inviting when it came to my presence. I was more tolerated, so having people who seem genuinely sincere about me being around...it's a bit strange," she offered, trying to word her answer in a way that she hoped wouldn't get them too upset.

"Everyone here is sincere," Steve told her giving her hand a reassuring squeeze before looking at Bucky. "What exactly is bothering you?"

"It's been a long time since we've had any real family, Steve," Bucky said, "So watching Clint's, it's a bit of a painful reminder of what was taken from us."

The three of them continued to walk, but a silence fell over them as they probably each considered what the term family could mean for them. They hadn't really discussed the word family in relation to them being together. She hadn't put much thought into it since the night she agreed to meet with them. Instead she had just been happy getting to know them. Both of them had lost any family they would have had decades ago, making them both alone in the world except for each other, and maybe her. But _was_ she family to them? Thanks to the way she was treated growing up, she wasn't sure how to tell if she was.

But she still had that nagging fear in the back of her mind that this entire relationship may not last for long. It was not something that she wanted to voice to them, instead waiting to see what may happen in the future. She was a bit worried about possibly _giving_ them the idea of them getting tired of her by bringing up her fear. Especially once their relationship was discovered by the press and they started to get bullied. Until then, she would be happy that she had finally found them.

They had not even discussed anything sexual since the night they said they were going to take things slow. That opened up another can of worms. None of them had been hesitant about physical contact, even Steve who she guessed was just as eager as Bucky, but he was slowly opening up with his gestures, bringing a smile to her face as she remembered earlier today with both of them. But how did they want them to work? As two separate relationships, or would they consider being together at the same time with her? The feelings that she had when she was just with one of them seemed amplified when they were both near. But how do you even start up _that_ type of conversation?

"We are going to have to have a grown-up conversation eventually, aren't we?" she asked breaking the silence between all of them as the path finally left the woods, revealing a small pond directly ahead. There was a large oak tree with a rope swing hanging from a high branch over the water, which would be perfect during the summertime. There was a small raised wooden platform not too far away with rocking chairs set up on it for relaxing in, so they made their way over to it, sitting down. Wanda had cleared it of snow also, guessing people would use them.

"Yes, we are," Steve finally said as he began to rock, "But not right now. Let's just enjoy the day, and being here together."

* * *

A little while later, they were still sitting on the rocking chairs, talking about little things, or not speaking at all, in a comfortable silence. Steve wondered if they should have gone ahead and talked, but he didn't think that they were going to be that different with their wants when it came to their relationship.

When they were younger, he and Bucky had talked numerous times about how to be together with their soulmate, and with the way Victoria acted towards them, she seemed to fall right where they had always hoped she would. Able to be with each one of them separate, but not hesitant about both of them touching her at the same time. He was more worried about actually planning out their first night together, more than the ideas they had casually thrown out when they were younger. Bucky had already requested that they take her out for ' _the date_ ' soon, but he was not going to rush Victoria. They were going to be together for a long time so they could wait a few months. That would only be proper. Besides, Bucky had already got Victoria to move in with them, and they were sharing a bed, so he could give Victoria some time to get to know them better.

They had to have been at the lake for about an hour by the time Pietro showed up the way he usually does…suddenly. He handed them each one of them a coffee mug that he had carried out, while passing Bucky the thermos which he informed them was filled with hot spiced apple cider. Victoria barely had time to thank Pietro before he was gone again.

Bucky filled Victoria's, then his own, before handing it to her. Taking the thermos from her, he poured the last of it into his mug, enjoying the warmth from the hot drink. Once he was finished with it, Steve began to wonder how cold Victoria may actually be if _he_ needed something to help him warm up. Putting the mug down, he reached over to take her hand in his. She was still wearing the gloves and scarf, but really looking at her, he saw her cheeks were a bit too red, as was the small space of her neck which he could see between her hat and scarf. They needed to get her back to the warmth of the house.

"Come on," he said standing, not letting her hand go. "You're freezing, aren't you?"

"Vic," Bucky voice scolding Victoria as he then realized, "you should have said something."

Standing up, Bucky placed his mug onto the floor of the platform, coming to stand right next to her.

"I'm fine. If it was that bad, I would have let ya know," she told them, hoping that she really would have. "I'm more surprised that _ya'll_ wanted to stay out here so long."

"We grew up with cold and snow just like this," Bucky told her as he picked their two cups up.

"But this is _new_ to me so I'm just _enjoying_ it," Victoria said wrapping her arm around Bucky's offered arm.

Steve bent down to pick up his own mug and the thermos before taking her other arm. Pressing in close to her, they both tried to use their body heat to warm her up a bit.

They were walking down the path when Victoria made him turn red once again by saying, "Imagine going camping in the wintertime and being together like this inside of the largest sleeping bag we can find."

"I'll start looking for one tomorrow," Bucky supplied as his own mind began to imagine the possibilities.


	33. Snowball Fight

After being outside for so long, entering the house felt a bit stifling to her. Not that she wasn't standing in front of the large fire that was roaring in the den. She had gone through two more mugs of the apple cider before feeling back to her warm self. But she would much rather have crawled into a bed with Bucky and Steve to get her body heat back. Not that she could or would admit to such. She could joke with them, but every once in a while, her own desires to want to be touching them were a bit too strong. Vic smiled as she thought back to the night she had removed her shirt while walking into the closet, when she had teased them, but also be curious as to what they would do.

But it looked like they really were going to take this relationship slow.

Now that everyone else had gotten in a nap after eating, they were ready to head outside to play. Luckily she and Nat had able to get blackmail shots of Bruce, Sam, and Tony's socked feet all cuddled together on the coffee table as they slept in front of the television before they woke up. The only ones absent were Bucky and Wanda, who had disappeared to somewhere quiet for what they called a 'session'.

Tony, of course, had made himself leader of the Gold Team, while Steve had been unanimously voted in as leader of Blue Team. Sam was trying to taunt Natasha after she had pointed out that he would be useless on her team without his wings. Pietro had been sent outside to the large field earlier and he had created a bunch of different sized bunkers, similar to what she had seen on paintball fields, with piles of snowballs everywhere. There were flags on each side of the field, waiting to be captured.

Since there was no chance of _anyone_ hitting him, even Clint and Steve had agreed to that, Pietro was sitting out so that he could continue to reload their weapons as needed, as well as being the referee. He would be able to see all hits.

There was a compromise that Cooper and Lila would be on the same team and only count as one, since they would be going up against adults. Now, the only argument left was whether or not Clint was allowed to play, and if so, whose team he was allowed to be on. She had looked him, or technically Hawkeye, up on her computer the other night so she knew who he was. His skills that had been caught on camera phones during a couple of battles were amazing. But was he really going to be that good when it came to snowballs?

"It would be an unfair advantage," Tony was saying as he put his coat on in the hallway. "Like trying to hit Pietro."

"It's Clint's place and it would be plain mean to _not_ let him play," Steve was pointing out. The others had already agreed to let the two of them argue it out. After listening to them banter, Vic walked over to them.

"Both of you understand that I've never _made_ a snowball, much less _thrown one_ , right?" she pointed out to them. "My team is going to be at a disadvantage."

"But not enough to offset Clint's extremist kill-shots," Tony told her. Which actually gave her an idea.

"Is he _really_ that good or are you just exaggerating?" she asked curious looking between Tony and Steve, wondering if her idea would work.

"He _really is_ that good," Steve told her. "His specialty is…anything, really. He likes to use a bow and arrow, but snowballs are just as accurate as bullets."

"Do not make a decision for five minutes," she demanded before leaving the two of them in the hallway, watching her disappear into the kitchen where Clint was hugging on Laura, who was staying inside with Nathan. Clearing her throat to get his attention, she told him, "I need your help."

Less than thirty seconds later, found her, Clint, Pietro, and Bruce outside in the backyard. She had gotten Bruce's attention and had him follow them out, knowing he would want to watch to see if this worked. Explaining to Clint exactly what she would need, he found the concept of what she was trying interesting, so he agreed to help her. For the next minute, she watched as Hawkeye took aim at the fence posts surrounding the yard, studying his movements, how he stood, how he threw, eye movement, targeting, basically everything she would need to learn the pattern.

Picking up one of the balls from the pile they had Pietro make for them, restocked twice during her evaluation, she took a deep breath, considered everything she had just witnessed, opened her eyes, and threw the snowball at the post. It struck perfectly where she had intended it to land. Picking up another, she was able to do it again and again.

"I'm the world's best teacher," Clint proudly stated, placing his hands on his hips as he watched her make a few more strikes.

"Alright, now show me what you do while moving," Vic turned and asked. For this, she moved a bit more to the front of him, needing a bit more observation when it came to his body movements. But when she tried, it worked just as well as the other moves she had learned from watching movies.

"We are _definitely_ going to have to get you into the lab," Bruce said, shocked by what he had just seen her do.

"Just don't let Tony call me Beaker," she grinned, grabbing Clint's arm to drag him back into the house, before the five minutes were up. Tony and Steve were still in the hallway continuing the argument, so she led Clint over to stand at Tony's side, while she moved to stand next to Steve.

"There, teams are formed," she informed them, getting strange looks from the two of them.

"What?" they both asked staring between her and Clint.

"Tony gets Clint," Vic told Steve, looking at him with a confident smile. "Trust me."

"Alright, then. Everybody who's playing, outside," Steve yelled so that everyone still inside knew it was time. As the group gathered in the hallway and started to get their jackets on, Steve led her outside onto the front porch, heading to the field with his arm around her waist. "Care to explain the sudden change?"

"Well, since you were so confident in Clint's abilities of hitting targets, I just watched him so that I could learn how to do the same," she informed him wrapping her scarf a bit tighter. There was a small leak so that cold air was hitting her collarbone.

"You just learned to throw snowballs accurately from watching Clint do it?" he asked stopping short, trying to understand.

"Yep, he _is_ very good," she said tucking the ends into her jacket so they wouldn't get tangled on her arms as they played. "This should be fun."

As the teams split up on the different sides, the ground rules were laid out. If you were hit, you were out and had to head off field. No other items could be utilized, meaning no Iron Man suit, wings, or a shield. To win, someone from a team had to reach their team's flag, which was located at the far back of the enemy's territory. That's it.

Vic walked over to their fort with Steve, Bruce, Sam, Cooper and Lila. She stood looking out over the field to see the locations of the bunkers and weapon' piles. She felt like this may turn into a real-life Halo game. Tony and Clint were chatting away about strategy while Natasha and Pepper adjusted their clothes so they would not be caught up on loose scarfs also. Sam was stretching like this was the Olympics. It had been decided that he would rotate teams every round since they were at odd numbers. Pietro walked out to the middle of the field as the two teams prepared for the start. She was tickled that his start signal was a small burst of speed that made a clap of thunder sound as he suddenly disappeared from in front of them.

Everyone moved at once, some heading to the closest bunker for protection, except for Steve and Tony, who each headed further up field to take the advantage. Vic headed off to the left side, grabbing from the snowball pile behind a medium bunker where she came to a stop. Poking her head up, she saw that Clint was on the opposite side of the field, but Pepper was hiding too close to the edge of her barrier. Taking aim, she ended up smacking the snowball off of Pepper's exposed butt cheek, eliciting a shocking yelp upon impact.

"Pepper's out," Pietro said suddenly appearing standing above her as he helped Pepper stand from where she had fallen after getting the surprising hit. Tony looked back over his shoulder to see her wiping away the snow that was sticking to her pants.

"Did you smack my Pepper on the ass?" Tony yelled across the field at her.

"Figured it was about time someone besides you did," she taunted back at him, standing and throwing one right at his head. Tony barely had time to duck since he was opening his mouth to give a retort.

That was when Clint took a shot at her, so Vic dropped straight down, prone on the ground. Cooper and Lila were both pinning Natasha down behind a bunker. Sam was going for anyone he could spot. Steve and Tony were trying to go after each other, with Bruce trying for Clint. She knew that Clint needed to go and tried to return a shot at Clint but she didn't have the muscles he did to make it all the way across the field. So she decided to change tactics.

Staying low to the ground, she began to elbow crawl, like she had seen in movies, towards the center and closer to where Natasha was. This would also eventually put her in a better side position to get Tony. Moving quickly, Vic eventually came to the short bunker. Staying low she suddenly leaned to her left, out into the open, where she was able to hit Nat on her side as she was taking a shot at Steve.

"Nat, out," Pietro said appearing again.

"Bruce, out," came next as Clint moved to the other side of his bunker and landed a shot.

From her spot, she watched as Clint did an amazing high throw that came down right on top of Sam's head, with him completely hidden behind the bunker, so, "Sam's out."

That was when Clint really made his move. Leaping over the barrier, he took two quick shots, smacking both of his kids in the chest at the same time.

"Dad!" they both yelled as they were escorted off of the field by Pietro.

"What?" he asked all innocently while shrugging his shoulders and smiling. He was still too far for her to do anything about so she took a shot at Tony, who was overly focused on Steve. He had not even noticed that her crawl had taken her slightly behind him. Her snowball smacked him on the backside of his head as he finished his own swing, which ended up taking Steve out.

"Steve and Tony, out," Pietro said appearing next to each of them.

Now, she was going to be in trouble. Clint had the distance on her. She needed to stay out of sight, but also get the flag which was the point of the game. While dodging everything that came towards her. Thinking of the layout of the field, where Clint was, where she needed to be, Vic took a deep breath as she considered her move. She could hear cheering from the sideline, telling her to take Clint out. She was sure Nat and Pepper's voices were part of that cheer.

Vic grabbed two balls, one in each hand. Moving to sit cross-legged on the ground, she quickly popped up, tossing the first ball where she could barely make out his elbow from behind a tall, thin barrier. Planing her hand on the top of the three-foot high bunker she had been behind, she vaulted up and off of it, making a dash for the flag. As she passed the clear line of sight, looking to her right at Clint, she moved the ball to her right hand, and tossed it, just as Clint threw two balls as the same time, one from each hand. Making a large jump to try and avoid them, one barely missed her side but the other landed on her thigh.

"Vic, out," Pietro said appearing next to her before her foot hit the ground. Landing and coming to rest against a tall bunker, she shook her head as Clint causally walked across the field to where his team's flag was. Triumphantly he lifted it up, bowing towards the crowd. Heading back to their home base, she received a hug and kiss from Steve.

"I didn't think to learn left-handed throws," she admitted as Pietro reloaded a few piles that needed it.

"But you did great with the shots that you did take. Ready for round two?" he asked as everyone make it back to their places.

"Sure, but this time I'm heading for Clint first. He's the main _target_ ," she said stretching her neck muscles.

For the next forty minutes, they played numerous games, the winning side moving back and forth between the two teams. Vic tried to pick up on the different throws that Clint would take during the games, using them to adapt her own skills, but she was still having a hard time with the dodging since she could only see a partial body due to the bunkers. But everyone was enjoying themselves.

Heading back to the base for another round, she spotted Wanda emerging from the barn across the way, wrapping her coat around her tight, but there was no sign of Bucky.

Walking over to where Steve was, she nodded her head in Wanda's direction, asking, "Where's Bucky?"

Steve looked over to see Wanda heading for them.

"Still inside the barn. He'll keep to himself after a session," Steve answered sounding a bit depressed.

"For how long?" she asked.

"A day or two," Steve told her, sounding as if that was a normal length of time.

"What?" her tone telling him that she couldn't believe that. "Have you tried to talk with him afterwards?"

"Yeah, and received quite a few _swings_ my way until I left him alone," he admitted to her.

Vic then made up her mind that she was going to try. Heading in the direction of the barn, Pietro stopped next to her.

"I've going to have to sit the next few out. Could you let them know?" she told him, not bothering to stop walking.

"Sure, but be careful. If I had not pulled Steve out of the way from one of his swings, it would have gotten his jaw," Pietro told her before quickly leaving.

She had been so focused on reaching the door that she had not noticed Steve was following her and gaining ground. Before she could open the door, he placed his hand on it, keeping it shut.

"Victoria, this may not be a good idea. Most of his sessions deal with some pretty bad memories. Dangerous ones," he told her, his face full of concern. But Bucky had told her that there were days when his past interfered with the now, and she wanted to try and help. Remembering their time at the Japanese pond, she thought that she just may be able to help. Having him sulk for two days was not something either of them would want to deal with.

"I'm going to try," she said reaching up to put her hand on his that was holding the door close. "But if you are that worried, stand inside next to the door."

Steve still had worry written on his face, but he eventually nodded his head in agreement, allowing his hand to fall so she could open the door. Stepping inside, it was slightly darker since the sun was actually behind a few clouds, not allowing any beams to penetrate the wooden plank walls. Off to the side looking like it was being worked on, sat a 1957 John Deere 320, looking so much like the slightly newer model she drove a few times growing up. But the smell of the hay covering some of the dirt floor reminded her of back home instantly. It did not necessarily bring up good memories, but she was not in here for that.

Steve came to a stop just inside of the door, closing it behind him. She looked around but there was no sign of Bucky inside of the immediate area. Could he had gotten out a back door and left? That was when she heard the sound of his arm calibrating, coming from somewhere above her. Stepping into the open area, she noticed the hay loft off to the side, a basic ladder heading up to it.

Walking over to it, she guessed that it was easily about twenty feet up to the level that he was on. Placing her hands on the rungs of the ladder, she shook her head before starting to head up. _Of course_ he would have headed to the _high ground_ , he was a _sniper_. Getting to the higher places had not been the problem, it was mostly when she got there that the panic took over. Once she got to the top, she would have to get away from the ladder without looking to the sides or behind her, which would start the feeling, which Bucky _definitely_ did not need right now.

Steadily she climbed, looking down at Steve who still seemed hesitant about her being in here to begin with. The ladder reminded her of walking the temporary stairs at construction sites, secure but chilling. Reaching the platform to see open space right in front of her, she moved onto it, closing her eyes while creeping forward a few feet away from the ledge before she even tried to stand. From her right, Vic heard movement. Turning towards it for a look, she spotted Bucky sitting on a hay bale in front of a large pile, staring at the floor.

"Go away," he simply stated.

Vic looked back over to the top of the ladder, which would be quite a hassle for her to get back down on. She knew that by coming up here that she was effectively trapping herself. Giving a shake of her head, she looked over at him, telling Bucky, "Nope."

* * *

Bucky had been expecting Steve, yet again, just like all of the other times. The Punk just could not take a hint. So when he heard the sounds of someone coming up the ladder he had figured it was him. He had heard heavy footsteps before the barn door had opened, along with inaudible talking. Vic.

Now, he heard footsteps coming towards him as she approached. She was moving slow, but she was not hesitant even when he looked up at her, catching her eyes with his own. He could only imagine how rough he appeared. Sessions with Wanda were always hard on him, emotionally, but also physically. How Wanda could stand it he was not sure, but she had tried to explain that she could sort the memories and reattach his connections to them without having to know what they were of. She did not have to watch the playback of his horrors to be able to help him. That was the only reason he had agreed to let Wanda help him all those months ago. He would not have put her through working with him if she did. No one else needed to deal with what he had done.

"I never pegged you for a hypocrite," Vic said still moving forward, as close to the wall as she could get with the miscellaneous rusted tools tossed against it. He could see that her eyes were focused forward, careful to avoid the drop to her right.

"What?" he asked sitting up a bit straighter on the hay bale. Her face was slightly flushed red, as if she had been back out in the cold for a while like earlier. Then he remembered the snowball fight that was supposed to happen at some point today. Maybe she had been out watching it, but more than likely she had been participating.

"Hypocrite. Because if I remember the stories that you and Steve have told me, right now, _that's_ what you are being," Vic said as she finally made it across the loft to him. She stood right in front of him with her arms crossed as if she were scolding him like a little child. He had a slight headache and right now he could not recall what they had told her, so he just shook his head in not-understanding. "When Steve was a pip-squeak, and sick, didn't you used to stay with him, comfort him?"

He dropped his head as he now got it. Every time that Steve had been too sick to go to school, he would always rush over afterwards to see how he was doing, sitting at the foot of his bed telling him about anything that had happened in school that day. Sometimes he would read chapters aloud out of one of the few books that Steve always had lying around. He didn't care what he did as long as he felt that being there helped his friend, his soulmate, feel better.

Yet, now that _he_ was the one who was not feeling well, all he had ever done at Steve's efforts to comfort him was push him away...along with a few violent swings. A couple of them coming pretty close to making contact. He had gotten used to hiding himself away for a the rest of the day after a session, making sure that everyone left him alone, and then the next day, if he was still not feeling right, by usually being generally irritated at everything.

But here was Vic, staring down at him as he had tried to do his usual routine. From the look on her face, he knew she was not going to let him, but there was no way in hell that he was going to push her away like he had Steve, who he was pretty sure was close by judging by the sound of dirt shuffling under feet going on down below.

"You don't have to talk if you don't want to," her soft voice was coxing him too easily into agreeing.

Reaching his hand up, he took hers, pulling her close in to him so that Vic was now standing between his legs. She wrapped her arms around his upper body, forcing his head to rest against her chest. Finally, he took his arms and slid them around her waist, holding himself there in case she wanted to leave. He could hear her heart beating, calm and steady, which was such a soothing sound.

Now that Vic was here, he found that he definitely _wanted_ her to be.

"Package deal," she told him which made no sense until she called out, "Steve, come on up."

Holding her close, he could hear the Punk climbing up the ladder, just like she had done. Moments later, he felt a warm, firm hand patting his shoulder.

"As nice as this is, think we can take a seat?" Vic asked as he felt her hands start to run across the top of his neck at the hairline. He could feel his entire body start to ease up a bit.

Releasing her, Steve went ahead and sat down next to him on his right, while Vic sat right between the two of them. But then she twisted her body so that she was leaning back onto Steve for support, lifting her left leg so that it was now behind him, leaving him sitting between her legs. Vic then pulled him against her into a lying position, lifting his legs onto the hay bale. He felt Steve's hand come to a rest partially on his left shoulder as Steve wrapped his arm across Vic's shoulders to hold her beside him.

As his head found a spot on her chest, he wished that her coat was gone, but right now he felt much better than he had just a few minutes ago, especially as Vic's hand began to stroke through his hair, her fingertips gently scraping across his scalp like she had done before. He let out an involuntary moan of pleasure at the experience.

"See, I could have been doing that for you months ago, Jerk," Steve said with a chuckle and he could feel Vic body shake from holding in a laugh.

"You're hands aren't as nice as hers," he simply responded.

They never prodded him into talking for the next hour or however long it was until Natasha finally came to retrieve them by calling up, jokingly letting them know that Clint was kicking everyone out with left-overs and that it was time to head back home. Bucky couldn't remember being so disappointed with having to leave somewhere since he and Vic had been at the Japanese Pond.

"We'll be out in a few minutes," Steve called down to her, hearing Nat shut the door behind her.

The three of them untangled their bodies slightly, a bit stiff from having sat still for so long. Bucky turned around before Vic could even stand, pushing her down so that her head was now lying on Steve's lap. His body was pinning her into place, while Steve stroked her head with one hand, while the other was running over her arm that was now across Bucky's back. Vic's other hand wrapped around Steve's lower leg, needing something to grab onto.

"Does this mean you are not going to be sulking around for the next day or so?" Vic asked as he ran his cheek up the side of her face, inhaling her wonderful scent again.

"If I do, can we do this again?" he asked instead.

"We can do this without you being a sourpuss," Vic said as she lifted her head just enough to give him a kiss. Knowing that the group was waiting on them, he let her up after only a minute, but he now even more determined to convince Steve into planning their date they had always talked about as kids for some time very soon.

Pushing himself up, he offered his hands to Vic, but as she was finally able to stand, Steve, who had risen behind her, turned her around, eagerly planting his own kisses on her. Giving them a moment, he took a few steps towards the ladder.

"Thanks for helping him," he heard Steve tell her as he ran kisses over her throat, causing her to moan a bit.

"Anytime…especially if this is the payment," she said after a few more well placed kisses from Steve, who finally freed his hold on her. Taking her hand in his, they started to walk towards him, close to the ladder.

"By the way," Vic said after only a few steps, "Ya'll do realize that I'm trapped up here, right?"

Stepping back over to her, he took Vic's hand in his, asking, "You came up here for me knowing that you wouldn't be able to get back down?"

"Of course. It also guaranteed that ya couldn't kick me out," Vic told him. Bucky then gave her another kiss, smiling at knowing how she was going to be getting down. Looking over at Steve, he just nodded his head.

Bucky let out a chuckle as Steve then swept her up into his arms with a squeal, her arms latching around his neck. Vic closed her eyes as he walked over to the ledge near the ladder. The two of them jumped down to the dirt floor, causing a yelp from Vic as she felt them free-fall to the ground. Upon landing, she began to laugh as Steve then started walking to the door, not putting her down.

"That was just like the carnival rides. Can we do that again?" Vic asked looking around Steve's shoulder at him with a beautiful smile on her face. He almost wanted to tell her yes so that she could be in _his_ arms for the next one.

"Sorry, but everyone is waiting," Steve told her as he reached the door, easing Vic down so that she could stand up.

Bucky walked next to her, whispering in her ear, "Don't worry, we can find something else fun to do."

Vic just smiled at him, giving an exasperated breath at his dirty comment, which he could tell she totally understood. She then linked her arms around both of theirs as Steve opened the barn door so they could head out.


	34. Black Friday

The sun was just barely starting to light up the other nearby building visible out the large window so he knew it was still early. Lying in the bed, Bucky also knew that he was the first one awake today by the soft rhythmic breathing coming from the other two forms nearby, one of which was partially wrapped nicely around him again.

Turning his head carefully, he found that Vic had rolled towards him, lying on her side with her arm draped over his chest, her forehead resting against his shoulder, her warm breath blowing on his upper arm. Steve was located directly behind her, spooning her tightly with his arm draped over her side before grasping his lower arm, as if to hold Bucky in place. He realized that he could feel Steve's hand against him now that he knew it was there, slightly warmer than the other areas of Vic's skin touching him. The two of them really were warmer, making him wonder how Vic was able to sleep between them.

Thinking back to the barn yesterday, there was no denying that having the two of them nearby after the session had been a great help to him. For all of the other sessions, there was always a mixture of guilt and loathing that he had felt towards himself that he had not wanted to subject Steve to. He knew that Steve still carried the weight of not saving him that day on the train. Steve had even admitted to him repeatedly...that he felt partially responsible for everything that had happened to him, as well as everything he had been forced to do. There was _no way_ he was going to let that Punk feel responsible for the kills _he_ had made.

So after every session when Steve had tried to be there for him, Bucky had pushed him away, not wanting him to have to deal with the aftermath of guilt or even the distress of when they dealt with his early captivity memories. That pain would be his alone. Eventually Steve had stopped asking if he wanted to talk about his time, to get anything off of his chest, but he had never done so. He knew that the Steve had gone through some of the files that had been dumped onto the internet, reading about what he had been put through. But that was different than having to listen to it first hand from the soulmate who had experienced it.

Yesterday, Vic had forced his hand as he had tried to wallow in his misery by being nice and supportive, while doing that wonderful thing with her fingers in his hair. She had also pointed out that he had been being a bit of shithead, his words - definitely not hers - towards Steve for these past few months. When they had both sat down with him, he had felt his mind as well as his body begin to calm from the swirling rage that he had been feeling. The agony from watching his own memories as if they were nothing more than a horror movie on television began to drain from him. The longer they had sat there with him, the more he knew that he wanted them to be there for him in the future.

Usually on the morning after a session, he would wake up still feeling miserable, but today he felt like he had every other morning since they had started to share a bed with Vic, an ease of 'just being' like he hadn't felt since before the war. Was it really possible that with the three of them together that he may have a chance at feeling like a real human again, not the mindless machine he had been turned into?

Steve had already pointed out to him days ago that he had started to laugh at jokes, as well as display bits the _annoying_ humor that he while they were growing up. He remembered the scared look Sam had at his jest the other night about 'hitting' on Vic at the strip club. He had not noticed a change in his own behavior, but once Steve had mentioned it, the signs had been right there. For the past few months being with just Steve, he had not acted that way, not until Vic arrived. Smiling as he looked down at her peaceful sleeping face, he knew that there was no way he was ever going to let her go. Either one of them.

Watching both of them sleeping for a while, the room eventually sounded with a single soft ping, indicating that FRIDAY had a message for someone. Even though it was a gentle sound, it was enough to stir both Steve and Vic awake.

"Yes, FRIDAY?" he asked as the other two stretched out on the bed by rolling away from him. But that would not do, not today. He found that he wanted more cuddles from Vic.

" _Boss wants me to inform the Triad that breakfast will be served in thirty minutes in the common room. Clothes are optional_ ," her voice told them as he then rolled on his side towards Vic, taking the opportunity to pull her toward him with his left hand.

"Tell him we will be there with our clothes on," Steve informed the AI as he stretched on his back before turning and watching him tuck Vic into a ball so that _he_ was the one now wrapped around her for a bit. Steve gave him a sharp stare, but he could see from his eyes that he didn't mean it.

"Why should _you_ be the only one to spoon her?" Bucky asked as Vic giggled from his feet wrapping around her own, holding her in place.

"At least you _seem_ to have woken up in a better mood than you _usually do_ after a session," Steve informed him. That was when Vic then took the opportunity to reach out and grab Steve around his upper arm. She may have been playing at trying to escape, but the only thing it succeeded in doing was pulling Steve up against her other side. He felt one of her legs manage to wiggle free of his, but he suspected that Vic had only wrapped it around Steve's to hold him in place as she was now wiggling her body comfortably against his as she moved Steve to where she wanted him.

"Yeah, I did. A much better mood," he said resting a bit better now that the three of them were once again all together touching. His face was planted not only on a pillow, but a lovely smelling bed of white hair.

"I can tell," he heard from Vic as he felt her slightly push back with her hips prompting a slight moan from him as she rubbed against his partially firm member. He couldn't wait for a morning when they may do more than just cuddle.

"That's not what I'm talking about, vixen," he said giving her neck a rough kiss, his teeth slightly running over her skin, now making her moan a bit. "No, I mean that I actually feel _good_ , like my old self...or at least a lot more than I have in a very long time. And _definitely_ better than I usually do after a session. Also, Steve, I'm sorry for taking those swings at you when you were just trying to help."

Steve silently looked over at him, probably a bit stunned at receiving the apology, and just nodded, but he could see from his expression that he was grateful for it. He watched Steve nestle himself against Vic so that he was comfortable.

After a minute of silence, Steve pointed out, "You've been making a lot more apologies since Victoria arrived."

"Are you saying I'm a bad influence?" she asked, guessing that she poked Steve in the side when he yelped after the comment.

"Just the opposite, sweetheart," he whispered into her ear, but he knew that Steve would hear also.

"FRIDAY, can you give us a fifteen minute snooze?" Steve asked as he closed his eyes with a content smile on his face. Closing his own eyes, the three of them laid there huddled together happy until they were informed that the time was up.

After scattering to their rooms for a few minutes to put on more covered clothing to eat in, they met back up in the den before heading up for breakfast. Tony had a chef come in and prepare a large assortment of breakfast items, setting them up on a buffet table off to the side of the dining area. It was not too often that he did this, but it was always delicious. They may have also noticed that sometimes Tony would have it ordered when he had done something wrong and had Pepper _mad_ at him.

Sam had said his goodbyes late last night as they all hung around before bed since he was leaving extremely early to head back to Washington. He had claimed it was because of work, but Steve had whispered to him that Sam was actually going shopping for some electronics he had been wanting. When they headed up to the table level, Bruce was already eating but he noticed the strange look that Natasha was giving towards him.

"What?" he asked with it sounding cheerful, which matched his mood, as he picked up a plate and passed it to Vic to use while letting her go first down the line of assorted foods.

"We're just not used to seeing you the morning after a session," Nat answered sounding pleased that he was actually there.

"Someone woke up _happy_ this morning," Steve supplied getting his own plate and getting a metal elbow to his side for the teasing way he had said that. "Hey."

"Play nice. Don't make me get between the two of you," Vic said loading her plate with a couple of slices of bacon.

Bucky leaned over towards Vic just a bit, saying, "But that's exactly _where_ we want _you_ to be."

"Ugh, _please_ Barnes, I haven't had my _third_ cup of _coffee_ yet," Tony said appearing from the doorway leading to the kitchen area. "Actually, I'm pretty sure there is not enough coffee in the _world_ to make me want to listen to that...ever."

Leaning her head back a bit, singing the word out in a lovely voice, Vic responded, " _Jealous_."

"Don't make me go to the garage and work on a car without you," Tony said sitting down at the head of the table.

"That's the _strangest_ threat I've ever heard," Bruce responded sounding curious.

He watched Vic loading her plate with more fresh fruit than he and Steve combined would probably eat.

"You would think someone who could build a suit of nitinol and carbon-fiber reinforced graphite could figure out how to _not_ put a carburetor together backwards," Vic then commented, getting strange looks from both him and Steve. She looked at them and explained, "Did you think it was real iron? That would be way too heavy."

"I was tired, and it was a simple mistake!" Tony then exclaimed raising his hand in the air, his finger pointing skyward.

"Hence, why you are _not_ allowed in the garage _without_ me," Vic pointed out, moving to sit at the table, making sure to take a middle chair with two free ones on each side.

"Speaking of garage," he then heard Pepper's voice call out from the kitchen, "Vic, that thing you wanted came in early this morning by special courier."

As he walked over to the table, he could see that Vic's shocked expression by hearing Pepper's information.

" _Already_? How is that possible?" she asked taking a bite of her bacon as Pepper emerged with her own coffee cup.

"The perks of being a large corporation. We have people to handle that sort of thing," she said sitting down at Tony's side. "I had it sent to the garage and put it… _you know where_."

"What thing?" Steve asked as the two of them moved to the table.

"Just something to do with the second vehicle," Vic casually replied, not going into detail. He had almost forgotten about her refusing to tell everyone what had transpired with her 'prize.'

"Are you going to tell us?" Steve then asked as they both sat and began to eat.

"Not yet. Be nice and maybe after breakfast I will," Vic answered but turning to look towards him with a devious grin on her face, making Bucky slightly curious again. If she was not going to tell, then he knew someone who would.

"Natasha, you always seem to know what is going on. So, what is the surprise?" Bucky then asked knowing how the Spider had her ways.

After moving into the Tower, he had swept their living quarters at least once a week to get rid of the bugs that she kept putting around to keep track of him. After confronting her, Natasha had claimed it was a safety issue, but after a few months, with no incidents occurring, the devices had magically stopped appearing.

"Oh, no. Even if I knew, if I spilled a surprise of Vic's, she'd probably never let me invite myself for breakfast again," Natasha replied shaking her head. He wondered if they should be worried that Vic was able to hide a secret from Nat. Nobody else seemed to be able to.

"Victoria, when you went shopping the other day, did you by chance get a dress for the Christmas party?" Pepper asked.

He knew that most of the belongings had come in by bags, not hanging up.

"No. What Christmas Party?" she asked already through half of the fruit.

"My wonderfully, fabulous, annual Stark Industries Christmas Gala! It's _the_ event of the season, if I do say so myself...which I am!" Tony chimed in, of course looking too proud of himself.

"Never heard of it," Vic answered with a bit of dramatic boredom in her voice. Everyone at the table burst out laughing, except for Tony, who looked devastated at her announcement.

Once Pepper stopped looking at Tony's saddened face, she was able to contain her laughter, telling Vic, "Well, then, looks like there a bit more shopping to be done."

"This is where men have it easy," Bruce interjected. "We just have to rent a tuxedo."

"Speak for yourself, Big Green," Tony said sounding offended. "Nothing less than custom made touches my sensitive baby skin."

"I didn't think about mentioning to Victoria about getting something for the Gala while were out the other day," Natasha said ignoring Tony's comment. "We were on the hunt for the basics and everyday clothes."

"Well, it _is_ Black Friday," Pepper hinted, "So there's a lot of sales going on right now."

"As well as a lot of crowds," Vic chimed in.

"But, there are only a few stores that will have the type of dresses necessary for you to choose from. They shouldn't be too crowded at all," Pepper added.

"What type of dress are we talking about?" Vic then asked, not sounding very sure of herself. He knew from seeing her closet that she didn't go for over-the-top outfits like the ones Natasha and Pepper liked to, or had to, wear sometimes.

"High-end ball gowns," Natasha spoke longingly while smiling as if she were thinking of something happy, before she began to spout off, "Oscar de la Renta, Dolce & Gabbana, Alexandra Vidal, Valentino, Armani…"

"Alright, that's it, _stop it_!" Tony called out vigorously waving his hands in the air to get Natasha's attention, "I can hear my bank account going down the drain right now! Just _look_ at Pepper's face!"

They could all see the longing in the aforementioned woman's eyes at hearing the different designer's names.

"That settles it!" Pepper then said, snapping out of the daydream she had be thrust into. "Girl's day out, right after breakfast is over."

"Think we can get an appointment at Luis' first?" Natasha asked, spitting out a name he didn't recognize.

"Easy," Pepper said pulling out a phone and making a call. They listened as the made an appointment for one hour from now for three. Looks like they were roping Vic into this whether she wanted to go or not. Once the call was finished, Vic spoke up.

"What's Luis'?" making him feel a bit better at not recognizing the name. But then, there were a lot of store names that he didn't know.

"That's our regular salon we go to for manicures," Natasha supplied starting to eat a bit quicker, probably so that she could go get ready.

"A manicure?" Vic asked sounding hesitant. "We're getting manicures?"

"Of course, since it _is_ girl's day out," Pepper answered, but then a look crossed her face. "Victoria, have you _ever_ had a manicure?"

"No," she simply said.

" _Never_?" Natasha asked sounding like she almost choked on the bite of bagel she had in her mouth. Vic just shook her head in the negative.

"What do you do with your nails when they get too long?" Pepper then asked.

"I bite them down short and then use a knife to round them off," Vic answered before receiving shocked looks of horror from the two women across from her. On the other hand, all the males at the table began to laugh, pleased with her answer. "I never had a reason to get a manicure."

"Well, now you have _two_ ," Natasha said sliding her finger between him and Steve.

"It doesn't matter to us what Victoria's fingernails look like," Steve replied while taking Vic's hand into his, lifting it up and placing a simple kiss on the back of it.

"Suck up!" Pepper was shaking her head. "So then, who does your hair?"

Vic then had a look of fear cross her face at hearing that question. She looked at Pepper and Natasha, who were leaning expectantly over the table, eager for an answer. Thinking about it, he realized that for the most part, they had always seen Vic with her hair up, hidden under a hat, either twisted or braided, or a strange combination of both. Even this morning, she had wound it around into a strange design to lift it up off of her shoulders. There were only a few times when he remembered seeing it partially flowing down her back.

"Nobody. I don't really cut it," she answered very hesitantly. Was there something there that she was not going to explain? He saw the look pass between the two women at hearing that.

"Vic, _when_ was the last time it was trimmed and _who_ did it?" Pepper asked before Natasha added, "And _how_ was it cut?"

"Um...six months ago and I used a pair of scissors from my boss Richard's desk at work," he heard her respond, as the audible gasps from the two women crossed the table.

Pepper then pulled her phone back out, hitting redial and began altering the appointment while Natasha told her with a wide smile, "You're getting the _full treatment_ today, then."

"Don't you _dare_ touch the _color_!" Bucky then quickly interjected before the two crazy women across from them got _that idea_ into their heads.

"Or the _length_!" Steve firmly added.

"You two men do realize that the _point_ of going to the _salon_ is to walk out with something _different_ about the _hair_ , right?" Pepper asked them hanging up the phone.

"Look who you're talking to," Natasha told Pepper, sounding amused with herself already, "Mister forty's hair, and the shaggy dog."

"Tony," Pepper asked turning to him, making Bucky realized that he had been stuffing more bacon in his mouth while being extremely quiet since the start of this conversation. Totally unlike his normal self. "What do you have to say?"

Steve quickly pointed out to them, "You're asking the opinion of someone who can't grow a full beard _and_ what scruff there _is_ on his chin has been professionally shaped into _arrows_."

"A full beard? Can you even grow a five-o'clock shadow, Spangle-britches?" Tony cried out sounding totally outraged while he was using a slice of bacon as a pointer aimed right at Steve.

As the two grown men then started arguing about who could grow the most manliest lumberjack beard in the shortest amount of time, Bucky saw that Vic was just quietly sitting and finishing off her breakfast, while Natasha and Pepper excitedly talked about which stores to take her to.

"Are you alright?" he leaned over so that he could ask quietly into her ear, hoping to not get the attention of anyone right now.

"I'm fine, but they _are_ amusing to deal with _and_ watch," she answered smiling at him. Nodding her head towards, Pepper and Nat, she asked, "Are they always like this?"

"Not really. I think that you _shocked_ them a bit with your answers," he told her. "They're a bit more _high-maintenance_."

"I think _everyone_ is a bit more high-maintenance than me," she responded before leaning closer and letting her fingers run through his hair a bit. "And also…I like the shaggy dog look."

He couldn't help but grin at hearing her say that, giving her a kiss on the cheek before the other females jumped up claiming they had to go get ready. Vic then calmly stood, jerking her head for him to follow, so he went ahead and stood up.

Taking a few steps away from the table, he watched as Vic began to guide Steve, absently unaware, up from his seat as he and Tony were now arguing about chest hair, while Bruce continued to tell the both of them to leave him out of it. Grasping a hold of Steve's hand, she led him over to where he was, now taking his hand in hers before heading to the elevator. The argument didn't finish until the doors finally shut, blocking Steve and Tony from each other.

"Garage please, FRIDAY," she said shaking her head at Steve, who seemed a bit sheepish as she silently scolded him.

"So, why are we heading to the garage?" Bucky finally asked, figuring that it had to do with the vehicle.

"You were the type of kid who shook presents to try and figure out what was inside, right?" she asked turning to him.

"Maybe," was all he said before finding an interesting spot on the door in front of him.

"I may as well let ya'll know what Pepper helped me with before we leave for the day," she said as the doors opened to the garage level.

Without hesitation, Vic led them through the level until she got to the area where all of the motorcycles were kept, her own now parked next to Steve's. That was when he noticed the envelope sitting atop of her bike's seat. Vic finally released their hands and stepped over to the retrieve it. Opening it up, she read over the official looking document inside, as if making sure that it was to her satisfaction.

"Looks good," she said before stepping back over and stopping right in front of him. He could see Steve watching, also trying to figure out what was going on.

Vic then held out the paperwork for him to take. Accepting it, he glanced at it, trying to figure out at first what he was looking at. But as he read it a second time, the realization came to him.

"Vic, did you just give me a _motorcycle_?"

He looked over at Steve, holding the paper out for him to look at also, waiting for an answer.

"Yes," she simply said with a smile.

"Victoria, this is the title to Tony's motorcycle," Steve said aloud, letting him know that he read the paperwork correctly.

"No, that is the title to _Bucky's_ motorcycle. See, look at the name," she pointed to where the line was for the owner's name.

" _Why_ would you give me a motorcycle?" he asked not fully understanding.

"Because you didn't _have_ one," she sounded irritated at having to answer him, like he should already know it.

"Buy _why_?" he continued to question. That time, he got an actual _eye roll_ from her.

"Steve has a bike, I have a bike, but you didn't have one. Then I got the Jeep, so what do I need with another vehicle? And when I asked FRIDAY what you would snatch every time you would go somewhere, she let me know that you always took _this_ bike," she said patting the Ducati behind her, "I figured that it must be the one you liked the best, so I chose it as my second vehicle."

As he stood there staring at Vic, not knowing what to say, Steve got his attention.

"That's what Tony meant when he mentioned your reasoning behind the choice," Steve explained. "Tony knew that you chose the bike specifically to give to Bucky."

"Yeah, he did, and Pepper helped to speed the paperwork up. She said it would be _quick_ but I was not expecting it to be only _days_ , and over a _holiday_ at that," Vic informed them.

At that point, he reached over and grabbed a hold of Vic, crushing her in a bear hug like he had never given. He didn't understand why she had thought of him, of doing this for him, but the fact that she had made his insides ache in the best possible way.

After a minute or two had passed, her arms having also wrapped around him, he heard Vic say, "It's only a motorcycle."

"Not to me it isn't," he informed her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the material of Tony's suit, after researching the internet, scientist think that what I listed would be the material really used to make his suit, so I went with it. If you are a scientist and know differently...shhh (it's only a story). I know in a movie that Tony mentioned a suit material, but I'm lost as to which one it was.


	35. The Fitting

Steve returned to the apartment a few hours after the girls had left the Tower for their day out together to find the place eerily quiet. Bucky had headed for the shooting range and gym earlier. He saw Bucky's phone sitting on the kitchen counter, but he was not watching TV or even in the den. Steve had headed to one of the work rooms to go files recovered from their last mission weeks ago to see if he could try to determine Rumlow's next course of action. The terrorist was not following any logical course that he or FRIDAY had been able to determine a reason for. It seemed that he would head anywhere that seemed to be an easy target, or had something that he would be able to use. That did not help to narrow down possible future locations for him to be at. He had finally given up and decided to see what Bucky was doing, and if Victoria had gotten back yet.

Walking through the quiet apartment, he heard nothing from the bedrooms down the hallway, so he went over to Bucky's door which was partially open. Giving two knocks as he pushed it further open, he found Bucky sitting on the bed, wearing a different set of clothes than he had been this morning, his hair damp, and looking at the piece of paper in his hand. It seemed he had already showered, but Steve could see that there was something not right with him.

"Why?" Bucky asked him, looking up for an answer.

"Why, what?" he asked back, not understanding his question.

"Why would Vic do something like that?"

Taking a few steps into the bedroom, he saw that the paper in his hand was the title to the bike.

"Why would she give you a bike? I'd go with her answer of it being because you didn't have one," Steve answered, but knowing that was not what he wanted to hear.

"You know what I mean. Growing up, nobody would ever had done something like that for anyone else. Is she expecting something in return?" Bucky asked him, giving Steve a bit better of an understanding at what was getting to him.

"I don't think she wants anything in return," he said sitting down on the bed next to him. "Except hopefully for us to go out for a ride together without you having to _steal_ Tony's bike anymore."

"Everybody wants and expects something," Bucky dryly stated, making him wonder if he was quoting some of his HYDRA training.

"Not necessarily. Look at Clint…taking in Wanda and Pietro. All he _wanted_ was for them to have a chance at a bit of a normal life. Tony let you move in here without expecting anything from you. I have a feeling that you need to take Victoria at her word. She did it so that you would have a bike, just like the two of us did," he told him, but Steve could see that he still wasn't convinced. "Remember the cookies she got for everyone. Look how she substitutes with the band when they need her. Tony practically had to make her take the vehicles. She doesn't seem to have any type of ulterior motive for anything that she does."

"Then what if she did it to make up for not being able to handle dealing with something else?" Bucky said solemnly.

" _Now_ you've really lost me," he told him, wondering why this was bugging him so much.

"Soulmate or not, I'm no longer the person I used to be. There is no way that I can be who she needs," he told him, a bit of understanding finally emerging.

"You think that she gave you the motorcycle to make up for not liking you?" Steve asked bluntly.

"Maybe," Bucky told him, putting the paper on the bed behind him.

"Has Victoria ever given you any indication that she does not want to either be with you or has a problem with how you are now?" he asked but already knowing the answer. He had seen her with Bucky and he felt that there was nothing different with how she acted with Bucky than she did with him. If anything, she seemed to try to make him a bit more comfortable, trying to pull out the personality that Steve knew was still buried inside of him. He also remembered the speech she gave Bucky that first night before their 'test'.

"No…I don't think so," he admitted. "But so far, nothing sexual has happened. What about when it does? I have a hard time looking at myself in the mirror sometimes. Why would she want to have to deal with this?" he asked, flexing his arm to prove his meaning.

Steve dropped his head down while sitting on the bed next to him, not sure how to make him understand that he believed that Bucky was worrying about nothing. He was filled with too much self-doubt right now. They had only been together for a week, but during that time he saw nothing in her affections towards Bucky to make him think they were not true.

"Would you still feel this way if she hadn't given you the bike?" he asked looking at this a different way.

Bucky seem to take this into consideration for a few moments before answering, "I already did. But like I said, none of us have taken our affections to the next level. I'm just worried about what may happen at that time."

"Then how about not worrying about it unless there is something _specifically_ that happens, or Victoria actually _says_ something about there being a problem. Think you can _try_ and give her the benefit of the doubt for a while?" Steve asked him hoping that there was some way to get him past this uncertainty.

At that moment, they both heard a strange sound coming from somewhere else in the apartment.

A second later, Victoria flew by Bucky's open door running at full speed, her white hair flowing behind her so that it reminded him of bed sheets drying on his mother's clothes line. Her arm was up in the air with a black plastic bag hanging from her hand so that it did not drag on the floor.

It was a strange sight to behold, the two of them looking at each other after she had disappeared into her bedroom.

Only a few seconds later, she reappeared, having to stop herself as she flew through Bucky's door, realizing then that they were both inside.

Steve saw once she had stopped moving that her hair was completely down, not a single braid. It looked to have been almost straightened into long silky strands that came half-way down her back, now that braids were not taking it up. The ends were nice and rounded, showing that they had indeed been trimmed but no real length had been taken off. Her nails were also a very bright shade of red, standing out dramatically.

"You're not dressed?" she asked, sounding exasperated coming to a quick stop right in front of Bucky. "Why aren't you dressed?"

Bucky looked down at the shorts and shirt he was wearing, replying, "I _am_ dressed."

"Didn't you get my message?"

He then looked around his bedroom, probably for his phone, before answering, "No."

Victoria sighed heavily and pulled out her pocket watch. "We have thirty-eight minutes until your appointment. So get dressed to go."

"What appointment?" Bucky asked, both of them not understanding.

"To get you fitted for your tuxedo for the fracking Gala!" she exclaimed as if they should have known that. Looking at the both of them, she took a deep breath and explained while talking very quickly, "While getting the dress, Pepper ask me if the two of you had gotten fitted yet and I told her that I was not sure. So she called the tailor and found out that he still had Steve's measurements from last year. But you have nothing on file, and he happens to have an opening in," looking at her watch again, "thirty- _seven_ minutes where he could fit you in. So I texted you to be ready to go, and you are nooot." Steve found that her last word came out sounding like a whine.

"I hadn't planned on going," Bucky told her, but not sounding so sure of himself now. But they both saw a shocked look come over Victoria's face at his announcement.

Narrowing her eyes at him, she then asked, "Was that plan made, say, _before_ last weekend, Gradina?"

"Yes," he told her.

"Then it was made _before_ we met, so therefore, _it doesn't count_. Now, you _are_ going," she smiled down at him, as if her statement was etched in stone. Steve dropped his head and chuckled at the scene before him. Here he was trying to prove just this, and Victoria shows up to almost make his point for him. " _Why_ are you still _sitting_ there? Get up, you have _two minutes_ to get dressed."

Bucky then turned his head to look at him, as if he needed help with the situation.

"Don't look at me! I don't think that Victoria is going to let you get out of this. Besides, think about what we were just talking about," he pointed out to him. Her attitude right now was definitely not one of someone who was hesitant about being with Bucky.

"Why would you want to get out of it?" she stared down at him sitting there, Bucky obviously not sure what to say. Finally, Victoria gave a dramatic sigh then reached down to plant her hands onto the sides of Bucky's cheeks, before leaning in for a long kiss. As she held onto him, she began to pull his body upwards, Bucky just automatically obeying her silent command. He watched as she then led him over to his closet before finally breaking her lips from his. "Now, get in there and get dressed. Thirty- _five_ minutes!"

Bucky only stared silently at her for a moment before walking into his closet to get changed. Steve dropped his head, silently laughing to himself at what he had just witnessed. Hopefully having Victoria boss him around a bit will get it through Bucky's head that she is fine with the way that he is.

"Do you want to come with us? You can see if there is a different style than what you wore last time that you may like better?" she asked him, stepping away from the door to give Bucky some privacy to change, even though he did not close the door. He held his hand out for her to take, which she did as he then pulled her close to him.

"No, you two go have fun. I'm only taking a break from going through some files. I'll see you when you get back," Steve told her knowing that Bucky would be able to hear him and not wanting to say anything that might make him think that Steve was pushing Victoria's affections onto him. Maybe the two of them heading out alone again will help ease some of the worry that he was having. "Any plans for dinner?"

"Tony informed Pepper that he was ordering an 'Asgardian' amount of pizzas and wings, and that since it was Friday, that it was also movie night in the party room. He chose _The Lego Batman Movie_ for us to watch and I'm going to guess he hasn't seen it yet. Wait until Tony hears what Batman's password is," Victoria deviously grinned while running her hand through his hair a bit as he took and stared at her other red-tipped hand, running his finger over the smooth polish. He had never considered it before, but he actually liked the way it looked on Victoria.

"We can do that," he said curious about the password and a bit disappointed at not being able to spend the evening with just the three of them at home.

"You know, once the lights are dimmed, I'm sure that Bucky's sneaky enough so that he could _snatch_ a couple of those pizzas and help us to _abscond away_ without getting caught," she grinned turning to Bucky, who was now emerging from the closet dressed to head out in jeans and a long sleeve shirt.

"We would _never_ hear the end of it once Tony realized we were gone," Steve informed her as he stood up. Victoria then walked over to Bucky, and began to run her hands through his hair also, pushing it back away from his face.

"Where's your coat? It'll be chilly by the time we are walking back," she informed him.

"We're walking there?" Bucky asked not sounding too happy.

"Of course, trying to find parking would be a nightmare, and it's only a couple of blocks. Besides, you could use the fresh air. I'm sure both of you have been inside since I left this morning, right?" she asked taking Bucky's hand and his as she then led them from the room towards the elevator. Her own coat, hat and gloves were close to the island, as if she had tried to toss them onto it during her mad dash past it. Bucky grabbed his from the back of a kitchen table chair, taking his gloves from one of the pockets before putting it on. "We'll see you in a while, Flocon de Neige."

Steve smiled at her strange nickname for him as the elevator door's closed, hoping that by spending a bit of time alone with Victoria that Bucky would get over this worry he had about being intimate with her.

* * *

Standing with his arms stretched out on a pedestal, Bucky felt like a fool.

Vic on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying the show from where she sat in a chair watching him get measured. She had dragged him through the crowded streets at an almost dizzying pace, expertly weaving them through the mass of people shopping. He had been impressed with the strange skill she had. It reminded him of how he had seen bike messengers riding and figured that she had picked it up from her job.

She had even managed to get them to the shop with four minutes to spare, by her watch's calculations. At one point, he had not been moving fast enough for her and she commented that this was not a 'stealth-mode mission' and that he needed to move his 'cute tushie' before giving him a kiss on the cheek.

By the time they had arrived, he did seem to feel a bit better about his earlier thoughts. She continued to hold his hand, wrap her arm around his, laugh and talk with him, the same things that she did with Steve. Maybe the Punk had been right.

"Do you want to get the same tux as Steve or do you want to be different?" she asked as the seamstress measured his leg length.

"I don't care," he told her, earning him a scowl.

Waiting for a few moments until the woman had moved to make her notes, Vic came over to stand close enough to the pedestal so that they could have a private conversation.

"What's wrong with you? You were much happier this morning," she said looking up at him while crossing her arms over her chest.

"I'm just…," he started but was not able to finish.

How could he tell her that he doubted her affections for him? The past few days with her living in the apartment with them had been great. They all had fun together, he was enjoying learning about all the things that she was able to do, the few meals she had cooked were some of the best he'd had all year, the way she felt against him as he cuddled her, the kisses...

But every time he saw his arm in the mirror his mind went to a bad place, where Steve was going to end up happy and he would end up alone.

Vic then reached up and took a hold of his gloved hands. He had removed his jacket but he had not wanted to upset the tailor so he left his gloves on. She then pulled him a bit closer to her.

"If you're _that_ worried about being out in public in such a formal setting, we can just stay home that night," she told him. "Steve can go alone since Sam will be there for him to talk with. If Bruce doesn't escort Nat, maybe he could."

He was a bit taken aback by her statement. She would be willing to stay at home with him instead of going to this large party that Tony had made such a big deal about having. Plus she would let Steve go alone, or even with Natasha? Just to be with him?

"Why would you do that?"

"Why wouldn't I do that? Especially if you're really _that uncomfortable_ about going."

He didn't know what to do but stare down at her at her admission. He could tell by the look on her face that she was truly sincere with her statement. He was not going to be the reason that she would miss out on having a good time.

"Fine. I'll go, but I have _no idea_ how to choose a tux," he informed her, but he could see a bit of doubt on her face. She may wonder why he was giving in but Vic didn't question him, she only nodded and smiled.

As the seamstress came back over, she took a step back, but as she did, Vic gripped onto his gloves, taking them with her. He knew that his eyes were wide with shock at her doing such a move. But as the other woman started to complete her measurements, he noticed that she didn't even seem to notice his silver hand. And if she did, she never indicated that she cared. Vic shoved his gloves into her back pocket with a knowing smile.

When he was done, they were led over to where the styles were on mannequins for display to choose from. Vic asked for them to pull Steve's file so they knew which one he was going to wear. She quizzed him on each one, if he had a preference now that he could see them. Knowing that she was examining him, he pointed out things that he either liked or disliked with each one. He even pointed out that Steve's was a bit old fashioned, and not in the good, classical way.

"Then let's get you something a lot different," she said listing off the items he would need from different displays to have the woman pull. He couldn't even keep up with what she had chosen. A few minutes later, they were led to a fitting room that his suit had been placed in. Vic smiled at him and asked, "Need some help?"

He couldn't help but grin back, wondering if she really would come inside with him getting fully undressed. "No, I'm been dressing myself for almost a century."

"Well, then hurry up, relikviya," she was now forcibly pushing him into the small room before he could complain about the nickname 'relic'.

A few minutes later as he stood there looking in the mirror, he had to admit that he was a bit shocked by how well the outfit she had chosen worked. He did find it funny that she had chosen all black for him. But somehow, it worked. Vic knocked on the door as he was studying himself in the mirror.

Opening the door, he watched as the expression on Vic's face went from the carefree smile she'd had for the entire trip to gawking at him with a twinkle in her eyes. He waited for her to say something, anything, but her eyes just kept rolling over his entire body, her face flushing a lovely pink shade.

Taking a step forward to leave the changing room, his movement registered to her and Vic then pushed him back inside of the booth, harshly closing the door behind them.

"What are you doing?" he asked as she clicked the lock so they could not be disturbed.

"You are _not_ going out there like that," she informed him, turning back to face him.

"Why not? What's wrong?" he asked looking to see if he had forgotten something, like his pants.

"There are _females_ out there," Vic stated as if he should understand her logic.

"So?"

"You'd make Mother Teresa _sin_ looking like that," she informed him as the smile reappeared on her face.

"Who?"

"Don't worry about it," she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "This is _definitely_ the tux you are wearing."

With those words, Vic leaned into him, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him in for a kiss. Feeling her tongue swipe across his lips, he met it with his own. For the next few minutes, she pressed him back against the mirror as they made out. Having her body rest against his, he could feel himself hardening at the thought of taking it further. There was no way that he was going to here, but damn if he didn't want to. Instead he decided to see if he could ease his mind about her earlier comment.

Grabbing a hold of Vic's hips, he turned her around so that _she_ was now against the mirror. Linking their fingers together, he moved her hands behind her into the small of her back, trapping her in place with his body.

Nibbling at the smooth skin on her neck, he whispered into her ear, "Why didn't you want me to step outside?"

"I didn't want to get into trouble," she whispered heavily in response, making him curious.

"Why would you get in trouble?" he applied a few more kisses.

"Because I would put anyone who flirted with you into the hospital," she managed to get out just as he pressed his hips into hers just a bit more, earning him a delightful moan. But when he heard her answer, he pulled back from her, the loss of his touches evident on her face. Vic was jealous? That was definitely not the emotion of someone who had doubts about him. Could Steve have been right? Bucky knew that he would just love to rub that in if he had been. Even if he was, being here fully dressed was not the same as lying in bed naked, where he could not hide anything from her.

"Then let's get this fitting over with," he smiled at her, trying to stay positive, to which she deviously grinned.

"You get changed while I head out. After seeing you in this, Steve is _not_ wearing that frumpy thing he chose last year," she told him rubbing her body against his again. Giving her a final deep kiss, they separated, Vic heading out to find the seamstress while he put back on his clothes.

No…the way that she was acting towards him, Vic definitely didn't seem hesitant.

But would it last?


	36. Night Out on the Town

As Saturday morning rolled around, somehow everyone who lived in the Tower had found their way to the common level to hang out. Steve was off at the dining table by himself with a small notepad, where he had been sketching. Pepper was on the phone, dealing with stuff that Tony refused to. Natasha and Bucky were playing a game of pool, arguing in Russian about calling shots and cheating. And she and Tony were in the middle of a customized game of Halo doing a one-on-one competition on her favorite map. She had challenged him to: an invisible character, rocket launchers only, Hang 'Em High map. The screen was split, Tony on the bottom, her on the top, due to the fact that he started the morning with sexual innuendoes about her being on the bottom.

Bruce had wandered in to watch them, and they had all eventually just started talking about some of the different skills that she had used her ability to learn, leaving off the languages. That could always come in handy to annoy Tony with later, she decided.

"I've never tried to play anything but the piano and drums," she said glancing down at Tony's screen again to see where he was.

"Would you be willing to try something else? Just to see if it works?" Bruce asked watching the characters run across the screen, searching for each other.

"I guess so," she said launching a rocket, killing Tony again while laughing with glee.

"Stop doing that!" he yelled as he respawned.

"Just because you haven't figured out how to use my screen to figure out where I am doesn't mean that I can't do it to you," she said moving to the other side of the map, getting closer to him.

"There's no way you should be able to do that," he said running from her.

"It's not that hard, if you have the map memorized. The pattern doesn't change," she said chasing him down. Looking up at where he was running across the catwalk, she fired, killing him again as his body flew through the air, crashing onto the ground below. "What a _lovely_ red _splat_ you make."

"She has a point, Tony," Bruce told him as he respawned again.

"You're supposed to be on my side," Tony told him.

"Says who?" Bruce laughed as his body went flying again. "But at least you aren't going to lose any more cars to Victoria."

She had told Tony earlier that since she had 'won' the competition that she was now effectively removing herself from it permanently since she would always win every time she played. Tony had not even argued, knowing that she was right, and that his collection was safe. They continued playing for another twenty minutes before her cellphone, lying on the coffee table in front of her started to ring: a quick, loud guitar rift. She could see Richie's name on the screen.

"Time out," she told Tony killing him again, grabbing for the phone as he respawned.

"Not a chance, psycho-killer. I need all the help I can get," Tony said starting to hunt her character down. Swiping the phone's screen, she put him on speaker.

"Hey Richie, just so you know, you're on speaker. I'm in the middle of a video game and _someone_ is trying to cheat by not pausing it," Vic called out as she figured out where Tony was moving to.

" _That's fine, but we have another emergency. Turns out that Paulo's plane coming back from Thanksgiving in Michigan with his family has been cancelled due to the blizzard that arrived there during the night. He won't be back in time for tonight's gig. Since you are still in town, would you be available to play_?" Richie asked, causing Tony to actually pause the game, turning to look at her expectantly.

"I have a feeling that I'll be free tonight, but can I put in a request for a song?" she asked bringing a large smile to Tony's face, and a groan from Bruce.

" _Sure, which one_?" Richie asked, knowing that she never requested songs. She would play whatever they had already worked on.

" _Iron Man_ ," she said almost sighing in resignation. She actually found Tony's excitement amusing but she couldn't let him know that.

" _No problem. You think that Tony Stark is going to show up at the club again? Trying to suck up to him_?" Richie laughed.

"Something like that," Vic said looking at Tony starting to bounce slightly on the couch next to her. "Can you send me the list really quick?"

" _Yeah, one sec_ ," she heard a moment before her phone dinged letting her know the list had arrived. Picking up the phone, she looked down the list, making a quick decision to have a bit of fun herself tonight. "Could I request a change of song, by chance?"

" _Really, what one_?" Richie asked curious. She never did this.

"Since we're doing _Iron Man_ , how about instead of _Sabbath Bloody Sabbath_ , can we play the song I'm going to text you the name of, but don't say it out loud. It's going to be a surprise," she said typing in her request quickly. The three of them heard Richie laughing his head off at her choice. Vic knew that they could play the song, they had before, but tonight she could tease both of her warriors with it. Somehow she figured that they would not be familiar with it, but Tony definitely would, maybe Bruce and Pepper, but not Natasha, unless subjected to it here in the Tower.

" _Seriously_?" Richie asked. " _Yeah, we can do that. Is there a reason for that particular song_?"

"Yes, but I'll tell you later," she said getting strange looks from Tony and Bruce, neither of whom had seen what she had typed.

" _Not a problem. We're at The Pit again, on at nine o'clock tonight. There are three bands on tonight_ ," he told her as she re-read the list. There were two songs she would need to prep for.

"See you then," she said closing down the call, putting the phone back on the table.

Tony then jumped up from the couch, turned to look behind them out towards the large area where everyone else was, raised his arms above his head, and yelled, getting all eyes on him, "Night out on the town!"

Vic turned around to watch their reactions, which all seemed to be a bland acknowledgement of the statement, as if his behavior was not all that unusual. Even Steve just started to shake his head, knowing that there was no arguing his way out of it, which, once he found out why they were going out, he wouldn't mind. It would mean time doing something with her, and Bucky would never pass up the chance to be together anywhere.

"Alright, calm down there, A.D.D.," she said pulling up her music store to get the two songs that she was not familiar with. She had never explained to the band how her gift worked. They had a master list of songs they had practiced so she had just listened to all of them. She had just told them that she had been playing for a long time and knew a lot of the songs already. When they learned something new, she just added it to her own playlist and listened, like she was going to have to do now. "I have two songs to learn, then I can continue to treat you like roadkill."

Bruce was watching as she purchased the songs, and she waited for the questions to begin, but she didn't mind. It was nice to have someone interested in, not freaked out, at what she did.

"You are just going to listen to the songs to learn them? You don't have to actually practice on a drum set?" Bruce asked leaning forward in his chair.

"Yeah, it's just memorizing a pattern, just like on the guitar. The notes on the game never change, and the beat for a song never changes. I just have to concentrate without interference," she said as the songs began to download.

"And the mystery song?" Tony asked as she walked over to where he had headphones in one of the drawers to use. She pulled out a pair, unwinding the cord, taking her seat again.

"You'll know it when you hear it. But I'll give you a heads up," she plugged them into her phone. Turning to Bruce, "Alright, I'm guessing you wouldn't mind observing, even though it's a bit boring, right?"

"If it doesn't bother you," he replied sitting a bit forward.

"Just give me a few minutes," she said scrolling to the new songs. Turning the volume up slightly to drown out any sounds from around her, she closed her eyes. Hitting play she listened to the songs, letting the sounds of the beats, where they were made from, imprinting them in her memory. When they were over, she opened her eyes and removed the headphones, putting everything back down. Turning to where Tony and Bruce were intently watching her, she picked up the game controller and asked, "Ready?"

"That's it?" Tony said sounding very disappointed.

"Yes, just like with the piano the other day. Now, quit stalling and prepare to die, again, and again, and again," she said turning, holding the controller.

Later that night, the three of them arrived at the club, but this time they were all inside of her new, warm Jeep, which she pointed out would be better to take than three cold motorcycles. Then the two of them had to play rock, paper, scissors for the front seat. She just kept getting ready as they argued about delaying throws to cheat. Eventually Steve had sat up front with her, while Bucky sat behind him, his eyes always seeming to be on her when she looked in the rear view mirror.

Vic left the two of them in the main club as she took the bag with her outfit for playing into the back, where the rest of the band was waiting. She held off kissing or being overly affectionate to them since there was already a crowd in the club. Bucky blended in with his normal self, and Steve had once again borrowed some of his clothes, but there was always a chance they would be recognized. They definitely would be once Tony and the rest of the group got here in a little while.

Changing into her new outfit for playing, she talked with the band as they tuned their instruments. She held off on telling them about Steve and Bucky until after the show, not wanting to distract them from playing. As the group was about ready to head onto the stage, she took out her phone and typed up the group text, but held off on sending send right now. She would do that just before they started the song she had chosen for her warriors. She just _had_ to mess with them.

As they walked out on stage, she looked out around the room, finding the large table in the back that they had claimed as their own, now filled with everyone. Looking at them, she gave a wave, just like the rest of the band, but hers was specifically for her new group of friends. Taking off the fuzzy slippers so her feet were bare, she picked up the drum sticks and took a deep calming breath. Giving a count of four out loud, they started to play.

* * *

Just under an hour after they started, Steve watched as they played, enjoying himself as the group continued to talk and drink. They had all been having a fun time, even Bruce and Pepper, who normally didn't like to head out on the town with Tony. There were a few people who had noticed them and recognized someone in their party, but it was not the circus that he thought that it would be. Just then he heard the start of Tony's favorite song, making the man jump up from the table, pulling Pepper with him into the crowd, disappearing as the song played on.

"He seems to be enjoying himself," Nat said taking a drink from her beer bottle, indicating the crowd.

"He _always_ enjoys himself," Bruce, who was sitting next to her pointed out.

"As long as he doesn't start a fight," Bucky told them all.

When Pepper and Tony were walking back to the table once the song ended, everyone's phone suddenly buzzed, indicating a message. Taking his phone out, he saw that it was a group message from Victoria.

 **Vic** : _This one is for Steve and Bucky_

As the first four notes began to play, Tony dropped his phone on the table as he began to laugh the hardest he had ever seen. Steve did not recognize the song, but it was obvious that Tony did. Only Pepper and Bruce seemed to get the joke.

Leaning over to Bucky, he asked, "Any idea?"

"None," he said as the music continued. Then the lyrics started.

Even listening to the lyrics, he didn't get the joke until they finally reached the chorus.

_"…I've got big balls, I've got big balls, And they're such big balls…"_

Then his face turned a deep shade of red as the joke got to him. Glancing over at Bucky, his expression was somewhere between amusement and embarrassment, and also close to the color of his. Natasha got the joke around the same time as they did, laughing along with Tony. The entire group watched the two of them during song, Tony joining in with singing, getting a kick out of Victoria's tease at their expense. But then there was the fact that _everyone_ in the crowd seemed to know the lyrics, the entire club singing out loud, telling him that this was a _very_ popular song.

As the song finally ended, Tony managed to ask, "So, exactly how big are your balls?"

"Big enough," Bucky answered for the both of them, probably liking the humor even more than he eventually had, but he couldn't wait to get at Victoria for doing that to them. They played a few more songs before they were finished and disappeared backstage.

Getting up, he patted his hand down on Bucky's shoulder, as he walked towards the door she had disappeared into earlier to retrieve her. Standing right outside of it, he wasn't sure how long it would take, but with the next band not having started yet, he could hear talking from behind the plywood wall. Suddenly there was a loud cry out in surprise. He wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but whoever was talking seemed happy. It wasn't until a few minutes later, once the other band had already taken the stage and had begun to play that the door opened.

The other guys from the band walked out, heading into the club, not noticing where he was standing off to the side of the door, in a slightly darkened area. As soon as he saw Victoria emerge from the door, he took a hold of her arm, pulling her to him, not stopping until she was nestled in his arms. She was wearing her fuzzy pink slippers again, but this time he noticed a familiarity with the outfit she was wearing. Hidden behind the drum set earlier, he had not been able to properly see it. Her top was a royal blue that matched his blue, but in the center was a large red star, just like Bucky's. But the black shorts she was wearing were nothing like he had seen her wear before, riding very high on her thighs, making him want to rub his hands down them.

"The two of you are complete stalkers," Victoria grinned at him while wrapping her arms around him, sliding them under the jacket he was wearing. Her fingers moved just enough to almost be ticklish.

"Is that a problem?" he asked looming over her a bit.

"Not in the least," she said leaning up to give him a kiss. He pulled her further away from the door, towards the darkened corner to his left for a bit more privacy. As he pressed his tongue against her lips, they opened up for him, allowing him to explore inside. His arms grabbed a hold of her hips, pulling them hard into his own, earning him a sweet moan at the deed.

"That was quite a song that you dedicated to us," he said after finally braking the kiss, but still pressing his body against hers, holding her hard against the wall, as her arms became a bit tighter around his waist. He then felt her slightly run them under the waist of his pants, touching his bare skin right above his boxers.

"Did you like that? I wanted to make sure your night out was _memorable_ ," Victoria was smiling deviously at him.

"Is _that_ what you were trying to do?" a new voice said joining into their conversation. Bucky then appeared on Steve's left, almost to the corner. She turned to look at him, but Steve was only focused on her, leaning down to give her exposed neck a kiss.

"Of course, I would _never_ tease ya'll," she blatantly lied with a grin while Bucky moved so that he was now against the wall, right next to her, so Steve used his grasp to twist her body slightly so that Victoria now resting against Bucky chest. He heard her gasp aloud as Bucky's hands grabbed a hold of her hips, pinning her firmly between them, but it was certainly not fear on her face.

Knowing how they were positioned, he doubted that anyone could see what was going on in the dark corner, probably not even being able to see that there were three of them hidden. Never had he been so blatant when it came to public displays, but there was something enticing about the three of them being here, public yet private.

"You can't lie to us, Victoria," he said leaning towards her left ear while Bucky's head rested near her right one. Her right hand left his backside, and he saw her gently place it against Bucky's cheek.

"Doing so may earn you a punishment," he could barely hear Bucky whisper into her ear, shocking Steve with the boldness of his statement, going somewhere slightly different than he had intended. Worried about what Victoria may think, he went to say something, but she beat him to it.

"You're going to scare Steve talking like that," she then pulled Bucky into a kiss as her hand around his own waist pulled him harder into her, rubbing him against her causing him to grow firm at the sensation, so he kissed her neck again, wishing they could do more. Bucky's phrase had not scared her it seemed.

"But not you?" Steve then whispered into her other ear. He needed to know that she was not worried about what may eventually happen between the three of them. Steve knew that no matter what, there was no way either of them would ever truly hurt Victoria, but he knew that modern sex was much different than what they had grown up with. From her previous statements, Victoria seemed open to the idea of them being together at the same time, something both he and Bucky used to talk and fantasize about. They had yet to have their grown-up discussion and here was definitely not the place.

"I'll never be scared of either of ya," was all she answered before giving him a deep kiss, as he felt her hips press backwards, into Bucky, who was kissing her neck. They lingered like that for a few more moments before he knew they needed to stop and head back to the rest of the group.

"Let's head back over before they send out a search party," Steve told the two of them, drawing a groan from Bucky, but all three of them began to straighten up their clothes, reminding him about Victoria's shirt. "Where did you find that?"

"I bought the tank top but I added the star using some paint from Tony's workshop. I thought the two of you would like this a bit more than seeing me in Tony's colors," she told them, pulling at the hem of her shorts so they went down a bit. It must have been Bucky who had raised them some, but he was not sure when he had done it. Taking her hand in his, they walked together as one towards the table where everyone was talking with the rest of the band.

"Just so you know, I told the band about us. I didn't want them to find out some other way," Victoria said as they getting to the table, everyone turning to watch them. The guys from the band offered congratulations and they sat back down, with Victoria between them as everyone talked.

"I can't believe you had us play _Big Balls_ so that it could be dedicated to Captain America and the Winter Soldier," Kevin admonished Victoria, but not sounding angry at all. Raising the back of his hand to his forehead, he dramatically exclaimed, "That feels to un-American."

"Would you have played it if I had told you beforehand?" she laughed.

"Of course not. We don't have a _death wish_ ," Richie informed her.

Only a few minutes later, Victoria stood up, telling them that she wasn't waiting for the waitress to circle around and she was going to get a drink from the bar.

As everyone talked over the sound of the last band playing, there was no denying that everyone was enjoying their night out. He watched as Victoria's shape disappeared into the crowd surrounding the bar. A few minutes later, as while Kevin was telling the group about how glad they were that she was staying in town, Richie slammed his drink down on the table startling everyone.

"Oh, shit! Troy's here," he said looking towards the bar area. Kevin and Tommy both turned to look where he was, as did most of the table.

Steve saw that Victoria had been on the way back to the table with a cup in her hand when a guy had blocked her path, stopping her to talk. He was about a head taller than her and there was no mistaking his aggressive stance. She seemed to be more listening than talking, but between her body language and expression they could see she was nothing short of irritated.

"Steve," Bucky's voice was stern, as he was straightening up in his chair at seeing the two of them. Asking the band, "Who is that?"

"Troy _used to be_ our go-to replacement for Paulo. He was a bit of dickhead. Actually, he still is," Tommy answered, watching the exchange also.

That was when it happened.

As Steve focused on the exchange and Bucky went to stand, he saw Troy shift his weight to his right foot and quickly lift his left foot off of the ground. Troy then brought it down a bit forward and very hard, aiming directly for Victoria's right foot, the one she used to drum with. But all it made contact with was the floor, not her foot. She had slid her own foot backwards, then lifted her leg up and across her front. As Troy was now leaning forward with his leg extended, they all watched as Victoria kicked sideways into Troy's knee, making him drop forward towards the floor. But as he was falling, Victoria's right arm came across and her elbow contacted hard with his left cheek, knocking him prone on the dirty floor.

Everyone in the immediate crowd were laughing at the guy on the floor, having been taken down by a single female in fuzzy pink slippers, who was now casually stepping over his limp form while sipping from her cup. The guys from the band were also laughing. Bucky, his face dark with anger, had barely had a chance to stand up since the exchange had been so quick. Neither one of them had been there to protect her, but they never expected something like _that_ to happen. Steve was also still in shock at what she had done to the guy.

Victoria then sat back down in her chair between them, placing her hand on Bucky's shoulder as she did so, gesturing for him to sit, which he did. The guys from the band were still laughing at the incident.

"That was better than that damn robber," Kevin said between laughs, talking to Victoria.

"Robber?" Natasha asked still watching the guy she had taken down, who was unsteadily trying to get to his feet. Both he and Bucky were more focused on Victoria, who was quietly sitting between them, not looking at either one of them.

"Yeah. As we were loading the van one night after a gig, this guy with a knife threatened us, wanting our pay for the night which we had just gotten. Vic held out her share in her hand, and when he stepped over to take it, she swept his leg out from him, and when he landed on his back, she stomped on his crotch. That _almost_ made us feel sorry for the guy but we still turned him over to the bouncers for the cops," Richie told him laughing as he took another drink from his beer.

"Victoria, what was that guy saying to you?" he leaned forward to ask her, drawing Bucky in some also.

"The same thing as last time, just criticizing my being a girl and playing the drums. He's a bit of a chauvinistic pig," she told them, but everyone at the table could hear.

"Troy's just mad that you're so much _better_ than him," Tommy said saluting her with his beer, causing the other band guys to join in.

"When we needed him to sub for Paulo, he demanded half the pay for that night since his reasoning was that we wouldn't get _any_ without him. Meeting up with Vic was the best thing to happen to us," Richie told everyone.

Steve noticed that Victoria was a bit quiet as the guys talked about her, shying a bit at their praise as she just keeping sipping from her drink. Bucky leaned over so that he could whisper into her ear. He could not hear what he said, but he could guess the topic had to do with protecting her. Victoria turned her head, giving Bucky a look that actually had him sitting back in his seat, dropping _whatever_ he had spoken of.

So, instead of having that same look put towards him by asking a lot of questions, Steve just decided that now was not the time.


	37. Sunday Visitor

Bucky didn't really care what movie was on the television right now, and not just because it was Steve's choice, but because he was _far more interested_ in the lovely form spread partially over him on the couch.

He knew that he had been a bit grouchy for a while after the incident with the drunk guy last night, but he had not expected Vic to give him an 'angry' face when he tried to point out that he and Steve were there to protect her. Granted, even he had not been able to get there in time. He was just glad that it had worked out and that Vic had been fine, but he wondered where Vic had picked up the elbow maneuver. When he had tried asking her about it later, all she would say was that it was an old trick, then she gave him a kiss on the cheek and walk away.

After getting home last night but before bed, they had watched the news to get an update on the weather and found that by late Monday, if the storm finally reached them, the city should possibly expect its first snowfall of the season. So Vic had informed them that since it would be the last time in a while for her to ride her bicycle, she was going to lap the park twice this morning once she woke up.

Both he and Steve had then decided to join her, not by biking with her, but by running next to her. Vic laughed saying that there was no way the two of them could keep up with her by running. He had gone and gotten two extra earcoms for the two of them to use, so it would be easier to talk as they exercised. It had been slightly exhausting but was glad that they had been able to prove her wrong. But, when then had gotten back to the Tower, Vic had then informed them that once the snow melted in the spring, she expected their company on future rides. Not that either one of them had a problem with ever spending time with her.

Vic had then taken her bike to the garage floor, telling them that she needed to get it ready to store it for the winter. They had gone their separate ways to shower and get changed, while she did whatever she needed to. By the time Vic finally got to their floor, they were already on the couch trying to find something (or maybe arguing about what) to watch.

Since it had been close to lunchtime, they agreed to order Chinese delivery, which Vic did by speaking Mandarin to the person who had answered the phone, before going and taking a shower. Not long after she appeared in an outfit comprised of shorts and a thin-strapped top, the food arrived. Vic then headed back to her bedroom and reappeared with the fanciest set of chopsticks that he had ever seen. He had inspected them as she and Steve sorted out the different items onto the counter so they could fix their plates. Bucky was not sure why, but that was the best tasting take-out they'd had from their usual restaurant.

Now, they were resting with full stomachs, watching something with two good looking dames and a monkey mixing chemicals. But all he could concentrate on were the set of smooth, bare legs lying across his lap, which he had been absently rubbing his hands over for the past half hour. Vic was stretched across the couch, her legs on him, while using a pillow to rest her head on Steve's lap. He noticed that Steve's hands were not still either, one hand on her side, while the other was running through her partially braided hair. He thought that Vic may be tired and would take a nap, but he never saw her eyes even slightly close. Bucky smiled at thinking she may just have wanted to _be_ there with them.

Suddenly the strangest ringtone started to shriek from Vic's phone, which was lying on the coffee table in front of them. He only knew the song because of Tony, as _Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap_ played over and over. It was then that he realized that for the entire time since Vic had been living with them, this was the first time that she had ever received a call when he was around. The only other one that he even knew of was from Richie asking about her playing last night. Did she really have such a low number of friends?

Vic casually reached over to the where it was lying, not even bothering to look at the screen before answering it.

" _Now_ whose calendar is off?" she said instead of a normal greeting.

" _Hey there, little darlin'_ ," he could hear from the ear piece, even without it being on speaker. There was no denying that it was a deep male voice on the other end, which he was not sure if he should be worried about. Why was someone else calling _their Vic_ 'darling'?

Glancing quickly at Steve, he saw that he was also listening, and also not sure what to think about the caller by the look on his face.

"What's going on, Anciano?" Vic asked, still calmly resting her head on the pillow.

" _I was just listening to the radio, and I couldn't remember your two favorite Elvis songs_!" he heard the voice say… _very_ clearly, and _very_ precisely.

That single phrase changed Vic's whole demeanor.

In a second her entire body stiffened, before she suddenly rolled to her left side, her body falling off of the couch as she tucked over. He heard her knees hit the hard floor as she was suddenly kneeling between the two of them, staring at the back of the couch.

"My two favorite songs by Elvis are _In The Ghetto_ and _A Little Less Conversation_ ," she stated, also making sure to clearly speak in a voice that had _no_ chance to be misunderstood.

This was some kind of code phrase, he instantly knew.

" _Then care to explain to me why the **fuck** I'm standing in front of this **monstrosity** of a **building**_?" he heard the man ask.

"No way…are ya really here!?" she asked now standing, bouncing up and down a little, making his eyes grow wide from the unexplained double-bouncy show, before Vic jumped over Steve's legs as she made a bee-line for the elevator and hitting the call button. "Go into the lobby and wait, we'll be down in just a minute!"

" _I'll be here_ ," he heard before she pressed the button about three more times hurriedly.

Turning around towards them, she saw that they were watching her, waiting for an answer. But her mouth just hung open, the look of shock all over her face.

Vic then looked down, taking in the shorts and tank-top she was wearing, and then did a full blast run for her bedroom, yelling back to them that she needed to change.

" _Any_ idea what is going on?" Steve asked him, looking probably as confused as he did.

"I'm not sure, but that was a _code phrase_ if I _ever_ heard one," he supplied, standing up from the couch as Steve did the same. "I don't know who that was, but I suspect that it's a good friend of Vic's."

When the elevator door opened, they asked FRIDAY to hold it there for a moment until Vic returned, which was only a few seconds later. She had thrown on some black baggy yoga pants and a _Kiss_ t-shirt, along with neon yellow socks. It was just enough to cover her skin, but not something dressy. She latched onto their arms, pulling them both into the elevator, as she still slightly bounced.

"Alright, don't worry, how do you both look? Ya'll look fine. Everything is fine," Vic began to mumble as the elevator made its way down. _Somehow_ they were both patient and didn't bombard her with questions during the descent, seeing how nervously excited she already was.

When the doors finally opened, the lobby was fairly sparse being a Sunday, mostly security guards, the welcome desk lady, and one very scary looking older gentleman with a large military green duffle bag slung over his shoulder. At the sight of him, he heard Vic's sharp intake of breath, as if she wasn't sure he was really going to be here.

Suddenly, Vic dropped both of their arms and started running for the man. Just before she got to him, he dropped the bag onto the floor, which gave a metal-against-metal sound from inside, echoing slightly in the lobby. As Vic leapt up into his arms, with her hugging tightly around his neck, Bucky grew a bit jealous as the man's arms then encircled her waist.

"The only other time I've seen her do something like that was with me," Steve told him, as they walked out of the elevator towards where the two of them were standing.

When they reached them, he could see that her face was red, and that she had tears running down her cheeks, but he knew that they were happy tears. The man then eased his hold on her waist enough so that he could let Vic down onto her own feet. As the man stared at the two of them, his eyes were scrutinizing them both very carefully. Vic turned around towards them, her arm wrapped around _his_ waist, the way she did with them, as she wiped the tears away with a wide smile.

What kind of relationship did Vic used to have with this man? Ex-boyfriend? He hoped not. He seemed a bit old…but considering how old they were…

Feeling the man's gaze passing between him and Steve, Bucky began to evaluate him as well. He was tall, a few inches taller than Bucky, putting him at the exact same height as Steve. He was well built, making him a fighter, but with the way he held himself, Bucky knew that he was ex-military of some kind. To go with a bushy mustache, he had long hair resting on his shoulders with a similar length to his own. It contained a strong mix of grey and black, and Bucky put him probably around his mid-fifties. The man wore a black leather biking jacket with a couple of patches that looked quite a few years' old, black jeans, and riding boots, which he guessed were steel-toed.

"Guys," Vic said, pulling his eyes away from the man he had judged as a partial threat, if he wanted to be, "this is Wade Garrett, an old friend of mine."

"Pleasure to meet you, Sir," Steve, reaching out and shaking his hand, sounding like a teenager meeting a parent, but she hadn't used the word boyfriend, so what type of a _friend_ was he to Vic?

"Hi there," he plainly said, giving his head a single nod, feeling hesitant about shaking hands. Wade's eyes wandered to his exposed arm, since he was wearing t-shirt, but they did not linger. The man Wade eyed between the two of them again, before looking down at Vic.

"These are the _runts_?" he asked, tilting his head in their direction, bringing a chuckle to both of them. His laugh was because Steve hadn't been called a runt since the forties, and while Steve's was because Bucky had _never_ been called that.

"Yep, this is them," Vic answered, actually _agreeing_ to the term with a large smile on her face. "This is Steve," pointing over at the Punk, "and this is Bucky," she said gesturing towards him.

"So, why exactly are we in this architectural nightmare?" Wade asked, looking down at Vic.

She looked around the lobby, taking in the stares from the guards watching them, which he had already noticed.

"Um…How about we head upstairs before talking?" she asked, looking at him and Steve for an answer.

"That's a great idea," Steve said gesturing towards the elevator.

Wade picked up the sack he had dropped and the group started to walk towards the elevator, only stopping when a nearby guard coughed to get their attention.

"Sirs, all guests must be checked in," he said, trying to sound authoritative.

"What do you need, squirt?" Wade asked looming over the guard, who looked shocked by the title.

"We just need to scan your driver's license, Sir," he answered looking up at Wade a bit worried since he had many inches over him.

Wade then pulled a leather wallet on a chain from his back pocket and handed the card over to the guard. Swiping it through the machine, it gave a quiet ping, which he knew meant that his name had a legal file attached. Then it pinged again, and again, and again. Bucky finally lost track of the number of pings, but each one would indicate that the man had some kind of criminal charge against him.

Then the system buzzed, indicating a scan had picked up weapons.

Both he and Steve moved at the same time, pulling Vic towards and behind them so that their bodies were now between her and this Wade character. He glanced down at the bag that had produced the metal sounds from its impact on the floor.

"Guys, will you _stop_ that?" Vic sounded irritated, as she wedged her arms between the two of them, pushing them apart just enough to slip through, putting herself back in front of Wade. "Let's head upstairs and _then_ we will discuss everything."

He looked over at her, seeing the pleading face she had, one that he had never seen on her before. Looking at Steve for a final decision, he gave him a nod, deciding to consent, since either one of them could easily take this man. Well, maybe not easily, but they eventually would.

"Mr. Garrett is cleared to enter by my authorization," Steve said to the guard, who was still scrolling down the list of offensives. He was actually curious to see what the entire list entailed.

"Mind if I carry _that bag_?" Bucky asked, not wanting him to have such easy access to whatever weapons he had in there.

Wade then looked over at Vic at the request, wanting _her_ confirmation before handing it over, showing that he was trusting _her_ judgement on them. Vic nodded with a smile, not even having to say anything before Wade lifted the bag from his shoulder and handed it to him. That was _a lot_ of confidence that he had in Vic, to allow himself to be _willingly_ unarmed without a word being spoken. It was slightly heavier than he had expected making him curious as to what was inside, but he just tossed it over his shoulder as they moved away from the security desk.

The elevator opened and Vic announced to head to their floor, instead of the common room. Whoever this man was, she was comfortable enough for him to be in their private space, even if _he_ was still unsure. Reaching their floor, they stepped out, Bucky put the bag near the elevator, a bit out of the way, just in case.

"Alright, let's all sit down and get some proper introduction taken care of before their two heads explode," Vic said, taking Wade's arm and leading him to the side chair in the den closest to Steve's spot on the couch. They followed, taking up their normal spots, Vic eventually sitting down between the two of them, which was the only thing that made him feel a bit better.

Taking Steve's hand in her, Vic said, "Wade, this is Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America."

That seemed to get Wade's attention as he watched the shocked look appear on his face.

"Hell's bells," he gruffed out. Vic huffed at the cursing.

"And this is James Barnes. We call him Bucky, but he is also known as the Winter Soldier," Vic said taking his hand into hers.

"Well, damnation," Wade said scanning the two of them again, even more carefully than the first time in the lobby. "Ain't that some shit?"

"You'll have to forgive Wade, he has a bit of a potty mouth on him," Vic said with a bit of humor.

"If anything, I never could get _you_ to swear properly," Wade grinned at her, leaning back in the chair, getting more comfortable.

"I've known Wade since I was nineteen. We became friends after I left home," Vic told them. He knew that there was going to be a story behind this, but he needed to know...

"I hate to interrupt," Bucky started, getting Vic's attention, "but I would feel _much better_ first knowing why you," he said looking at Wade,"are here suddenly, _with weapons_ , and why you were using a _code phrase_."

"I'm here because of what I have been watching for the past week," Wade firmly said, regarding Vic hard, who seemed to be running the mentioned time through her head.

"A sudden change of location without notifying you," she stated sounding more than a bit guilty.

"And don't forget about totally disappearing on Thursday," Wade added.

"What do you mean?" she asked him, now sounding confused.

"The signal dropped off entirely mid-morning, and it didn't come back on till later that night. Not a single ping," he said. He had no idea what ping the man was talking about so he looked at her expecting an answer.

"Wade and I track each other with our phones. That way, we always know where the other is. Why would my signal have stopped on Thanksgiving?" Vic asked looking between them. Did Vic already have a stalker before him? Was this why she had not been upset about them following her that first night after finding her?

"The _secure location_ that we went to prevents any signals from getting out and revealing it. The moment we stepped onto the Quinjet, the signal would have died, and wouldn't have started again until we got back," Steve told her but also looking at Wade to know that he was included in the information. "We are so used to it, we did not think to mention it."

"I didn't know," she said looking first at Steve and then Wade. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare ya."

"It's fine, darlin'. I'm just glad that it was a false alarm," Wade said. "As for the code phrase, it's so that Vic can let me know if she needs help without someone figuring it out."

"So the two songs that she mentioned…" Bucky started.

"Told me that she was fine," Wade offered.

"If I answered _Jailhouse Rock_ , that would tell Wade that I was somewhere without my consent. If I said _Hound Dog_ , it would let him know that hostiles were in the immediate area," Vic said, as she leaned a bit back on him, turning to face Wade some.

"That's a strange, good strategy," Steve said, agreeing with Bucky but actually voicing his opinion.

"What branch of the military were you?" Bucky asked.

"US Air Force Combat Control Team, from 1976 through 1990," he answered.

"So, then, how did you meet Victoria?" Steve asked, getting the conversation back to a story about Vic.

"I was working at a bar in Tennessee. I always stopped at this all-night truck diner off the interstate to eat before heading home. Vic had just started to work there so after only two nights, I easily recognized her with that hair. I was heading to my motorcycle to leave at the same time her shift was ending. She was putting a bag of trash into the dumpster, but I saw that she snuck into the woods afterwards. I waited for a few minutes and when she didn't come back out, I followed her to make sure everything was alright. Vic had put up a cheap tent in the trees, back enough so that nobody would see it from the parking lot, and she was living there using the truck stop showers," Wade told them.

Vic had slightly squirmed in her seat as he talked, probably knowing that they would scold her for such an act, but she would just give them her usual _it's in the past_ excuse.

"We sat and talked for a few hours, and before the sun came up, I had convinced her to come live with me."

"She just went home with you?" Steve asked turning to look at her. "To _live_ with you?"

"It wasn't like _that_ ," Vic firmly stated, catching Steve's subtle relationship comment. "Wade had a spare room so I took it."

"The next day, I started her training," Wade supplied.

"Training?" Bucky asked.

"Yeah. She was a nineteen year old female. I figured that if she was going to be traveling alone, she needed to be able to defend herself," he said. "There was no way in hell she was leaving me without being able to fight."

"Like at the bar last night," Steve said at the same time as the realization came to him.

"What about last night?" Wade asked.

"It was just a drunk dude who tried to stomp on my foot," Vic answered casually, as if it were a normal occurrence.

"What did he get?" Wade asked with a smile.

"A sideways kick to the knee followed by an elbow to the cheek," Vic told him with a bit of proudness in her voice.

"Nice," Wade said nodding his head approvingly. "After a couple of weeks of training, I got her a job working with me at the titty bar as a bouncer."

"What!?" both he and Steve yelled.

"How else was she going to _practice_ what I was teaching her?" Wade pointed out. "She was the best sidekick I ever had. She could take down a drunken asshole in no time and they never saw it coming."

Bucky then looked over at Vic, who seemed a bit embarrassed at the praise she was receiving. He had seen her last night, but thinking about her doing that, dealing with drunk guys, made him a bit angrier than he liked. He didn't like the idea of anyone intentionally trying to hurt her.

"I lived with Wade for...about a year and a half. The last three months were the hardest, since I was jumping out of my skin to move on, but I agreed to stay with him until after my coma day had passed," Vic told them. "It was one of the conditions of leaving. After being with me for one, he didn't want me off somewhere when it happened again."

"Those two days were the second and third worst days of my entire life," Wade admitted. "I thought for sure that she was dead the first time, even with the warning. The second time, all I could do was watch over her."

"Mind if I ask what the _first_ worst day was?" Bucky's curiosity about this man and his relationship with Vic just kept growing. Wade seemed very solicitous of her.

"That would be the day that my soulmate died giving birth to our daughter, who also didn't make it," Wade stated very plainly, holding in his emotions. "My daughter would have been the same age as Vic, so I felt like I needed to protect her. And I have been _trying_ to ever since, but as you might be able to tell, she hasn't made it _easy_."

That was the piece of information that Bucky felt helped to bring this entire strange background story about Vic into focus. Wade was her surrogate father. There had _never_ been any type of sexual feelings between them, which made him breathe a lot easier.

"Is there a bathroom close?" Wade asked after a moment.

"Sure, you can use mine," Vic said rising as Wade did the same.

They walked down the hallway, so he waited until they were just out of view before rising. His protection mode kicked in, same as last night, but now it was just in case, not a real reason. He heard Steve's voice, trying to tell him to sit but that was an order he was _not_ going to obey. Going into the hall once they reached her room, he crept forward enough so that he could hear them talking.

"Where are your pillows?" Wake asked her.

"I…um…don't need them anymore," she hesitantly answered.

"Are you telling me that you are _sleeping_ with them, barely a _week_ after meeting them?" he asked, scolding her a bit with his tone.

"Yes, but that is _all_ we are doing, _sleeping_. Wait...are you saying that you _knew_ my pillows were their replacements!?"

"Of course. I never could understand how you _didn't_ seem to realize it," he said,

Bucky heard the sound of a hit, then Wade exclaiming, "Ow…stop that!" He wondered if Wade had just been on the receiving end of one of her punches to the arm.

"I can't _believe_ you never said anything to me...do you realize how embarrassed I was when _they_ brought it up?" Vic scolded him.

"With all of the teasing that _I've_ been put through over the years, you _deserved_ it," Wade told her with a chuckle, which also made him smile. "Sleeping…is that _all_ that you are doing?"

"Yes, we're taking that part of our relationship slow," Vic said, but then his mind began to replay all of their moments together and he could barely call them slow. Well, maybe for nowadays or what Vic was used to...

"I'll be out in a minute. Head back out before the runts get too worried," he heard Wade say before the sound of a door closing reached him. Telling her that made him like the man a bit more.

Vic stepped out of her bedroom, finding him standing right there to the side, making her jump a bit, which made _him_ receive a simple smack to the arm.

"Stalker much?" she asked before wrapping her arms around him and resting her head on his left shoulder.

"You know how I can worry," he simply said.

"I know, but you don't have to worry about Wade. He would _never_ hurt me," she told him not moving. Then she grumbled under her breath, "but I _may_ have to hurt _him_ …"

"Come on," he told her, starting back down the hall where he could see Steve straining his neck to see down to where they were. Steve seemed a lot more relaxed about this than he could ever be. Wade came back out a few moments after they had sat down, taking the chair once again.

"So, how the hell are the two of you sleeping in the same bed with her when she only gets a few hours' sleep at night? That one hour of sleep she did years ago about drove me bat-shit crazy," Wade said, looking between them.

"Well, Sir," Steve began, still sounding like a teenager, "After the first night Victoria moved in, sleeping alone, we saw the pillows the next morning and figured it out. We asked her to try an experiment, just for one night, to see what would happen by being in the bed next to us."

"And?" Wade asked

"I've been sleeping the entire night. Usually seven hours or more," Vic said sounding a bit proud.

"Damn, it's about time," Wade said his shoulders dropping slightly, telling him that he was a bit more relaxed knowing that Vic was doing fine. "You should have at least called me to let me know that everything was going fine."

"It's been a strange, busy week, but I was planning on calling you eventually. If I thought you'd _freak out_ and come here, I _definitely_ would have," Vic said pulling her legs up and tucking them under her in his direction, so he placed his hand over them on the funny colored socks.

"Well…it gives me a chance to check on you and intimidate the runts," Wade joked before looking at them. "Has she started cooking for you yet?"

"Just a bit," Bucky told him.

"Well…watch it when she does. Vic likes to make you get fat so she can force you to workout with her," Wade told them with a smile.

"It's not _my_ fault if you felt it was necessary to clean not only your _plate,_ but the _pots_ too," Vic threw back at him.

"She put ten pounds on me during the first month living together, _then_ made me start running ten miles a day, one for each pound," Wade told them, but he could hear from his voice that it amused him more than anything.

"She had us doing a fifteen mile jog this morning," Steve added to the conversation, "and that was just for fun."

"And so it begins," Wade said, shaking his head. "Has she calmed down with all that damn energy some at least?"

"Not really," he said.

"I had her training and working out three to four hours a day, hoping that it would put her ass to sleep at night, but it never did," Wade chuckled.

Leaning down close to Vic's ear, he asked, "Exactly how much does he know?"

"Everything," Vic told him without trying to hide her answer. "Wade knows about all the things that I can do, the music, languages, all of my jobs. It was because of Wade that I learned how to handle my money."

"After a while, I realized what she could do, so I went out and bought her a pile of books on personal finance and money stuff. Before she moved on, she had not only set herself up with savings and retirement accounts, but she even got me started investing using a small next egg that I had saved up. But _that girl_ was the best damn investment I ever made," Wade said, sounding extremely proud of Vic.

"We're still learning about Victoria, but the stuff we know about, her talents, they are incredible," Steve told him.

Vic spent the next few minutes telling Wade about how she was now going to be working for Tony as a mechanic, as well as beating him in the guitar game, winning the Jeep while giving the bike to Bucky.

"That's a big change from where you started out, by walking across the states," Wade said, making him curious about a phrase.

"Walking across states?" he asked Wade, wanting a full answer, figuring that Vic would leave out a piece that would make them upset.

"That was how she had gotten to Tennessee, by walking from that shit-hole of a home across the entire south for a year before finally heading north, where I met her," Wade told them, but it was his term for her family home that had him curious.

"Shit-hole?" Bucky repeated so that Wade knew what he wanted information on.

"Hey," Vic said smacking his leg, but he could see some worry on her face.

"Yep, that damn family of hers. She hasn't told you about them yet?" Wade asked.

"Just a little, but not about this topic," Steve told him.

"The day after graduation, since she was eighteen and a legal adult, they tossed her out of the house, throwing what clothing she had on the front yard for her to collect, with no money. After that, she started walking, scraping up food wherever she could. Backyard gardens, planting fields, dumpsters," Wade told them without holding anything back. "She uses the term 'leave home', but really it should be 'kicked out'."

"Victoria, why wouldn't you tell us all of this?" Steve asked turning to her.

"Because it doesn't matter anymore, it's in the past," she said, with her fallback phrase, but he could see that she was a bit saddened at having such a hard time of her history brought up.

"Vic is a survivor," Wade told them, "but she never let any of it get to her. She was always happy, even if she was shy when we met."

"Shy? Vic?" Bucky asked thinking that he had not heard correctly.

"Yep, a virgin church mouse," Wade told them, making Vic cover her face with her hands in embarrassment at the adorable term. "It wasn't until she came to work with me that she finally opened up. Dealing with drunk assholes in a titty bar, you have to be able to stand on your own, grow a tough skin to verbal attacks. You should have seen her face the first time she walked in there."

"I cannot picture her being quiet or shy," Bucky admitted as Vic poked him in the side with her finger, causing him to jerk slightly. He grabbed her hand, holding it tight to prevent further attacks.

"Victoria likes to not tell us a whole story because she doesn't want us to get upset," Steve told him, to which Wade only nodded.

"Well, there's nothing in her past bad after she met me. All of it was from before. Has she at least told you about school?" Wade offered to them.

"Yes, we know about that. She finally admitted that one to us," Steve said nodding his head.

"I'll give you my phone number so that anytime you need to know what she's trying to hide, I'll tell you about it," Wade responded with a wide grin.

"Turncoat," Vic said glaring at him, crossing her arms, and taking his hand with hers.

" _Captain, Tony wants me to inform you that he_ _ **demands**_ _to talk with you immediately_ ," FRIDAY's voice echoed through the den.

"Who the hell is that?" Wade asked looking around.

"We'll explain in a moment," Vic told him.

"Put him through, FRIDAY," Steve sighed.

" _Care to explain to me **why** you authorized **entry** to someone with a criminal history **bigger** than the Hulk's **waistline**!_?" Tony sharp voice asked in a raised tone.

"It took him longer to call than I thought it would," Bucky said smiling over at Vic.

" _I was getting my beauty rest, Barnes!_ " Tony stated melodramatically.

"Well, if you look the same as you did yesterday, then you need more. So either go back to sleep, or stop being overly dramatic, Tin Man," Vic told the absent man, which got a chuckle out of Wade.

" _What the hell was that? Did you let Darth Vader into my house_?" Tony then asked, now making Vic laugh.

"Tony, a friend of Victoria's stopped by to check on her," Steve went ahead and answered, not getting into a verbal smack-down.

" _Oh_ ," they heard, amused that he didn't add more to the conversation. That man had more to say about nothing than anybody, so being at a loss for words was rare.

"Tony, if you're nice and invite Wade to dinner, I'll introduce you to him," Vic offered up. Bucky wondered how the two of them would get along. Billionaire meets biker.

" _Done, but I want a song_ ," he threw back at her.

"Fine…Wade would _love_ to have a _Lamborghini_ ," Vic said with a devious smile.

" _Piano song! Piano song!_ " Tony quickly yelled in response to her comment.

"Spoilsport," Vic told him, but they knew she was enjoying teasing Tony who seemed to have already forgotten that she had backed out of the competition, as a ping indicated that the comm had been shut off.

"What the _hell_ just happened?" Wade asked.

They sat around for the next two hours talking, hearing stories from Wade about Vic from when they were together, as well as things she had mentioned to him while traveling. They learned more about her from him than the entire time she had been with them.

He didn't think that Vic was trying to hide her past, but she didn't seem to care about it in the same way others did theirs. He was always thinking about his past, and so was Steve, while Vic just looked at it as just another thing that didn't matter. Was that why she was so accommodating about his own?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The character Wade Garrett is pulled from the 1989 movie Road House, played by Sam Elliott. I've always liked him (yes, you can call it a crush) and decided to base her 'father figure' on him. If you are not familiar with him, go to YouTube and look up his fight scene.
> 
> And, YES, I know that Sam Elliott played Gen. Thaddeus Ross in 2003's Hulk, but since they swapped him for William Hurt, it doesn't count as a 'paradox'.  
> And thank goodness since I hate Ross (cough...spoiler alert...cough).
> 
> As for Steve's movie choice they were watching: 1952's Monkey Business
> 
> Translation: Anciano = Spanish for Old Man


	38. Tony's Dinner Guest

Tony had been sitting, twisting on his stool, reading over the enormous list of charges against this so-called _friend_ of Vic's named Wade, trying to understand why she even _knew_ this man. There was nothing linking them that he could find, other than they had lived in the same town for a while, many years ago, when Vic would have been very young. And he'd to pull their tax records just to find _that_. Pepper finally came into the workshop, wrapping her arms around his neck as she started to look over his shoulder at what he was working on, reading the file herself.

"Being a bit _nosy_ , aren't we?" she asked him, as _she_ reached over to scroll through more of the charges. They both noticed that the pattern was mostly for fights emanating from places listed in his files as where he worked as a bouncer.

"Me? Nosy? I resent that remark," he told her finally getting to the last pages, the more recent incidents.

"No, you _resemble_ that remark," she informed him.

Everything that was there seemed to indicate that the people he dealt with didn't like how they were handled and brought up assault charges against him. Every single one of them were either dropped or he was found to be not guilty. Not a bad record overall, considering. Even the military records that he _accessed_ showed the man had numerous medals for combat missions in different area of the world. The only troubling part was the small screen to the left that Pepper was now focusing in on.

It was the personal history of Juliette Garrett, listed as his deceased wife, as well as a daughter Kayla, also deceased. What had drawn his attention were the dates listed for both of them: _on the same day_. Which made him have FRIDAY pull up the medical file. She had died in childbirth.

"How awful," he heard Pepper say as she read what he had discovered. "Tony, tonight you had better be on your best behavior or I will hurt you. Do you understand?"

"That's a lot to ask," he said turning his head to kiss her cheek, but then as he thought about losing Pepper in the same way, he turned to wrap his arms around her. "But nobody deserves to have that happen to them."

Not long after on the party floor, Tony was getting himself a drink when the elevator dinged to announce the arrival of the three musketeers and this strange guest. He was a bit surprised to see Vic walking next to this stranger in his house, with Steve and Barnes following behind.

The man was looking around at the large gathering room, taking in the layout, the way he had noticed Barnes doing the first few times he had been here. More of a _looking for strategic locations_ than _admiring the architecture_ look. Walking from behind the bar, he made his way to the top of the steps.

"Thank you very much, I know, isn't it just wonderful?" Tony said taking a sip of his whiskey.

"Who that hell is that pipsqueak?" he heard the man say as he jerked a finger at him. Didn't everyone know him?

"Wade Garrett, Tony Stark. Tony, Wade." Victoria stood her ground as the man then walked up the stairs straight at him, starting to make him a bit uncomfortable. Looking at a picture versus having him sauntering directly for him was a bit different. He actually found himself taking a step back as the man reached the top, standing right before him with a glare that was nerve-racking.

"So, are you the arrogant piece of shit like everyone says you are?" Wade bluntly asked him.

"I can only hope so, Sir," he instantly answered before realizing how he had addressed Wade. He _did_ remind him of a very scary fatherly figure though, the kind that _would_ keep the shotgun loaded behind the front door.

Their exchange seemed to somehow lighten the mood as Wade grinned.

"Good, I like a man with some balls," he said nodding. "Too many useless sniveling weasels running things nowadays."

Tony couldn't help but smile and agree with Wade's assessment.

"Oh, I like him," Tony said holding out his hand to shake Wade's hand, which the man took, a grip not unlike the one Steve was used to dishing out. Looking around Wade towards Vic, he asked, "Can I keep him?"

"Sorry, he mine," Vic said from where Steve and Barnes had her pinned between them now that she was available. "But both you of you, play nice."

Pepper got up from her seat, stopping at his side as she offered her hand and introduced herself.

"Ma'am," Wade greeted her with a smile and nod, very politely.

But when Natasha stood up to be introduced, that was when Tony saw a change in the man, a bit of a swagger as Wade stepped towards her.

"Well, hello there, Red," he heard the man say with that deep voice becoming incredibly smooth in a way he could never do, that could almost make _his own_ knees go weak. Wade's hand was sweeping the mop of hair away from his face, which was all smiles.

"Oh, no! Don't you _dare_ flirt with Natasha!" Vic commanded as the three of them joined him on the landing, but Wade either didn't hear or care as he took Nat's offered hand and placed a kiss on the back of it. "She could _easily_ take you down."

"I wouldn't mind seeing the two of them in a fight," Barnes muttered a bit low so that only the four of them could hear. Tony remembered seeing the different training records for Wade so he actually _agreed_ with Barnes.

"That would be _interesting_ ," Steve admitted quietly, surprising Tony enough that he had to turn and make sure it really was Capsicle. "Wade's the one who taught Victoria that trick from last night."

"So we have him to thank for that little show? I knew it all couldn't be natural talent," he smirked at Vic taking another sip of his drink.

That was when Bruce finally made an appearance. When Bruce was close enough, he saw that Natasha was talking with Wade, her own flirting side being put on display, but Tony did notice that Bruce flinched as she rested her hand on Wade's arm.

"Looks like someone might be turning green for a different reason," Tony offered as he looked down at where Bruce was standing, seeming a bit hesitant to join them.

"What do you mean?" Vic asked.

"Although Bruce has had a bit of a crush on Nat for a while now, even with her flirting with him and actually meaning it, he has _never_ acted on it," Steve told her in a bit of a softer voice so that only they could hear.

"Great, leave it to Wade to piss off the Hulk," Vic huffed out, leaning back somehow onto the two of them. "Should we separate them before Wade actually tries to hit on Nat?"

"That's _not_ hitting on her?" Tony asked watching Nat and Wade together. You would think they were old friends.

"Nope, that's just for fun...to test the waters," Vic told him, as Barnes kissed her cheek before heading over to the bar.

"Let's see how far ole' Brucie will let them go," Tony smiled taking a drink, wondering if tonight might be when Bruce finally steps up and takes a chance. Maybe seeing Wade with Nat would be the push he needed. Thinking of all the sexual innuendo jokes he could do out on missions then brought a smile to his face.

"Tony, you can't," Steve informed him in that stern voice of his, letting Tony know that a scolding could be on the way.

"Fine, then you go break them up," deciding to put it onto Steve's shoulders as he took the seat next to Pepper. "Or better yet…So Wade, how do you know Vic?"

Tony instantly perked up at the sound of Vic groaning in annoyance. A smile crossed his face as he considered his options.

"I would say that you would be a bit _too old_ for her...robbing the cradle and all that...but then her boyfriends _are_ almost one-hundred each, so it's not _exactly_ outside the range of possibilities," Tony smirked as Pepper jabbed him in the side with her elbow, whispering 'play nice' in his ear. Vic and Steve took a larger area of a couch, leaving enough room for Barnes to join them. He then watched as Nat sat back down and Wade took the spot next to her, leaving Bruce to sit in a chair by himself.

Tonight was _definitely_ going to be fun.

"Well, since you asked so _nicely,_ and not like the nosy little prick I thought you were going to be, I found Vic living in the woods homeless when she was nineteen," Wade told him with a straight face, not a single expression telling him he was lying.

"Are you being serious?" Tony asked looking over at Vic, who had put one of her hands over her face at the beginning of the exchange.

"I'll be at the bar," Vic said before moving away from Steve, patting his knee, her face was slightly red.

"Yep, I'm sure you've at least heard of it. It's when somebody doesn't have all this metal surrounding them at night," Wade said.

"I've heard of the concept, and I'll have you know that my Malibu house was blown up a few years ago, and I was homeless for a time. But believe it or not, I actually want to hear about Vic, not myself," Tony told him, getting an overly dramatic gasp from Pepper and Nat. "Ha, ha, peanut gallery."

He watched as Wade then looked over to where Vic was behind the bar inspecting the mini-fridge for something to drink. When she looked up and saw Wade staring at her, she just shrugged her shoulders.

"Since when have _you_ cared what you told people," she said pulling out an apple juice bottle and popping it open. "See what you've done? You've driven me to drinking!"

"Figured I'd at least _seem_ to care, darlin'," he grinned at her before looking back at him. "She was working in an all-night truck stop and sleeping in the woods behind it. I wasn't about to leave her there where anything could happen to her, so I got Vic to come stay at my place, in my spare room."

"Vic, how long were you homeless?" Natasha asked her. Vic walked around the bar to stand next to Barnes.

"A year and a half. I traveled..."

"Walked" Wade chimed in.

"...I _walked_ the coast from Charleston down to Key West and back up to Mobile and then headed north towards Nashville where I met Wade."

"You walked that entire way? Are you a big Forest Gump fan or something?" Tony asked.

"No, I just didn't have any transportation and all my stuff fit on my back," Vic said opening the bottle and taking a drink. Barnes then reached over and pulled her around in front of him so that she was standing between his legs, his arms wrapped around her waist, the two of them watching everyone else. "I've been on the move for years. I still did travel up until a few days ago too."

"So what happened then?" Tony asked taking a drink of his scotch.

"I made her come work at the titty bar," Wade bluntly said, causing him to start choking on the burning liquid going down the wrong pipe. Coughing his head off, he put the glass on the table as Pepper started to pat his back, trying to help.

"Damn, I planned that _just_ right," Wade smiled at Natasha as he could only stare at the man. "I gave her a bit of training, and then she worked the door with me as a bouncer."

He could feel Pepper, who had stiffened moments before, start to relax next to him. He could imagine the PR nightmare their original assumption would have made.

"A bouncer?" Pepper asked.

"A bit of training?" Bruce chimed in for the first time since arriving.

"Yep, a bit of boxing, a bit of hand-to-hand moves, that sort of stuff. I realized right away that she could pick up anything I showed her, _if_ she _wanted_ to," Wade beamed.

Tony looked over at Vic and Barnes. He was whispering something in her ear, but she only shook her head and whispered something back, getting a chuckle out of the assassin.

"So you know about her talents?" Pepper politely asked.

"Yep, and I made her use them. The best was when I took her to a cattle auction and she learned how to imitate the auctioneer and his fast-talking spiel," Wade chuckled.

"Really?" he then turned to Vic with a wide grin. "Oh, Vic, how about a party trick?"

"Nope, not happening. I _hate_ that one. Wade thinks it hilarious but I sound like a hipster on crack after inhaling helium," Vic told the group shaking her head. He may not win this one. She had never refused a party trick so far.

"So what made you stop by?" Natasha asked Wade.

"I didn't just stop by, Sweetness. I left Memphis yesterday morning on my hog to come and check on her," Wade told them.

"You rode a motorcycle in wintertime from Memphis to here? How long did that take?" Bruce asked.

"Just under fourteen hours on the road. I eventually stopped last night to sleep."

"Why didn't you just call Vic?" Tony asked not believing his story. Why would someone do that for another person?

"I didn't like what I had seen and wanted to see for myself that she was ok," he told them. "Besides, it would give me a chance to meet her runts."

"I'm pretty sure you are the _only_ person to call _them_ runts," Natasha supplied.

"Actually, Steve used to get called that _all_ the time," Barnes told the group with a smile, his chin resting on Vic's shoulder. Tony noticed that he actually looked happy, something he hadn't seen the past eleven months since he came to live here.

"You just had to go there, didn't you?" Steve then sighed.

"What kind of pal would I be if I didn't?" Barnes rhetorically asked with a grin. Tony noticed that he seemed more at ease today than he had ever been.

Steve then explained with more detail the events of what happened with her call from Wade unexpectedly showing up in the lobby, the phone tracking, and explaining the code phrases. He could see Natasha being impressed by the use of such tactics, even if they were a bit unnecessary. Vic was perfectly safe living in his Tower.

"Sounds like you are in competition with Barnes over there for Vic's number one stalker," Tony told him after listening to the strange story. Never had he known someone who would go through the steps that he had for someone he was not related to. Then he wondered aloud, "Why worry about her like that?"

"Vic over there would be the same age as my daughter if she had lived for more than three minutes. I never got a chance to protect her, but I'll make damn sure I protect Vic the best that she'll let me," Wade told him with a deadly serious straight face. The entire atmosphere in the room had dropped to foreboding, waiting to see the outcome of this conversation.

"Wade, you'll have to forgive Tony and his rude mouth. I've been trying to get him to keep it closed, or at least civil, for years," Pepper apologized for him, like she usually did when he had stuck his foot in his mouth.

"I'm not worried about him. It's the ones who _don't_ speak their mind that you have to worry about. They're the ones who will stab you in the back at the first chance they get," Wade told them sounding unusually calm considering how he had just attacked him. "Besides, I have a feeling that if he had someone to protect, that he would understand."

"I do," he told him, putting his hand onto Pepper's.

"Then the answer should have been obvious, you damn idiot," Wade said as Vic appeared with a beer in her hand for him. Wade smiled up at her like he really was looking at his own child.

"And by the way, this _is_ Wade playing nice," Vic then looked over at him and Pepper.

"Vic, would you know how to yodel by chance?" he then asked with a grin.

"Nope, not learning that one," she said moving to sit by Steve on the other couch again.

"All right then, how about anything embarrassing that I can use against Vic?" he asked Wade sipping his drink.

"Not really. I learned the hard way that she doesn't really give a shit about most stuff other people would be embarrassed about," Wade chuckled out.

"What do you mean, _the hard way_?" Natasha asked before he could.

"Don't you do it, Wade!" Vic admonished him drawing everyone's curiosity. She had to know what he was about to let spill. He gave her a shit-eating grin, the only way to describe that look.

"Right after coming to live with me, Vic needed some new clothing _necessities_ , so we rode my hog to the nearby mall," Wade started as he noticed Vic turning her head and burying it into Steve's shoulder. "Well, turns out she had never seen an escalator. So, after getting on it to head up, Vic decides that she needs to play on it about four or five more times. I thought _that_ was bad...until we had to leave."

Tony heard a groan from Vic as Steve listened intently to Wade, patting her back gently with the largest smile on his face.

"When we were leaving, there was a revolving door. So, of course, she had to play with it too. Dumping her shopping bag on me, she began to spin with the damn thing as people were coming and going. Vic wasn't paying attention and the damn button up shirt she was wearing got caught by the door. A second later, she was standing there with nothing but her bra on. Laughing. She thought it was hilarious. I had to pick up her shirt, grabbed onto her, and drag her away from all the guys gawking at her. Then I had to _make_ her put her damn shirt back on. She saw nothing wrong with wearing nothing but a bra, riding home on the back of my bike holding onto me like that."

Now practically everyone was laughing at the tale, all expect Vic who was mumbling into Steve's shoulder.

"You should have seen the looks we got riding home. She had wrapped that shirt around her, pulled it tight so it exposed her midriff, and knotted the damn thing right under her breasts since all the buttons had popped off. I was waiting for someone to call the cops on me for thinking I was with a minor," Wade said. "It was right after that incident that I told her to start saving for her own bike."

"How was it that you grew up never having been on an escalator or in a revolving door?" Pepper politely asked making him curious about that too.

"I grew up with a sheltered life on a farm," Vic carefully said. As Wade opened his mouth to say something, Vic snapped her fingers and shook her head 'no' at him. He then closed his mouth and remained silent. There was definitely something there she didn't want exposed. He'd store that information away for later when he needed a project. "Even traveling on my own for a year, there was a lot of stuff I'd never done."

"So, you left Wade with Riddick?" Barnes asked coming over from the bar to sit on the couch next to the other two, changing the topic of conversation. Since neither he nor Steve seemed curious about it, they must already know what Vic was hiding. He noticed how easily they seemed to fit together, the simple touches and nudges. Tony noticed that as he looked at them tonight, that it didn't bother him as much as it had last week when Vic had confronted him.

"Riddick?" Bruce asked knowing the reference just as he did.

"That's my bike's name," Vic proudly said. "I've already been over the name with the two of them, and yes, it's named for the movie character."

"After she had enough saved up, I took Vic to the bike shop I took mine to for work and we had them help to find Vic her own hog," Wade said.

"Once I could take it apart and put it back together again all on my own, the owner was so impressed, I ended up working there for three months," Vic told them finishing off her drink.

"Is that where you learned about cars?" Tony asked her.

"No, they only did bikes, Harleys mostly. I worked as a car mechanic in Santa Fe and Grand Junction," she told them. He then took his phone from his coat pocket and pulled up a map. So far from listening to her story, she had traveled almost all the way across the country by herself. "Yes, Tony. I've traveled a lot."

"So where did you live before coming to New York?" Natasha asked.

"I came here from Atlanta, but I was only there for a few months while I waited for the snow here to melt," she explained. Looking at both Steve and Barnes she then said, "I came north on the Blue Ridge."

"Wade, if you just got into town today, where are you staying?" Pepper asked.

"Whatever place is closest? Figured I worry about that after dinner," Wade said, as he saw a look pass between Nat, who subtly nodded, and Pepper.

"Well, then you are in luck. The closest place is right downstairs in the guest quarters," Pepper announced, shocking him with the offer. They really didn't know anything about this man and she was giving him access to the Tower? He looked over at Pepper, who just sweetly smiled at him and he knew that it was pointless to argue with that look.

And if Nat was giving her approval also...

Looking back at Wade, he said, "Me Tower, su Tower."

* * *

Nat walked with Wade over to the bar after dinner, her arm wrapped around his. He was definitely an interesting one. So far they had both had fun flirting, but after learning where Wade worked most of the time, she figured that's where he got his smooth moves.

Right after dinner, Tony had decided he wanted to test Victoria's abilities, so he had already chosen a song for her to play, thinking that he was going to be able to stump her. Vic had just smiled as she and Steve headed over to the piano, without her even listening to the song. Tony had already had the piano rotated so that the bench was not as close to the window anymore, but Steve sat with her anyways while Bucky talked with Bruce.

Victoria had then played the song perfectly, having already learned it a long time ago she told Tony afterwards. It was always fun to watch Tony's ego get a little deflated, if only for a short time. Vic then started another song, which turns out was one of Wade's favorites. He had stood up from the stool, offered her his hand, and led her out to the open floor space where they began to dance. It was not a song that she recognized, but it had a country sound to it.

When they were done, Nat saw Steve whisper something in Vic's ear, and she nodded, starting to play an old 1940's song that she recognized but didn't know the name of. She noticed Bucky's attention pulled away from his conversation with Bruce as he began to stare at Vic playing, an easing charming smile crossing his face. Nat felt a flutter from inside as she saw him looking at Vic like that. _That_ was the Bucky Barnes that Steve had constantly told them about, the carefree friend who was always there to help him, even when he hadn't wanted it.

"So Natasha," Wade started as they now sat back at the bar, "How are they really doing?"

"Really doing?" she asked curious, not understanding his question.

"Are they really getting along? Any problems or concerns that you've noticed?" he asked taking a drink from his beer.

"Turn around and look at Bucky," she said carefully, which Wade slowly did, looking very casual doing the move, very practiced probably due to his job. She could understand his concern for his surrogate daughter. Leaning a bit towards his ear and speaking low as to not draw attention to them, "He has lived here with us for eleven months and I've never seen him look happy like _that_ the entire time. In fact, until last week, I could count the number of times I heard him chuckle, and he never laughed. Since Vic got here, he is like a changed man."

"Anything to worry about when it comes to there being two of them?" he asked looking back at her.

"I don't think so. Vic seems to be able to move with both of them, and I haven't seen a bit of real jealously at all. She thinks it fun to tease Bucky about the 'stalking' they did when they found her at the club working. And she seems to like making Steve turn red by bringing up sexual topics," Nat said refilling her own drink. "Overall, she's fitting in around here very nicely. We spent Tuesday shopping together and she wore me out. That's usually my job around here."

"Yeah, I've dealt with that before," he snickered.

Looking over his shoulder, Nat caught Bruce's head turning away from where he had been trying to nonchalantly watch the two of them. She had tried for over a year to get him to step up but he kept letting his own demons hold him back. Maybe she was just going to have to stop hoping and move on.

"How far away is Mike's Gym where Vic goes?" Wade asked.

"Across town. Why?" she asked sipping her drink.

"I wanted to put her through some old routines in the morning," Wade answered.

"We have a gym downstairs that you can use for that. All you have to do is ask FRIDAY to send the elevator there," she informed him.

"That sounds like a plan. How about we get Vic to play us another song?" Wade charmingly smiled at her.

Finishing of the last of her martini, Nat answered, "Why not?"


	39. Vic vs. Wade

Steve woke up just enough, while lying on his right, to realize that he didn't feel Victoria holding on to him, so he figured that she must have rolled to the other side, latching onto Bucky. Turning over, he reached across to where she always was, finding a solid form for his arm to lay over. He didn't even bother to open his eyes as he tried to go back to sleep.

"Thanks, I appreciate the sentiment, Punk," he heard Bucky mumble, making him open his eyes, finding the room still dark, the sun not up yet. His arm was draped over Bucky's chest, with no sign of Victoria between the two of them. Lifting his head, he looked towards the bathroom, finding the door open and the area dark.

"She's not here," Bucky said as Steve pulled his arm back from Bucky's warm chest. If that was how both of them felt, how could she sleep between them? Wouldn't she get too hot?

"Where is she?" Steve asked sitting up on one elbow, listening for any sounds that may come from the den. "And how did she get past _you_?"

"Not sure of either. I only woke up just a bit before you rolled over. Vic was already gone before then," Bucky was getting up out of bed.

"FRIDAY, can you tell us where Victoria is?" Steve asked the AI.

" _Miss Victoria is in the training room with Wade, Captain_ ," FRIDAY answered.

"How come _he_ gets his first name and _we_ get formal titles?" Bucky asked him rounding the bed. "I'm going to see what's going on."

"Wait up, stalker," Steve said, jumping out of bed towards Bucky and as he reached the door where he was, receiving a punch in the arm for the tease, "I'm actually curious too."

They threw on just enough clothing to be decent if they ran into anybody, sweats and socks, before heading to the elevator. When they were inside, Steve called out to FRIDAY.

"FRIDAY, take us to the training room's control floor, but do not turn on the lights," Steve said getting a raised eyebrow look from Bucky.

" _Now_ who's the stalker?" he smirked at him.

"I just don't want to _distract_ them," was all that he said not looking directly at him while trying to hold in a smile.

Except for the other night, they had no idea what Victoria was capable of, and it made him a bit curious to see what they were doing. When the doors opened onto the floor, they could see down the short hall that the lights were still off inside the control room, but the ones through the windows shining down onto the training room floor were bright. He knew that even if they looked up, there was a slim chance they would be seen, but they were curious. They quickly walked to their destination.

Walking over to the windows, they saw both Victoria and Wade on the padded flooring area they used for hand-to-hand training, which was exactly what they were doing, but not in any style they used. If anything, it looked like typical barroom brawl fighting or what they would have used on the streets growing up. They had even dressed in normal street clothes, riding boots included.

The two of them had at least put on padded gloves which would only soften any blows they received, but neither one wore any other type of protection, which worried him a bit. He didn't think that they would intentionally hurt each other, but accidents did happen.

He watched as Wade continued to reach out as if to grab or hit her, similar to what she would encounter on the streets, and Victoria would either parry his swing, or dodge out of the way. Wade was never able to get contact on her.

Suddenly the intercom system came to life, allowing them to hear the discussion from below.

"… _another damn attack? Why would you stay in this damn town?_ " Wade asked as he round-house kicked out towards her head, Victoria leaning backwards to avoid his foot, causing Steve's breath to catch at the sight that could have been a serious injury if it had made contact.

Looking over to where Bucky was standing near the console, he saw his hand move back to his side after pressing the one-way intercom on. Bucky didn't even bother looking at him. Steve just shook his head, but didn't try to stop him.

" _Yeah, but it's not that bad here_ ," Victoria said as she grabbed his wrist as he extended with a punch, pulling him forward and past her, using his own body weight against him. " _He didn't get far at all. I was able to stop him with a knee to his twig and berries, as well as a busted kneecap_."

"Is Vic talking about what I _think_ she's talking about?" Bucky asked sounding slightly upset.

Steve didn't bother answering, instead holding his hand out for him to be quiet, concentrating on them instead. He knew that he should feel bad for snooping like this, which was a total Tony and Natasha (and Bucky) move, but now that he was here, he wanted to hear more.

" _You should let the runts know_ ," he said taking a strong swing right for her face, which she ducked out of, making him start to worry about this session. Wade did not seem to be holding back with his strikes towards Victoria.

In the same comedic voice she'd used before, Victoria then said, " _Hey, by the way, a few years back, this guy tried to rape me, but I stopped him, oh, and there was another other guy earlier this year_." Changing back to her normal voice, " _Yeah, **t**_ _ **hat** would go over well. __I'd probably never see **daylight** again!_" she said very sarcastically, rolling her shoulders.

" _You're keeping a **secret** from them_," Wade countered as she kicked at his leg, but Wade held his ground, taking the blow.

" _It's **not** a secret since you know about it. I just don't want to worry them. They have enough to deal with. Besides, nothing happened and it's in the past_," she said trying the same kick to his other leg. He was starting to not like that phrase one bit.

" _You have until I leave to tell them, or **I'll** do it_," Wade threatened, finally managing to grab her arm and tossing her to the floor, Victoria rolling with the toss and standing up a few feet away.

 **"** _ **Fine,** but you know that we are already in a fracking **tower** so if they turn me into **Rapunzel** , I'm blaming **you**_ ," she moved forward quickly, striking his chest hard with a double punch, Wade rubbing the area afterwards. Victoria then bent over to plant a hand on the ground, kicking upward with her leg at his chest.

After blocking the strange kick with his arms, but still being pushed back a foot, he said, " _If anything, you're more of a Mulan. Be careful using that move, there could always be broken glass on the ground_. _And when you said the three of you were taking it slow_?" Wade asked as she parried a swing, bringing her knee up into his stomach. Then giving a backwards spin, her elbow came straight across to his face, but she made it pass it by since the impact would have broken Wade's nose. She did have control, he thought.

" _You are a nosy bastich_ ," Victoria pointed out, taking a few steps back to glare at Wade.

" _It's **bastard** , come on, say it_," he taunted her, waving his fingers for her to come at him. " ** _Nosy bastard_** _!_ _And I want an answer, darlin'_."

" _Yes, I'm still your_ _ **virgin**_ _church mouse_ ," Victoria responded, passing by him under the swing Wade took at her and giving him an elbow to his lower back. " ** _Bastich_**!"

"I don't believe it. Steve, could Vic possibly mean…" Bucky glanced over at him with a stunned look, thinking the same thing that he was.

Wade had used that adorable term yesterday, but they hadn't taken him _literally_. With the way she had been so open with her affections towards both of them, the touches and kisses, those moves of hers that were driving them crazy, they had both figured she had to have had a boyfriend at some point in her past that she would have slept with. Had she really saved herself for all this time?

Victoria then ducked and swung out with her leg, causing Wade to jump back, but she fully rounded two more times while moving forward very quickly, the final sweep far enough in, catching just behind his ankle as he landed, knocking Wade to the ground, with a move that impressed Steve.

" _More like a virgin Tasmanian devil,_ " Wade managed to get out after taking a moment to gather himself, then getting back up. " _What the **hell** was that?"_

" _Like that one? I saw it in a movie_ ," Victoria answered, sounding proud at achieving the maneuver.

" _Do the runts know_?" Wade asked getting back on topic as he moved forward.

" _No, but we talked a few days ago about having_ _ **the**_ _ **talk** soon_," Victoria answered, hopping back as he swept for her legs next.

" _You **talked** about having a **talk?** What kind of **bullshit** is that?" _Wade backed up taking a moment to catch his breath as he slung his hands up in the air.

" _It's the kind of **manure** that people with a lot of **baggage** have_," she stated firmly, bending over slightly while also trying to catch her breath, as he sensed a change in them coming on due to the topic. " _Hockey sticks, between all of us, we could fill a **plane**!"_

" ** _Bullshit_**!" Wade yelled at her, pointing an accusing finger, " _I **know** you, there's something **more** that you're not saying. **You** don't just hold shit in...unless…Fucking hell, Vic, are you **scared**_?"

" _Of course, I'm **scared**_!" she yelled back at Wade, her southern accent suddenly coming to the surface now that she was actually angry with the topic of conversation.

Taking a few steps forward, she struck out with a couple of quick uppercut jabs at his head, which Wade managed to dodge by weaving back while stepping out of them, but barely. Then Victoria gave a very hard right hook aimed directly at his face.

Steve was a bit shocked as Wade just simply reached out and grabbed it in mid-air with his right hand, freezing her arm in place inches from his jaw. After a few seconds, Victoria pulled her arm back and gave a loud huff.

" _Fine! Well, in case ya haven't noticed, they're **not exactly** accountants or construction workers, they're **superheroes**! Their job is to go out and save the world! Compared to them, I'm a boring **nobody**! With the life they lead, how long do ya think it'll take until they get **tired** of their new **toy** and I'm left all **alone** again_? **"**

Steve felt like his entire soul crash inside of him as he listened to Victoria yelling this fear at Wade. From the corner of his eye, he saw Bucky place a hand on the console trying to support himself, also feeling stricken at her words. He knew the positive effect of having Victoria here was having on him. What he saw next scared him though.

Wade took a step forward and struck out fiercely with a push kick, striking Victoria squarely in the center of her solar plexus with his booted foot, knocking her over five feet away from him, with her landing flat on her back.

Bucky went to take a step toward the door where the steps down to the training room were, but he grabbed his arm hard, stopping him.

"Let go!" he growling angrily at him.

"Wait, let them talk!" Steve said, pleading with him, somehow knowing that Wade was not going to let her admission slide by.

" _You are their **goddamn soulmate**! You are not __**anyone's**_ _fucking_ _ **toy**_ , do you hear me?" they heard Wade yell at her through the speakers, before he turned back to the window while barely holding Bucky. Wade came over to stand above her. Victoria made a move to stand, but Wade put his foot down on her shoulder, pinning her to the floor, making her listen to him. Steve appreciated the effort, as he was also trying to hold Bucky in place. " _I watched those_ _ **runts**_ _yesterday when they were with you. Both of them look at you_ _ **exactly**_ _how I used to look at Juliette! They are_ _ **not**_ _ **ever** going to get __**tired**_ _of you_!"

" _And what happens when the **press** finds out about us_?" Victoria asked in a quieter voice, with something sad around the edges. " _Do you realize the **torment** the two of them are going to be **put through** because of **me**_?"

Victoria was worried about them? Bucky finally stopped his pull, turning and glaring down at them with a strange frown on his face at her strange comment.

" _Why the_ _ **fuck**_ _would you worry about the_ _ **press**_?" Wade asked still looming over her supine form, stopping her once again as she tried to get up by pressing with his foot.

" _Because they're_ _ **famous superheroes**..._ _remember me mentioning that about thirty_ _ **fracking**_ _seconds ago?_ _ **Avengers**_ _? The press has a_ _ **field day**_ _when_ _ **anyone**_ _famous finds a soulmate, but you_ _ **know**_ _how people who have **multiple** soulmates are treated by others. They are going to be badgered and hounded by critics, all because of my presence! Being here together, working together, the press had no reason to question their connection. But once the press does find out, and the harassment starts, they will only be able to put up with that type of hate for so long before wanting to __**get rid**_ _of the_ _ **cause**_!" she admitted to Wade.

The two of them stood looking down at her, not sure what to do. Steve knew that what she said about the press was correct, he had seen numerous articles harassing celebrities after a soulmate was found. Sometimes, they could be very cruel about a soulmate's past, which, now thinking about it, did have a very good chance of happening to them, but mostly due to Bucky's history, not Victoria's. All she had ever done was work her way across the country.

" _Then **why** would you move in here **with** them_?" Wade asked also with a bit of sadness in the question. Did he suspect the answer? It took a few moments before she answered.

" _I just wanted to see what it was like to be around people who might actually **like** me, before they decided they didn't want me here anymore. Even superheroes can only take so much **weirdness**."_

They watched as Wade dropped his head, mumbling curses under his breath at her admission. Had Victoria really never had anyone but Wade, before them and their group, who cared about her? And they had _told_ her that the things that she could do were not anything to worry about from them.

" _Do you_ _ **actually**_ _believe that those runts would tell you to leave because of what other people say_?" Wade asked her, his voice changing from being angry to eerily calm.

" _I don't think so, but I just don't know_ ," Victoria admitted, making him even sadder that she would think that they were that shallow. But he and Bucky would _never_ consider telling Victoria to leave them to get the press to leave them alone, or for _any_ reason at all. In a weaker voice, she admitted, " _I hope that they wouldn't_."

" _Would **you** leave **them** because of what some **dickhead** reporter said_?" he asked her crossing his arms and nudging her with his foot, still looming over her.

" ** _Never_** _!_ " she stated very firmly. They could hear the truth in the word.

" _They why the_ _ **fuck**_ _would those **runts** be any different_?"

" _That's why it's called a_ _ **fear**_ _, old man! They're not always meant to be_ _ **rational**_!" Victoria stated while punching her fists into the mat hard before Wade finally moved his foot to allow her get up.

She arched her back while lifting her legs so that she could spring up, landing on her feet. He noticed that she rubbed her lower ribs where Wade's kick had made contact, making him wonder how hurt she actually was. If it was bad, then she would not have been able to do that move.

Wade then stepped over to where she was standing, taking her into a large hug. He could see the man telling her something but since they were so close, the speakers could not pick up the words, but whatever it was, Victoria returned the hug and started to nod her head in agreement. Eventually he let her go.

" _You need more practice. Some of your moves are sloppy and should have made contact_ ," Wade said starting to remove his gloves, so Victoria did the same.

" _I haven't worked the door at a club since Boise. Not many people will hire a female bouncer_ ," she said, finally smiling and putting the gloves back into their resting place. He noticed that her voice had just gone back to the way it was, the lovely southern accent now gone.

" _I bet Natasha has some good moves that you could learn_ ," Wade suggested with a smooth tone added to his deep voice, letting Steve know that he was trying for a sexual double-talk, while Bucky slightly snickered at the comment, seeming to finally have lost the anger he had.

" _Gross, will ya stop that_?" Victoria asked as she let a creepy shiver cross her entire body from the comment. Seeing her body wiggle like that made him want to be holding her the next time it happened.

" _I'm just saying...I'm sure that the runts would appreciate adding **her** lessons, whenever you all get around to…"_

" _I'm **not** listening_!" she yelled while covering her ears, turned and walked away from him.

He heard Bucky actually chuckle at this part of their talk, while it also brought a smile to his face. They were definitely going to be having that talk much sooner than later, as in minutes from now, once Victoria had showered and gotten cleaned up at least.

" _Now, go get changed and head over to the weights. I expect you to press at least a hundred_ ," Wade said as they left the training room heading over towards the locker rooms.

" _Not a problem since I'm up to one-twenty-five, old man,_ " he heard her taunting voice drifting off as the speakers got too far away.

"Alright," Steve said reaching over, clicking the button to turn off the speakers. He was trying to work out how to handle the next hour in his head, "Let's head upstairs. I think we've heard more than we should have, but I'm not actually complaining."

"See what happens when you stalk. You learn things!" Bucky pointed out firmly as they walked. Pressing the button for the elevator, he then asked, "Why do I have the feeling that Vic may not have told us about most of her fears?"

"That's a lot of weight to put onto someone else's shoulders," he said replaying the entire scene over. "She is right about some of it though. Reporters will have a _field day_ once they find out."

"And once they know, the world knows," Bucky added but not voicing what he was actually trying to get at, what worried both of them. HYDRA would learn about Victoria. That did not sit well with him at all. But it's not like they could _actually_ lock her in the Tower forever. After seeing some of what she was capable of, they might end up with some bruises if they tried.

Getting back up to their floor, Steve headed to the fridge to get some juice while Bucky put on a pot of coffee. It didn't take him long to figure out the best way to talk with Victoria once she got back up here.

"Let Victoria first take a shower when she gets back. Don't let on that we heard anything. While she's doing that, I'll go talk with Wade, and let him know that we were there and heard them talking. When I get back and she's dressed, we'll all sit down and have a long discussion. Then the four of us will head to the diner for breakfast," Steve told Bucky as he measured out the coffee grounds.

"Fine, but I get the first _five minutes_ once she's ready!" Bucky told him, pointing his silver finger at Steve's face. There was no arguing with _that_ hand, he thought.

"If you make her cry, I'll kick you out of the bed and onto the _couch_ ," he informed him, knowing that was probably the worst punishment he could think of to do to him.

"Did you forget I have an actual _bedroom_?" Bucky smirked at him.

"Not if I _order_ you to take the couch," Steve looked him dead in the eye, "Or have you forgotten that I'm a _Captain_? Remember, no crying!"

* * *

By the time the elevator doors opened to the apartment, Vic was exhausted for the first time in months. Wade had put her through all of the old routines that he had made up years ago, just increasing the weights or number of repetitions to compensate for the years that had passed. Her arms were slightly sore since they didn't get as much use as her legs which were used to biking so much.

At least her chest didn't hurt from the kick that Wade had given her. But she was sure that when she looked in the mirror, it was going to be bruised, just like all the other times he gotten good strikes on her.

Stepping into the den, neither of her warriors were anywhere in sight, but she could smell the coffee in the air, so she knew that Bucky was awake. That man had a caffeine problem. Making her way to her bedroom, she glanced and found that both of their bedroom doors were closed. They must be getting dressed.

Finding her bed empty was a bit sad, and it was actually not made, since usually she and Steve did that while Bucky got the coffee ready.

Pushing her bedroom door mostly closed, she took a moment in the closet to decide what to put on. Wade said that he wanted to at least see some of the city before he left tomorrow. It was going to be a miserable ride for the first few hours until he got out of the snow that was still moving in.

Before they got back to the Tower this afternoon, the snow may already have started to fall. She would have to make sure that they stopped at some store with good winter items and got Wade bundled up to head home. A new pair of wool-lined gloves and a full-head fleece balaclava would help to keep him from catching a cold. That always turned Wade into a whiny baby.

Walking around her closet, she grabbed everything she figured she would need. Jeans with layered shirts, at least two socks per foot plus the exterior accoutrements should be plenty warm for the day. Reaching into what she labeled her sexy-time drawer, she closed her eyes and chose one of the only two pairs of panties on the inside. She tucked it into the shirt so that it would be a surprise until she was ready to put them on.

Turning on the shower, Vic stepped inside, resting her head against the wall while letting the water that was almost scalding run down her shoulder blades as she tried to figure out how to talk with the guys. Neither one of them had brought up about them having the grown-up talk since Thanksgiving, and now Wade had played his hand, and her time-frame was limited. The only time would have to be tonight.

Grabbing the shower pouf, she washed the sweat off as she debated what was going to happen. She was sure that the guys would want to come with them when they did the tourist thing, even though she still didn't know where Wade wanted to go, since she had forgotten to ask.

But walking around the city was _not_ the place to discuss sex. At least not in polite company. She smiled as she envisioned Bucky not having a problem doing just that. But Steve would probably be a wonderful shade of red the entire time.

Drying off, Vic stepped over to the mirror and finally looked down at her chest. Her solar plexus was indeed starting to bruise. There was a slight purple tint forming in the shape of Wade's combat boot. She knew that there was no real damage, so she wasn't worried about that. Wade had done worse years ago when he started to train her.

Luckily, there was no reason for the guys to see her bare chest anytime soon at the rate they were going, so they would never know. She could _easily_ see them freaking out.

Reaching into the shirt, she pulled out the pair of panties, smiling at whose symbol she had blindly chosen, but she knew that she would have been smiling either way. Dressing in all of the layers, she wondered if Wade had made it up to their floor yet. She hadn't even thought to knock on their doors to tell them that he was coming up to eat breakfast with them.

Braiding her hair how she had seen once on _Vikings_ , she made two long ones on the sides, she then did the remaining top hair in one large thick top braid, connecting all three at the back of her head. There was no way the wind would blow her hair everywhere with it like that. Vic wondered if she could get her hands on Bucky's hair and give him a proper warrior's braid. She could probably bribe him into it with some kisses.

Opening up the door, Victoria got one step out of the bathroom before she saw the two large soulmates standing at the foot of the bed looking right at her, obviously waiting for her to appear, but not looking like their normal happy selves.

In fact, they were doing that cute 'trying to be threatening' duel pose again with their arms crossed.

"Uh...good morning," she said not exactly sure what was going on.

It was Bucky who broke their silence.

"Good morning, Rapunzel!"

About three seconds passed as her brain worked to figure out why he would use that particular phrase before it dawned on her.

"Stalking motherfuckers!"


	40. Grown-Up Time

If it wasn't for his training, Bucky would have had a very hard time not letting his face crack as he heard Vic's first proper use of profanity leave her lips. Steve, on the other hand, was not able to stop himself, letting a single chortle out, quickly covered up by a cough. Wade, who they agreed could wait near the door in case they needed some backup, held nothing back. His gruff laughter echoing in the room for a few moments as the three of them silently peered at each other.

"I haven't been this proud of you since the _first_ time you broke a man's nose!" Wade told her before taking a hold of the door handle. "Have a nice talk, children!"

With that, Wade shut the door, leaving the three of them alone, starting his countdown of five minutes. Not wasting another second of it, Bucky walked right up to Vic, watching as her eyes got narrow, but not flinching in the least at his approach. If anything, she looked ready to argue with him.

So Bucky knew that as he wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her up, Vic's arms grabbing around his neck for support, that it was a move which she was _not_ expecting. Turning around, he barely glanced at the shocked look on Steve's face as he took her over to the bed, tossing her down onto the center of it. He then crawled right next to her, leaning down to capture her lips with his, not leaving any room for argument. His left arm crossed over her to the rest on the mattress by her side, able to stop Vic if she tried to leave him...them.

" _This_ is what you wanted to do with your five minutes?" Steve bewilderingly asked, coming over to the side of the bed, trying to distract him from Vic, but it was not going to work.

He lifted his head for only a second to say, "Yes," before returning to Vic's lips. Her skin was still slightly flushed, either from the workout or her shower.

"I can't believe you! Here I was worried you were going to make Victoria cry by yelling at her, and you just wanted to _snog_?" Steve asked, his voice a bit louder than he normally sounded.

"Yes, now leave us alone for four minutes, thirty-five seconds," he told him, now reaching down to put his left hand around Vic's waist. As their lips met back up, he pushed forward with his tongue, with Vic opening her mouth in understanding of its request. Her hands held his head, as if _he_ would try to leave _her_. He pulled her body against his, still off to her side, hoping that would help to calm him when his time was up.

Right now, there were no doubts nagging at him. He could hear Steve's suddenly irritating voice saying something, but his mind was solely focused only on the firm body which he was working to make understand how much they wanted her there.

"Buck!"

With the worst scowl he could put on his face, he broke their kiss and turned his head to face Steve, seeing his best friend take a step back, making his pride jump a bit at being able to cause that.

"I'd rather be _kissed_ than be _yelled_ at, if I get a _vote_ ," Vic commented with an amusing tone to her voice, which then helped to sober him.

He turned back to her, dropping the look, only wanting to frighten Steve so that he could finish with his three minutes fifty-three seconds. Dropping his head so that it rested on her shoulder, he began to mumble a string of curses in Russian at knowing that his five minute time limit was on hold...but only for now.

"You expect me to kiss that _potty mouth?_ " he heard Vic ask, having forgotten that she would understand him.

Lifting his head, he grinned at her saying, "Every damn day, darlin', numerous times," he told her before taking a final kiss, at least for the immediate future. Rolling to his side, he put about a foot of space between him and Vic, hoping that it was enough.

"Now that _someone_ has his _hormones_ in check, can we actually _talk_?" Steve asked, moving to sit on the other side of Vic, on his normal sleeping spot of her bed. He wondered if Steve was still the slightest bit scared of him. Pushing himself up towards the headboard, so that he was back in his own spot, he saw that Steve didn't even flinch. Oh, well, it was fun while it lasted.

"Alight, let the _yelling_ commence," Vic stated while twisting so that she was sitting up and facing the both of them from the foot of the bed.

"Victoria, we are not _actually_ going to _yell_ at you," Steve started off, "but after _overhearing_ you and Wade this morning, we could not put off having at least part of our 'grown-up' talk with you anymore."

"So I'm guessing that you heard probably _most_ of the conversation since you used the Rapunzel reference," she said crossing her legs with her head resting on her propped up right hand as she sat between them, so close to their outstretched feet. He could imagine the look Steve would give him if he rubbed her thigh with his foot, but he so wanted to. She did look like someone about to be reprimanded by parents for disobeying the house rules.

"We think so. But the _most important_ part of all of that conversation was the fact that you are _worried_ that we would _ever_ want you to leave," Steve told her.

"This is the part where he talks your ears off about how we will never tire of you, whereas with my way, I was determined to show you," he told her, seeing a smile creep over Vic's lips that were slight flushed from his rough kisses.

" _That's_ what you were doing?" Steve asked looking over at him.

"My way was more _fun_ ," he told Steve while smirking before looking back at Vic. He heard Steve give a loud sigh of annoyance.

"It _was_ ," Vic stated, earning her a stern look from Steve, to which she crossed her arms defiantly and said, "What? I was surprised that you didn't join us."

He could see Steve's mouth open, wanting to throw something back at her, but nothing came out.

"You're going to _break_ him eventually," he pointedly told Vic, jerking a thumb at Steve, "but the fact remains that there is no reason for you to even _consider_ the idea that we would ever not want you with us. We have literally been through different hells to get to here, so that we _could_ be with you. There is _nothing_ that _anyone_ can _say_ or _do_ that will _ever_ change that."

"What he said," Steve finally contributed coming back to his senses. Then mumbling, "This was so much easier in my head."

"You understand that I have no _rational_ reason to think that you would, but it's the same as you," she said indicating him, "being worried that I would not want to be with you because of your arm or history."

He actually had no response to that comment, making him feel a bit like Steve suddenly. Vic had never been hesitant around him when it came to affection, so he knew that she was right. But he still had that nagging worry that everything would change when it was finally time for true intimacy.

"So, are we all on the same page that _none_ of us will _ever_ go anywhere for fear that they are _not_ wanted?" Steve sternly asked, wanting answers from both of them, he could tell.

"Agreed," both he and Vic said at the same time without the slightest hesitation.

"Jinx," Vic suddenly yelled out, as he realized what had happened.

"Not…"

He then watched her project her entire body toward him, her fist coming into contact with his right arm as she landed between them. She then fell into a fit of laughter as she lay between the two of them. "I won."

Reaching over, he grabbed around her waist with both hands and began to tickle her as punishment, causing her to laughingly scream as she squirmed so nicely in his hands. After a few moments, there was a pounding on the door.

"That doesn't fucking sound like _talking_ , and I'm getting _hungry_ , so hurry up!" Wade's voice traveled through the door, making him stop and Vic to take control of herself as she went to sit back up, but he pressed onto her shoulder to keep her lying down, needing to know something.

Reaching to her shirt hem, he took a hold, starting to lift as Vic dropped her head back onto her pillow, not trying to stop him. She knew what he wanted to examine. Both he and Steve looked down at the purple bruise that was forming from the kick that had sent her flying.

"I'm fine," she said after giving them time to see it before pulling her shirt back down. At least she had let them see, because she would not have been able to stop him from making sure that she was fine. "Wade just beat some sense into me, is all. It's not like _that_ was the first time."

Vic them moved back to the spot she had been in, rolling her hand indicating that she was ready to continue the real discussion, not her bruise. Between her spring up earlier and the leap Vic had just done, she sure didn't seem injured. It must have just looked worse than it really was. He looked to Steve for him to continue the talk.

"As for when our relationship does become public knowledge, I and the public relations department that Tony set up for the Avengers, will handle all media requests for information. You will never have to talk with anyone about the three of us," Steve told her.

He turned to Steve and asked, "You don't think I can handle talking with the media?"

"I think that you would give a black eye to anyone who say anything negative about our relationship," Steve straight out told him.

"Of course I would," he said, as if there could possibly be any other answer.

"And that's why _I_ will handle the media," Steve said as he turned to look at Vic.

"They are not going to be nice. They're going to be cruel, to both of ya. Not like you have had before, it will be worse," Vic's voice sounded almost like it was slightly cracking, telling him that this upset her more than the previous topic of leaving.

His mind went back to the one news article that almost drove him to take drastic measures. It had been right after he came to the Tower, as Wanda was just starting to help him. The writer had said that he had deserved a bullet to the head for all the 'evil deeds' he had done and that Steve had been 'a coward' for not having done it when he had the chance. Back then he may have sometimes agreed that maybe a bullet would have been best, but calling Steve a coward was what made him actually look up where the journalist lived while considering paying him a visit.

Nothing permanent, maybe just a few broken fingers so he couldn't write for a while.

"We will deal with anything that we need to, but more than likely, we'll just ignore critics," he said sounding confidant, but hoping that they actually could.

"They are going to bully ya'll," Vic said still sounding worried.

"It will be like old times," Steve told her with a smile. "Except this time, Bucky can't beat them up."

"Says who?" he responded looking over at Steve, remembering the numerous times he had to defend him in school, and even afterwards. Now, they would be defending Vic. Nobody would hurt her with them around.

"Victoria," Steve said sounding serious again, "care to tell us about what happened earlier this year?"

Now her shoulders slumped down a bit, knowing that there was no escaping this part of the conversation.

"I was walking home one night after leaving Mike's Gym. A guy grabbed my hoodie, pulling me into an alleyway a few blocks from home. He had a knife in his hand, thinking that I would be scared. It was only a four-inch folding blade, nothing special. When he told me to strip, I grabbed his wrist and twisted it until he dropped the knife, kneed him in the groin, and when he bent over without falling, I kicked his kneecap, busting it for being a pinhead," Vic sounding as if she were listing errands, shrugging her shoulder as if that was all.

"Did you call the cops?" Steve asked, with Bucky thinking that a police report would be a good way to find him and hurt him some more for touching her.

"No, I just left him in the alley crying after tossing his blade into the sewer drain and went home. I needed a shower and I was hungry," she plainly said, as if the dangerous situation she had been in didn't matter.

"I feel like I should be angry that you don't seem upset about it, but I'm more relieved that you were fine," admitting his feelings behind her story aloud.

"I may not have the training that everyone else in the Tower has, but I can take care of myself. Wade made sure of that years ago," she told them.

"Actually, you could probably go head-to-head with Tony _without_ his suit on," Steve told her with a small smile.

"Since you brought up the topic, there is one thing I may as well mention now," Vic said holding out her left arm and turning it over. He saw for the first time that there was a thin, small item implanted under her skin. " _This_ was another condition of Wade's years ago. It a type of birth control that last years at a time. He said that it was in case I _couldn't_ stop someone, so that I wouldn't have to worry about any consequences."

Bucky stared at the item before reaching out to rub his finger over the area. He had not previously noticed it but the location was out of the way.

"This is the second one I've had, and I had to have a new one put in this past spring. It will last…just over three more years unless it's removed," she said sounding a bit hesitant, but putting her arm back down. He never conceived of an item being able to do that. He still found himself astonished at modern technology sometimes.

He looked over at Steve to see if he wanted to start the next topic, but saw that he was already turning slightly red at just the thought so Bucky decided to just jump in.

"Are you really still a virgin?"

Vic's hands went to cover her own face as she quickly passed Steve in the red-face department. Even before she answered, he knew the answer from the groan she gave out, but he needed her to say it.

"Yes," she answered but not removing her hands from her eyes.

"You've never slept with a boyfriend?" Steve shyly asked trying to participate in the conversation.

"I've never _had_ a boyfriend," Vic mumbled still hiding her face. Steve turned his head to look at him, as if they had both not heard correctly.

" _Never_?" Bucky then asked hesitantly.

"It's not like anyone was interested in me during school, and definitely vice-versa," she mumbled just loud enough for them to hear, which he unfortunately understood given her history. "Afterwards, I just traveled. I didn't care about having a boyfriend knowing how they would react to my soulmark," Vic told them finally dropping her hands into her lap, moving her legs to lay crossed in front of her, but not making eye contact.

"Surely you've had to at least _kissed_ someone before us?" Bucky asked curious after thinking about all the times they had kissed and touched each other, along with all the other nice things...

"Nope," Vic sighed, "And I don't count pecks on the cheek."

"When we kissed in the stairway at the museum," Steve began sounding bewildered, "you're saying that was your first real kiss _ever_?"

Vic finally looked up at Steve, telling him with a bit of a coy smile, "Yeah. I mentioned that it my very first date."

Steve was looking at her a bit shocked now that he took in the real meaning of the phrase he seemed to remember her using. Hearing that, he could easily see how Steve thought that Vic had meant _their_ very first date.

"And what about under the arbor?" Bucky asked her.

"You were my second, not as in kiss, Steve and I did that a few times, but the second guy ever," she admitted glancing at him. He found it strange that anyone in this day and age could not have had physical contact with another person before and kiss like that, which actually made him curious.

"Then how is it that you are so good with kissing?" he asked seeing her turn a lovely red again.

Vic hesitated for a moment before say, "Because I've watched a _lot_ of videos and movies."

"You learned to kiss like that from videos?" Steve asked amazed. Taking a deep breath and then sighing, Vic gave her answer.

"Yes, a lot of different _types_ of videos," Vic's face turning roguish, her eyebrows raising to let them know that there was more to that simple statement. "I've studied how to do many things. Even if I haven't had the chance to perform them."

Now Steve was entirely beetroot colored, whereas he had a wide grin on his face at her admission. Vic smirked at him while shaking her head at the look he was giving.

"What? I didn't say anything. But, if I'm getting your meaning correctly, _why_ would you watch so many _types_ of videos?" Bucky asked in all seriousness.

"So that I would know how to do whatever ya'll might have been interested in doing," sounding calm and logical with her answer, not reluctant at all. "After Wade had the birds-and-bees talk with me, I knew that I didn't want to be…unprepared…or surprised by anything. There's a lot of different _ways_ out there to do coitus."

"Wade had _the_ _talk_ with you?" Steve asked skipping over the other, more interesting, part of her admission...at least in his opinion.

"Yeah, he did. _That_ was awkward. Almost every time I tried questioning him, he either mumbled, stuttered, or walked away. When he found out that I'd never seen another female naked, he took me to the strip club he worked the door at. Then later on after working there for a bit, when Trixie Cream found out that I had never seen a nude guy before she took me to a male strip club," Vic told them seeming much more comfortable talking with them now. "Wade also said I needed to have a plan in case one of my soulmates was female, telling me the boy scout motto: be prepared."

With that they both let out a round of laughter that had them almost falling off of the bed.

"That's the best use of the motto I've ever heard," Steve told her after his own laugh had calmed down.

"So, then, does that mean that we are ready to go eat? Because Wade wants to do tourist stuff afterwards."

"We already told him that we're going to the diner to eat breakfast. As for touring, can we join you?" Bucky asked trying to not sound needy with wanting to be with her right now. Their talk had been very liberating for all of them, he figured.

"I'd be disappointed if ya'll didn't," she smiled as she made a move to go toward the edge of the bed. Stretching over to where Vic's leg was, he latched onto her ankle, using it to pull her body back towards him, causing her to fall onto her back.

Looking over at Steve, he told him, "You still owe me three minutes fifty-three seconds."

Vic started to laugh as he pulled her further under him, still being careful of her possibly sensitive mid-section.

"I'll let Wade know we're _almost_ ready to go," Steve told them leaning down to take a long kiss from Vic before he got up off of the bed.

"Next time, you're joining us," she called out to Steve as he made it to the door, closing it behind him as he shook his head at them, but he had seen the smile there.

"Now, where were we?" he asked without actually waiting for an answer as he covered her mouth with his, determined to make her lips flushed once again. Positioning himself next to Vic, she reached over to take a hold of his right hand. Letting her guide him, she placed his hand over her stomach, but then she continued to move it further downward.

It was when he felt the thin, soft fabric that he had to break to their kiss to make sure that he had figured out what it was. Glancing down, he saw that Vic had somehow unbuttoned and unzipped her jeans just enough so that Steve's shield was taunting him.

"Sorry, not yours today," she whispered in his ear. "But, tell me if you can feel a difference..."

Looking Vic in the eye to make sure she was serious, she gave a simple nod of approval. Reaching down, he slid his hand over the fabric, touching the shield, causing a lovely moan to pass her lips. Seeing her open mouth, he covered it with his own as his hand continued to move over the smooth symbol covering her mons.

How he wanted to slide his hand further down, to turn that moan into a scream, but he only had three minutes, ten seconds left. He was not going to rush such a pleasurable moment for her, especially since it would be her first, so he was content with where he was. He was going to have to talk that Punk into asking her out sooner than they had been planning.

When their time was almost up, he crawled slightly down the bed before running his tongue from her panty line, over her bellybutton then still upwards as he lifted her shirt so that he was able to give her poor bruise a sympathy kiss. The moan from his action was pure desire, bring a smirking smile to his lips as he looked up at Vic's face, totally flushed with want.

"That was so mean," she whined.

"That's for not wearing my panties," he told her as he reached over and pulled her zipper up before hooking her button.

* * *

"How did everything go in there?" Wade asked him when he made it into the den, finding the man sitting on the couch with the news going on the television.

"Much better than I expected," he admitted, taking a seat in the chair so he could see down the hallway. "They'll be out in just over three minutes."

Wade gave him a strange look, saying, "That's a very strange amount of time."

"I promised Bucky the could have the first five minutes once Victoria was ready, but I interrupted him with wanting to _talk_ with her," knowing that he was probably blushing at admitting such a thing to the man. "He thought _showing_ her our intentions would be better. Victoria mentioned that you had to explain the birds-and-bees to her. She really didn't know anything when you met her?"

"Nope. It was a few days after she moved in. She found a _magazine_ of mine and asked what it was for. Her parents had never told her anything. That's when I started calling her my virgin church mouse. She was too innocent to be out on her own. I don't know how she made it a year before finding me," Wade told him. "But the fact that she did told me that she was a survivor. I still remember the day I came home from work and found her watching an adult movie in the den, taking damn notes. Instead of being embarrassed, she started to question me. I turned around and walked right back out of the door for a few hours."

"She is truly unique," Steve admitted trying to picture Wade embarrassed by Victoria.

"As long as the three of you are in agreement before I leave," Wade told him. "I know how stubborn Vic can be sometimes…well, maybe all the time, but I don't think that she actually _means_ to be. Ask her about anything, and she'll tell you, but she has to take the request seriously. But if you don't ask, it may as well never have happened. Then there is the fact that something that should bother her will not, but something that shouldn't will. Today was the first time I've known her to be scared about anything. I have known she was different since most females would never have agreed to come stay with me or learn self-defense, but she just did it without question. It still worries me when I think that someone else may have found her living in a tent and what they could have done to her. But overall, Victoria is strangely a very happy-go-lucky girl. A bit too much like Holly Golightly, if you ask me."

"We are finding that everything you just mentioned describes Victoria perfectly, and we wouldn't have her any other way. And I promise you, we will both protect her to the best of our abilities, which are pretty high," he said which earned a chuckle from Wade, but not bothering to mention that he didn't get the Holly reference. He would ask Victoria about it later.

"There's no doubt about that," he said as they both looked to the hallway where footsteps were finally coming from. Victoria, with Bucky latched to her waist, grinned as she saw him, heading over to the chair and putting her arms around his neck, giving his cheek a kiss. They were both already wearing their coats, while his and Wade's were on the island. He tucked his standard baseball cap on his head.

"They're going to have to lead since I've never been to this diner," Victoria told Wade. "Usually I cook while giving the two of them lessons."

"Just remember what I said about her cooking for you...watch your guts," Wade said standing up, while Victoria released his neck so that he also could. As soon as he was standing, she latched onto his hand with hers. He grabbed his coat as they passed by, with Wade doing the same.

"Is there anything in particular that you wanted to do today?" Bucky asked Wade as the group walked over to the elevator.

"I've never been on a subway train, and I had an uncle that served on the Intrepid, so I wouldn't mind seeing it, if you're good with that," Wade told them as they got onto the elevator.

"We can take the subway to the pier instead of walking in the cold," Steve told him as they rode down the elevator.

* * *

He watched as the group chatted as they made their way out of the lobby of the Tower and turned to head down the sidewalk. Taking out a cellphone, he typed in:

_Subject V spotted with Target 1 and Target 2_

* * *

When they arrived at the diner, the hostess recognized him and Bucky, smiling at them. They took a moment to remove their heavy coats. Glancing around the diner, he was glad to see that the early morning crowd seemed to have already cleared out, so there were tables available.

"Good morning, your table is ready," the hostess said, indicating for them to follow her. Bucky looked at him as they began to walk, wondering what she had meant. As they rounded the corner towards the back of the seating area, they could see the red haired woman who had once again invited herself to breakfast.

"Do we even want to know how you knew we were coming here?" Steve asked as they reached the table.

"Probably not," was all Natasha said as Wade slid into the booth seat next to her.

"Good morning, Camellia," his smile wide at seeing her, picking up her hand to give the back of it a kiss. The fact that Nat didn't stop him, surprise him just a bit.

Since the booth was large enough, the three of them were able to sit on the same side. They didn't have much wiggle room, but none of them would complain. He slid in first to be against the wall, keeping his side of Victoria, giving Bucky the outside to guard.

"Alright, it will _always_ be too early for that," Victoria said as she looked over at Nat and Wade. He knew that it was all in good fun, but he found her attitude about it funny. "Should I point out that Wade is scared of spiders?"

"Really?" Natasha asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yep, but you're one spider I wouldn't mind finding in my bed," Wade smoothly answered, winking at Nat, as he picked up a menu. Victoria groaned at his smooth rebuttal.

"You know, you opened the door for that one," Bucky told her while Steve passed the two of them menus that the hostess had left. The next few minutes, they all were quiet as food took over all of their thoughts.

After they had given the waitress their orders, Victoria asked Natasha, "Does this mean you're coming sightseeing with us today?"

"If there's room," she answered looking around to see if they would have any problem with her joining then, which he knew they didn't.

"I have two free arms, unlike Vic," Wade told her with a wink. "I've never felt so much like a third wheel in a group of four."

"Then I will," Nat smiling at his comment.

They had just taken their usual places without thinking about how Wade must feel walking next to them. Maybe having Natasha with them would be a good thing.

* * *

Close to three hours later, they were walking through the bowels of the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid, looking at all of the memorabilia displays that had been set up in the different sections. He had never been on a carrier except the modern ones of SHIELD's. These were much more cramped when it came to the hallways as well as bunks. He remembered traveling on the requisitioned civilian ship that had transported him and the girls in their show to England. Luckily it had much larger quarters, otherwise he would have had to sleep on the floor.

The group was slightly scattered around one of the crew's spaces used for downtime. He saw Victoria make her way over to Bucky, quietly telling him something before she turned to walk over to him.

"Follow me," she said taking his hand and leading him out of the room and down a corridor. Turning down a small one and then rounding the corner, finding that it dead-ended at a locked covered floor hatch.

Victoria pulled out her pocket watch, checking the time before saying, "We've got five minutes…" then slipped it back into her pocket. She then took the baseball cap off of his head and wrapping her arms around his neck, pulling him into a kiss. He leaned his back on the wall, allowing Vic to rest on him this time.

"By the way, care to guess whose underwear got chosen at random this morning?" she whispered in his ear, her warm breath caressing it nicely.

Pulling back just a bit, his eyes began to bulge a bit as she unzipped the top of her jeans just enough so that he could see the outline of his shield. Seeing it made him grow a bit harder than he already had been, wanting to pull her jeans down all the way and touch them, touch her. As if hearing his thoughts, Victoria took his left hand in hers, bring it forward so that it rested upon his symbol.

Moving to continue kissing him, while holding his hand in place by his wrist, he felt her give the same rotating hip motion he remembered her doing in the closet last week. But now, his hand was being ground between their two bodies, nestle between his firm cock and her groin. She held him like that for a few minutes as they both took pleasure from the motion. Eventually, they broke apart, both needing to take a breath.

"You are _definitely_ going to break me," Steve told Victoria as he watched her zipping her pants back up with a smile. Spinning her in his arms when she was done, he made it so that _she_ was now pinned to the wall. Feeling like getting a bit of payback, he took her wrists into his hands, then moved them so they were resting in the small of her back. Pulling her towards him as her legs were parted with him between them, Steve pressed her hips onto his solid shaft.

Giving a hard upward grind, he was rewarded with a loud wanton sound from Victoria. Needing to keep anyone from coming and investigating the noise, he captured her open mouth with his own, drowning out any further sounds. As their tongues roamed, he gave a few more grinds, enjoying keeping her from being too loud. Backing off from her hips and releasing her mouth, Victoria gave a whine at the loss.

"I think _that_ was starting to break _me_ ," she panted out, which brought a smile to his face.

For the last minute, they just enjoyed gently rubbing up against each other, hearing other visitors talking as they passed the nearby hallway, not know they were there. It would be so easy for them to be caught like teenagers making out, but it was a bit thrilling.

Now, he knew why Bucky had given him _the stare_ earlier when he had interrupted them during his time. The two of them were definitely going to plan _the_ date for soon. He had wanted them to wait an appropriate time, like he had been raised, but being with Victoria was driving both of them crazy. But he was happy with the way she was and wouldn't have her change for anything.


	41. Who Wants Ice Cream?

By the end of the day, their small group was chatting away like old friends. Vic found out early on that both Steve and Bucky had recognized that Wade would not hold back on telling them about anything concerning her. And they used it to their advantage too. They had probably heard about most of her time living with Wade, as well as stories she had told him during her travels. It was so cute when her warriors angrily grumbled as Wade told them about a fight they had been in together. She pointed out that it was their own fault for asking.

Wade, on the other hand, had hung onto Natasha's side most of the day. He wasn't doing his true flirting, but he was definitely having fun messing with her. Unfortunately, she was giving it right back to him. If she had to guess, they were testing each other, in the strangest competition she had ever seen. She knew that Nat had been trained to seduce and tease, but Wade had worked around strippers for years, whose job it was to do the same, so he was immune to it by now. It was almost a contest to see who was going to break first. If she noticed it going too far, she would get Steve to intervene...it would just be creepy to have them together.

They had walked about half way back to the Tower before slipping into a restaurant for lunch. For almost two hours, they had sat at the large booth eating, but mostly talking. She had heard most of Wade's war stories years ago, but the three of them were fascinated by hearing new ones from someone outside of their group. It reminded her of how she and Rhodey had talked last week, hearing his War Machine stories. Wade had seen years of actions and had lots of stories about some of the mission drops that he had done, which they were enjoying hearing.

Wade had found Steve's tale about how he had jumped out of the plane without a parachute a bit reckless and had actually scolded him for doing such a crazy maneuver. Bucky and Nat had silently sat back and watched the show. There were not a lot of people brave enough to reprimand Captain America. She had seen at that point Nat had her phone out, casually filming off to the side, probably to show Tony, Clint, and Bruce, and she was _definitely_ going to ask for a copy later.

What she had found amusing were Natasha's stories because of how she verbally redacted information to leave out either names or places so that she was able to tell them. There were a few that she had done with Steve, but most seemed to always involve Clint. She knew a bit about their history, but as Vic listened she could tell that they had a deep friendship. Except for Wade, she had never had a real friend, just people that she knew for short periods of time. But over the past week, Vic had begun to imagine having that kind of friendship for the first time. And after their earlier conversation on the bed, it looked like she was here permanently...which brought a smile to her face.

Vic did notice that Bucky didn't share like the other three, but she knew that it was probably because most of his dealt with HYDRA missions. When she noticed a certain look cross over his face, she would make sure to either take a hold of his hand, or at least wrap her foot around his leg, depending on which was easier to get to. But there had been many stories that Steve told about their time together working with the Howling Commandos. Even if Bucky didn't bring them up, Steve proudly shared the numerous times when Bucky had saved him. Wade had grown up hearing secondhand stories of them from his father and uncle, who had both been in the war and served with men who had seen them in action, so she knew hearing them from Steve was a treat.

Now, they were walking back to the Tower, Nat, Wade, and Steve in the lead still trading stories while she and Bucky walked together, her arm wrapped around his, drawing off as much body heat from him as she could against the cold wind. She actually found it strange to not have both of them surrounding her, but it was nice to have a bit of alone time with each of them.

"You were pretty quiet at lunch," she simply said, leaving it open for him to talk about if he wanted. They went about half a block before he decided to speak.

"My stories aren't from the good-guy's stand point," he simply said. Victoria knew that he may be right.

"But Nat shared some stories from her time with the K.G.B. How would yours be any different?" she asked leaning a bit more protectively on to his arm.

"They just are," he sighed.

"That's a vague answer," she said running her hand down his arm until it slipped into his coat pocket to find his hand, wrapping her fingers around his. "Are you worried about what Steve would think?"

Bucky was silent for a few steps before grunting an agreeable response.

"I've noticed that the group likes to share stories a lot. So then I'm guessing that you have probably _never_ joined in," then she tried asking. "Did you want to share?"

"No," he answered giving her hand a soft squeeze.

"Alright then," she said accepting his answer. "The next time they digress into _who has the better story_ , how about we go somewhere and do something else?"

Bucky then looked over at her with a smile on his face, his lips doing that adorable thing that he had perfected, and giving his eyebrows a few quick raises.

"Yes, miscreant, _that_ included," she said reaching around with her other hand behind her and giving his butt cheek a smack. But just how long until they finally did… _that_. Both of them had definitely enjoyed seeing the panties earlier.

Maybe the two of them needed a _harder_ push. Looking just up the street she noticed an ice cream parlor. An idea then came to her. "Detour."

Bucky looked to where she was pointing, shaking his head.

"You do realized that it's not even forty degrees out, it's wintertime, _and_ those are snow clouds moving in over our heads?" he asked her.

"That just means it won't melt quickly," she smiled at him before giving a quick single whistle to the group ahead of them. The three of them looked back at her and then ahead of them to the parlor that they were almost at. Stopping they gave the two of them time to catch up.

"Who's in?" she asked.

"But it's cold," Nat tried pointing out while Wade just shook his head. Steve on the other hand seemed interested.

"Wimps," she said as she grabbed Steve's hand to pull him inside with her and Bucky. There was not a line which she was glad for. Escorting them over to the counter to see the flavors inside of the cooler, Vic said, "I guess a lot of people agree with the wimps out there."

As they began to look over the different flavors, she noticed looks going between the two of them.

"What?" she asked curious about their reactions.

"What kind of flavors are these? Who eats blue ice cream?" Steve asked looking at the selection of unique items to use as mixtures.

"Neither of ya have been to an ice cream parlor since coming to the Tower?" Vic pointlessly asked knowing the answer.

"No, it's not really something that a grown man does by himself," Bucky then supplied.

"Really? How _modern thinking_ of ya'll," she snarked, gripping his arm tighter. "Just look over the flavors and choose something, and if either of ya go with plain vanilla or chocolate, you can walk back without me."

As they looked over the choices, Victoria went ahead and got the server to make her up what she considered a good combination of sweet cream with raspberries and almonds. When he asked her cup or cone, she grinned at remembering her original idea for coming in here. Vic decided that they needed a bit of teasing after knowing how eager they both had been this morning and maybe some incentive to take that final step, so she got a cone.

Steve finally ordered birthday cake with strawberries and rainbow sprinkles, which she found slightly humorous. Bucky went with dark chocolate, marshmallows and fudge mixed in. Both of them got theirs in cups, which she found funny as they had not yet noticed her with the cone.

Stepping back out onto the street, Wade and Nat started walking ahead of them talking while they walked together. Vic had gotten a couple of _licks_ off of her cone before she heard the coughing sound coming from Steve. He had _finally_ noticed. Bucky on the other hand hadn't, and she would have put money down on that he would have been the first one to.

"What's wrong with him?" Bucky asked as Steve turned away from her to try and compose himself.

"I have _no_ idea," she sweetly told him before taking another seductive swirling lick off of the cold treat in her hand, looking him right in the eye.

The sudden change of expression told her he figured it out.

"Victoria," Steve mumbled from close by, "That is not a _nice_ thing to do."

"Really? Do you mean that it's not a nice thing to do _ever,_ or is it just not a nice thing to do _in public_?"

"Out of all of the teasing, this _has_ to be the worst," Bucky had a focused intensity aimed at her lips.

"Trust me, I _can_ do worse, but, whose _fault_ is this anyways? Because if I remember correctly, _someone_ mentioned a proper _date_ , but so far, _nobody's_ asked me out on one," she started to move forward, towards where Wade and Nat were waiting at the street corner talking.

She didn't immediately hear the two of them walking behind her, but there was no mistaking the quieted harsh tones of talking coming from behind her. Just before she reached the corner, the two massive bodies appeared at her sides.

"Victoria, if you do not have anything planned for tomorrow night, we would both like to escort you for a date out on the town," Steve asked in his most proper voice.

Now, _she_ had a smile plastered on her face that made her cheeks slightly hurt.

"I had _no plans_ at all!" she told them, turning around to look at the two of them as she walked backwards, giving the cone another _lick_.

* * *

"So, what was that about?" Natasha purposely slowing her pace so the two of them began to slightly drop behind the three guys now talking about growing up in Brooklyn.

"Let's just say that I _finally_ will get to use that dress," she said, taking the last bite of the ice cream cone.

"They asked you out for the date?" she asked as they watched the men laughing at something.

"Well, I did decide that I was going to have to take matters into my own hands to get them to. I have a feeling that if I hadn't pressed the issue, they would have stayed fallen back on how they were raised, and we all would have suffered for _months_ ," Vic said feeling much better than she had a little while ago.

"That's probably true. I'm not sure about Bucky though. He used to be quite a ladies man," Nat supplied pulling her attention to him directly.

"He wouldn't do anything without Steve. No matter how much he wanted to," she was very confident of her statement. "They needed the push though. We've all waited long enough."

They walked only a couple of steps before Nat suddenly put a hand out, stopping her from walking.

"Are you saying what I _think_ you are?" she asked with a shocked look on her face, something Vic had never seen so far.

"I need an _actual_ question, Nat," Vic asked for clarification just to make sure she was really asking her. Looking at the guys, they had made it to the next corner, turning and watching the two of them. Vic gave a smile and held up a finger to indicate for them to wait a moment, knowing that Nat was not going to let this go.

In a lower tone for some privacy, Nat asked with a smile, "Vic, are you a _virgin_?"

"Why is _everyone_ hung up on that _today_? First Wade, then the guys, now _you_."

"So you _are_ ," Nat said, a strange expression on her face. Nat looked at the guys, then back at her. "So _they_ know?"

"Yes, we talked this morning."

Nat took a breath before her face changed back into the neutral expression she normally wore. Nat then started walking towards where they were waiting, shooing them with her hand to let them know to start moving. She then wrapped her arm around Vic's, holding her close so they could talk privately as they walked down the street, passing through the horde of Christmas shoppers.

"Do you want to talk about what's going to happen or anything? Do you have any questions?" Nat quietly asked in a very low voice.

"No, I don't think so. I've done a lot of research on the topic."

* * *

Steve looked back at the two women walking awfully close together, whispering back and forth to each other. He was pretty sure there were a few hand gestures that he would consider on the lude side, from both of them. There were times when he saw surprised expressions on Nat's face, which did not happen often. He'd work with her enough to know that it took a lot to get to her.

"So what the _hell_ are they talking about?" Wade asked noticing the two of them talking also. "Some of those damn hand gestures would shock a porno star."

"Probably about our big date tomorrow night," Steve smiled as they continued towards the Tower. They had explained to Wade this morning before their talk that they had been waiting to ask Victoria on the 'big' date, not wanting to rush anything with her.

Wade looked at the two of the curiously, then asked, "What finally made the two of you ask?"

"Vic was doing this thing with her ice cream cone. I have a feeling that _it_ was the only reason that she really wanted the thing," Bucky said sounding like he had been thinking about watching her tongue again.

"Ah, yes…Chastity," Wade said sounding sure of himself but he wasn't sure about what Wade meant.

"Chastity?" Bucky asked for clarification.

"She was one of the strippers from the bar that Vic worked at with me. She did this thing on stage where she would take an ice cream cone and use it as a prop while she danced. But it was the thing with her tongue that got her the most tips."

"Yep, that's probably _exactly_ what she did," Steve informed him fondly remembering the move.

"Chastity was one of the girls that Vic used to get _help_ from when she had a question," Wade said as the front doors to the Tower finally came into view. "So what you just saw was just _one_ of the things she told her about."

"And we thought the teasing was going to kill us," Bucky said looking back again at the two women so he glanced also. They were about half a block back now, still conversing privately, with Nat smiling every once in a while, which kind of worried him.

As they reached the Tower ready to open the doors to walk inside, he noticed a woman off to the side of the main doors, who had been watching them as they approached, start to move quickly towards them.

"Captain Rogers," she called out to get his attention, even though he had already spotted her. Bucky and Wade stopped moving forward as he did the same, turning to face the woman.

"Julie Thompson, reporter for TMZ," she said coming to a stop right before him with her phone in her hand. Just hearing that gave him pause, so he signaled Bucky with his hand behind his back, using the old signs they had used during the war. With the simple gesture, Bucky moved back behind the outside of the door, taking care of what Steve had silently asked of him.

"Yes, Miss Thompson," he said with a smile. He may as well see what they already knew so they could prepare.

"We have recently learned that there is someone new living in the Avenger's Tower. Have the Avengers taken on a new member?" she asked holding out her cellphone with a recording app running.

"No, Miss Thompson, we have not taken on a new member. If we had, there would have been a press briefing about it," he could honestly say.

"Our source tells us that there has been a new female living in the Avenger's Tower, who has had direct contact with multiple members of the Avengers. Is she a new candidate in training?" she then asked.

"No, Miss Thompson, we have no new potential candidates living at the Tower," he said trying to sound bored hoping that it would help her to lose interest.

"Then, is it possible that she is a _soulmate_ to one of the Avengers?"

Damn, he thought, hoping to not have her actually ask that. Here he needed to be careful with his wording.

"As of right now, I am only inclined to say that if that she was, that it would be a private, personal matter...not one that would be publicly announced so that paparazzi could hound any of my teammates the same way they have done for other celebrities in the past."

He saw the woman's face change, taking offense at the nicely worded accusation he had given, meaning it for her without specifically saying it.

Opening the door, Wade and Bucky walked inside with him following, giving the reporter a simple nod of his head goodbye.

"What the hell just happened?" Wade asked as they stepped inside of the Tower's main lobby.

"It seems that somehow the press has found out about Vic living here," Bucky said leading them over to the side entrance. Following the rounded lobby walls, they found Nat and Victoria waiting inside after having been directed to use the side door by Bucky's signals to Nat while he talked with the reporter. It seemed to have worked since she had not headed to Victoria directly to question her.

"Want to tell us why we had to hide?" Natasha asked when they got near. He could see a bit of worry on Victoria's face at knowing that something was not right.

"We just got intercepted at the front doors by a reporter asking about Victoria. Not by name, but asking about the new female living in the Tower," Steve told them as they continued to round the area to take the long way back around to the private elevator.

"That didn't take long," Victoria said sounding a bit gloomier than he liked to hear her ever.

Nat pulled out her phone and started checking on something as they waited for the elevator to get there.

"There have not been any alerts on the algorithm that I set up to keep an eye out for something like this," Nat informed them as they stepped onto the elevator.

"What does that mean?" Bucky then asked stepping to Victoria's other side, which Steve had already done on his side.

"That means that someone must have informed them _directly_ about Victoria being here," Nat said putting her phone away.

"Why would someone do that?" Victoria then asked but he saw a change in her almost as soon as she said it.

"Someone is trying to find information about you and hoped to use the reporter to get it," Steve told her honestly. They had just discussed this happening early this morning but he had hoped to have at least a few weeks' time before it _actually_ happened. Even a few more days would have been nice. "Why do the work yourself when you can have an army of reporters doing it for you?"

"Oh, well, it was nice while it lasted. So what now?" Victoria comments mirrored his own thought while looking at him and Bucky, her arms wrapped around each of theirs.

"Wait...since when do you have an algorithm to track Vic on the internet?" Bucky then asked Nat. Steve noticed a look pass between the two women. Now that he thought about it, Victoria had not seemed surprised at Natasha's announcement either.

"Since the day you three met at the park," Nat told them as the elevator stopped at her apartment level, letting her off. Without saying anything else, Nat waved at Wade with a smile and stared to walk away as the doors closed, heading to their floor next. She didn't care at all that they now knew and would probably be upset at having this done behind their backs.

"You knew about this?" Steve then asked Victoria.

"Yes, Nat said that she would set it up so that we didn't have to deal with this so soon after meeting," she told them as the doors opened to their floor.

"And you didn't mention it to us because…?" Bucky then asked her before he could.

"I didn't want ya'll worrying about this happening, and for the past week or so, ya'll haven't, have you?" Victoria casually said walking in the den, starting to take her coat off and heading for her room. "I'll be back in a minute."

The three of them just watched as Victoria walked away to put away her coat.

"Like I said earlier, some things don't bother her the way they should," Wade told them taking his own coat off before sitting down on the chair. "She was content to hold all of it in until it happened."

"Vic is right though, unfortunately," Bucky admitted, getting his attention. "Until this morning, I hadn't even considered the field day the press is going to have. I was just enjoying being together. I have a feeling that you were also."

Steve took a seat on the couch as he considered what both of them had said.

"She was more concerned about us keeping from worrying and having them harassing us," Steve figured.

"While she held in the fear that they would actually find out about her," Bucky supplied also sitting down at the other end of the couch.

Victoria then walked out from the bedroom, having changed into something more comfortable, but not as revealing as they had grown used to seeing her in. He figured it was due to her still seeing Wade as a fatherly figure, even with the blunt topics that they spoke about.

"So, any request for dinner?" she happily asked taking her normal seat between the two of them.

* * *

After the group had walked into the Tower, Julie made her way across the small front plaza to where her photographer was waiting. He had a smile on his face so hopefully that meant good news. They had been standing just outside of Stark Tower in the cold for the past few hours since receiving the call that the group with the mysterious female named Victoria Roth had left and she might be able to catch them returning to question them. She had at least wanted Captain Rogers to reveal her name himself, but he had worded his answers nicely to prevent that from happening.

"Well, what did you get?" Julie asked Mitch, pulling her jacket's collar up to block off a cold wind that appeared.

"Just after you started talking with the Captain, look who comes walking down the street together," Mitch told her, holding up his camera so she could look at the screen. Flipping through the shots he had taken, she watched as the Black Widow and Victoria were walking next to each other talking. After seeing something ahead of her, the Widow then takes Victoria's arm and casually leads her away from the front doors they had been heading towards to one of the side entrances, where Julie had not noticed them, before disappearing from Mitch's sight.

"So now, we have confirmation that she has been seen with Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, Bruce Banner, Black Widow, Captain America, and the Winter Soldier. Whoever she is, she has _very_ high-profile friends," Julie said looking at a particularly good shot showing most of a front profile of Victoria's face.

It was the first time she had seen her, but she knew who it was by the description she had been told over the phone from the anonymous source. She looked happy and comfortable as she walked with a world famous spy and assassin. But, she also hung around with the Winter Soldier, so that was not too unexpected. Unfortunately with it being winter, it would be months before there would be a chance of catching a shot of her soulmark while Victoria wore warmer clothes. But there was no way this story would remain a secret for that long. 

"We'll use this shot of her when it's time for the story, but we need something more than what we currently have. The Captain would not confirm or deny anything I asked. When we get back, let's start facial recognition on her using the Avengers as a keyword. Maybe we'll get lucky."

At least the tip had been correct. There was definitely something going on inside of that Tower...and hopefully it might make her career. Julie would just have to see what else could be done to investigate her. Luckily, there was a cafe across the street from Avengers Tower where she was about to take up a temporary residence. It even provided a view of the garage entrance.

The first possible Avenger's soulmate since Pepper Potts. But whose was she?


	42. Wade's Last Night

The hour was getting late, but the four of them were still gathered around the dining table, drinking and talking, and having a good time. Vic had stuck to soda, but he, Wade, and Steve had drank a few beers to go along with the chicken and pasta dish that she had made for dinner at Wade's request. Since she had needed some of the ingredients that they did not have on hand, Vic had gone back and changed back into the same clothes she had just taken off. Wade had started to protest, but Vic had ignored him and said that she would be back in a little while from the grocery store.

Of course, he had followed her to the elevator once she was ready to leave, getting an approving nod from Steve. After the incident with the reporter, there was a chance that the bloodsucker was still outside waiting for Vic to appear and hound her.

"Garage level," he said aloud in the elevator, hoping it would be a better floor for leaving the building without being spotted. Vic gave him a strange look, but she never questioned him out loud. He figured she either didn't care but more than likely knew why he had basically chosen the back door. She had to know why he was joining her, instead just leaning a bit on him for the ride down. She wrapped her arm around his as she typed out a grocery list on her phone.

"So," she started to say causally as they rode down not even looking up from her phone, "It's to be _Rapunzel_ after all."

"No, you're not _locked_ in the Tower, you're just getting some help carrying the groceries," he informed her to which she made a simple noise in response, putting her phone away.

"Well, then, be prepared to help," she deviously smiled at him as they finally made their way to her Jeep.

For a half hour he spent most of it trying to follow Vic around the store as she grabbed a lot of items, much more than were necessary for one meal tonight. She had grabbed a hand basket and then gave him one also, both of which were now mostly full. Vic had explained that beyond not having to cook tomorrow night, which gave him a smile, she pointed out that there were _other_ meals to eat. He then tried to point out that FRIDAY could take her grocery list, have the items ordered, and a delivery guy would bring them to her. But Vic told him that he was crazy at letting someone else choose what fresh vegetables and fruit were selected.

So he just followed behind her, taking in the difference in how a modern grocery store was compared to what he had grown up with. With the war going on, there were times that you could not just buy the basics in the stores, like eggs, butter, sugar, coffee...coffee. He did not miss rationing at all, he thought standing in the middle of the coffee isle looking at all the strange flavors available before grabbing three different bags. This was a definite benefit of the modern age.

But the number of selections for just one type of food was insane to him when it came to other items. Why were there five brands of spaghetti noodles? It's just spaghetti...it's the sauce that matters, he thought. Back then, there was one brand usually available in a store and that was what you bought without complaint.

On the run, he had used smaller stores where there was less chance of security cameras catching a shot of him, which also meant small selections. Maybe it was better to have the stuff delivered than to deal with all of this. But he did enjoy grabbing a few snacks, as well as a handful of different chocolate bars while they waited in the check-out line, getting duplicate ones for Steve also. Maybe there _was_ something to having a lot of choices for an item, he thought by the end of the trip. She never said anything, but Vic just shook her head at him, to which he just gave her his best smile. Eventually, he and Vic had loaded the bags in her jeep to head back to the Tower.

Vic had then disappeared, after searching their kitchen, to the common level's kitchen to look for what she called 'the right dish' to make a special dessert in. At some point, he and Steve were going to have to make a list of all the things she either needed or wanted. They had no problem supplying her with whatever she wanted when it came to cooking.

They had all sat at the bar in the kitchen while she cooked dinner, having changed back into her comfortable covered-up clothing once again. He enjoyed Wade's company, but he missed seeing Vic's smooth legs. Wade had told more stories about them working in the bar, or other stories from his time during the war. Then Wade had asked about what their lives were usually like now, living in the modern era, compared to growing up.

"It took some getting used to, as in a couple of months' worth," Steve said with a chuckle. "My old apartment growing up didn't even have a telephone, so cellphones were a bit of a shock," bring a grin to his own face at a specific memory.

"What are you smiling about, Cheshire Cat?" Vic asked him as she chopped vegetables up.

"Just remembering the telephone booths inside of our local Automat," he said looking directly at Steve, who dropped his head in shame. "Little Stevie there used to…"

"Bucky, you don't do it!" Steve interjected.

"He used to talk to the female operators, trying to convince them to go out on a date with him," he informed them with a large smile. As Steve held his head in shame, but he noticed that Vic had narrowed her eyes at him.

"And what about _you_? Did _you_ ever do that?" she asked.

"I got _three_ different dates from doing that," he proudly smiled at her.

" _Men!_ " she huffed, turning around with her hands full of chopped peppers, tossing them in a large pot. "Wait...let me rephrase that. _Bucky!_ "

" _That's_ more accurate!" Steve agreed with her.

"Wade, can I ask how you met your soulmate, if it's not a sensitive topic?" Bucky then asked curious.

"No, I like to remember Juliette. My team had a layover at the Pensacola Naval Air Station for a few weeks down time after a mission. A group of us headed over to a bar on base for some drinks. The USO show was there getting ready to head overseas for a few months to do shows. Juliette was one of the chorus line dancers. Due to the summer heat, some of the girls were wearing more revealing tops. I saw her soulmark and made a beeline right for her, getting rid of the guy she was dancing with. We ended up talking all night, until the sun came up and she had to go get packed to leave. For the next few months, we could only telephone and write each other. The moment she got back to the states, I proposed, and we were married two weeks later."

"Not one for long engagements, huh?" Steve asked smiling at hearing the story. Wade then pulled out his wallet, taking a picture from it and handing it over. As Steve held it for them to look at, they saw an extremely beautiful woman, laughing as she rested her back against a tree, with long dark hair who looked to be almost nine months pregnant.

"This was the last picture I ever took of Juliette, less than two weeks before she went into labor," Wade said as they then passed it back over to him. Bucky wondered how he could keep a picture with such a tragedy attached to it as the one to use to reminisce. "Afterwards, I put in for a discharge, packed up only what could fit on my bike, and left town. I wandered around for a while doing whatever I could to pay the bills."

Bucky thought that it funny how much that sounded like Vic.

"When Vic came into my life, I think that I used her as a way to finally get over the two of them. Having her living with me, it made me feel like I had never lost my daughter, that she had just been away for a very long while. At least until she started in with her _hobbies_ ," Wade's voice sounding mischievous.

"Hobbies?" Steve asked, eliciting a groan from Vic, so he knew that a story was coming.

"Oh, yeah. She goes through phases of hobbies. The first were the damn cartoons she became addicted to," Wade said.

"Anime is not just a cartoon," Vic defended herself, pointing the knife she was chopping chicken with at Wade.

"Say what you want, but she would watch those fucking things for more than 10 hours a day until she would complete a series then move on to a new one," he continued.

"Why anime, Vic?" he asked her curious as to where that came from.

"I didn't watch a lot of TV growing up so seeing something from another country was fascinating," she casually stated. "I hated reading the subtitles, so that's why I decided to learn Japanese."

"She wasn't really _allowed_ to watch TV, more like it. Don't sugarcoat anything for them, darlin'. Otherwise I'll be getting a lot of calls after I leave here tomorrow," Wade admonished her.

"Fine. I wasn't allowed to choose what I watched on TV. I had to watch whatever someone else was watching," she gave in as she continued to work. The apartment was already starting to smell good from whatever dish she was making, the peppers and other vegetables simmering already.

"With how much time you were awake, couldn't you just watch what you wanted late at night?" Bucky asked noticing that her eyes quickly went wide, focusing directly on Wade. He noticed that Wade began to glare at her, as if he were angry at something.

"You haven't _told_ them yet?" he asked sounding harsh with the accusation.

"It's barely been a week, Wade," she defended herself.

"Well, now is as good a fuckin' time as any," he said waving his hands open waiting for her to speak. He looked over at Steve who was solely focused on Vic, waiting to hear what this story was about. As he turned back to her, Vic gave a sigh then started working on the chicken again, not making eye contact with them.

"Remember how I mentioned that since I only slept an hour a night that it would annoy my parents?" They both nodded even though Vic wasn't looking. "Well, to stop me from running free around the house at night and disturbing them, I was, kind of, locked in my room at night."

Both he and Steve were quiet for a few moments taking this new information into account.

"What do you mean ' _locked in_ '?" Steve hesitantly asked as if he didn't really want to know the answer.

"As in there was a deadbolt on the outside of my bedroom door. When my parents went to bed, they would lock the door, and I had to stay there until morning," Vic continued to work on the chicken in front of her while not looking anyone in the eyes as she spoke.

"But that had to have been a fairly long time, right?" he then asked trying to work it out.

"From about 9 o'clock until 5 a.m. when my morning chores started, so 7 hours of awake time," she admitted.

"What did you do for that long?" Steve asked.

"When I was younger, they gave me toys to play with. As I got older, I would do homework or read books I got from the library, but by high school mostly I listened to the radio," she said. "There were only two stations that it could pick up with how far out we lived from town. One played hard rock and the other classical and operas."

"And _where_ did the radio come from?" Wade asked not letting her omit something.

"I pulled it out of the trash can. It had stopped working so I used the school's library computer to pull up a diagram of it to study. After I tinkered with it for a couple of hours, I got it working again. I had to keep it hidden under my bed since I wasn't actually allowed to have it," Vic confessed. How the hell could parents treat a child like that…all because of a soulmark?

"Is that why you never shut your bedroom door?" Steve asked before he had the chance to. They had not discussed it, but he was glad that Steve had also noticed her habit.

"Yes," she quietly admitted.

"The first night Vic was at my place, she had left her door fully open. When I headed to my own room, I accidentally glimpsed Vic changing her clothes, and no I didn't see anything but her backside, but I closed the door to give her privacy before moving on. I came back out a little while later to head to the bathroom and I heard her crying. She thought that I was going to lock her in also, so from that night forward, her bedroom door has _always_ stayed open."

They were both sitting there stewing at this new information, really not liking what they were hearing. Vic just continued to work, but moved over to the large pot she had simmering on the stove.

"Vic, is there anything else on this level of knowledge that we should know about or do we have to ask Wade?" he asked trying to not sound angry because it would all be directed at her parents, not her.

"Ask Wade. The stuff I grew up with was what I considered normal. I didn't know that I wasn't supposed to be locked in my room until after I met him," she admitted but not looking back at them. "By then, it only upset me because I had gotten used to being able to move about freely."

"I think that you probably know what I consider the worst of it," Wade admitted to them, actually making him a bit relieved.

During part of the time he had been a captive of HYDRA, it sounded like Vic had been a captive of her parents. Considering what she had been through growing up, he found her being so outgoing and carefree to be remarkable. It seemed like she woke every day with it as a new beginning, not letting something from her past keep her down in any way.

The talk around the dinner table was a much lighter conversation, with Vic telling stories about things and people she had met since coming to town, mundane stuff that she hadn't bother to tell Wade over the phone. Both he and Steve went back for seconds on the dish she had cooked, quickly earning a warning from Wade again about her cooking, so they decided to give him a brief run-down on how their bodies worked after having the different super-soldier serums in them.

"Then the two of you and her cooking are definitely made for each other," he said glancing over at the dessert that Vic had made. They had never seen anything like the strange looking pie resting on the countertop. With a large grin, Wade asked, "We going to get some of that anytime soon?"

"Angle Pie is his weakness," Vic said getting up from the table.

He gathered the other plates to take over to the sink while she pulled out dessert plates and forks. Getting close, he looked at the thing again, still not sure what it would taste like. It had white meringue over the center with a strange poofy, but hard looking, white crusty edge. Reaching out to touch it while Vic's back was turned, the moment his finger made contact it cracked and fell apart at that spot. The entire edge was hollow on the inside.

"Wade did the same thing the first time I made it for him," Vic spoke extremely close to his ear. He had been so focused on the crust, she had turned, snuck up on him, and watched him destroy her creation.

" _What_ is this made from?" he asked as she pulled the pie server from the drawer. He didn't even know that they _had_ a pie server.

"Clouds, dreams, and the blood of angles," Vic lightly chimed as she began to cut the thing into slices, seeing that it had a bright yellow interior.

"Cute," he remarked while sliding his arms around her waist. She loaded up four plates as Steve stood up from the table to bring them over.

When she was done, Vic then ran her finger across the pie server, cleaning off the excess that had been left on it. She then lifted her finger with the dessert on it so that it was right in front of him, offering it as a treat. Without hesitation, he took her finger in his mouth tasting the delicious flavor. He then licked her finger with his tongue, sucking hard on the offered item.

"Not fair," Steve announced, since he had already sat back down at the table while looking at the two of them. Bucky gave him a cheeky look as he sucked.

As soon as he released her finger, Vic ran her finger across the bottom of the pie plate, gathering more of the dessert. Walking around the island, Steve backed his chair out just enough so that she could sit in his lap. Holding her finger up between the two of them, he watched as Steve's face turned into a wide grin, expecting the same treatment.

But then his own eyes bugged out at what happened next.

Instead of holding her finger over for Steve to lick, Vic swiped the dessert off with her own tongue and then leaned in for a kiss from Steve, using her _tongue_ as the delivery device for his treat. Bucky about choked watching the two of them as they kissed.

"Yep, Chastity," Wade replied, digging his fork into his slice of pie and beginning to eat.

The look that Steve gave him after she had moved to her chair was _pure smugness_.

"I have _never_ felt so _cheated_ ," he moped while walking back over to his chair.

Now, the hour was late enough so that Wade made his good nights before heading on to his guest room, telling Vic that he expected her at the gym at 6, earning a groan from her.

"Wasn't this morning enough?"

"No, some of your moves were sloppy. You're just going to slack off once I leave anyways, so I may as well get one more session in," he confidently grinned at her as the elevator doors closed, knowing his assumption was correct.

"Did he ever do PT training for the military?" Steve asked as they began to do the final cleanup of the den and kitchen.

"I wish, it would probably be easier," Vic grumbled, loading the last of the dessert plates into the dishwasher. "Care to join us? Maybe with _ya'll_ there, he'll forget about _me_ for a bit."

"We can do that," Steve volunteered for the both of them, earning a groan from him.

* * *

A little while later, as she was getting ready for bed, Vic began to wonder what the guys would have planned for this date, besides the obvious finale. To them, a proper date was probably dinner and dancing, which would be a bit of problem. She had never danced a single step in her entire life. The closest to dancing she had ever done was in her bedroom to music at night, but that was not the type you would do with a partner. And what she learned at the strip clubs would not be for wherever they would take her…that would be more for spending a night in.

She would need help with this. A smile came to her face as she thought of Natasha. If what everyone said was correct, Nat would know _exactly_ what the guys had planned. And she might be willing to help her get ready for the date.

Checking her bedroom and finding it clear, she headed over to the nightstand with her phone charging. Picking it up Vic sent her a quick text.

 **Vic** _: Would you know if the guys have dancing as part of our date?_  
**Nat** _: Yes, they asked me about a club that does swing and other dances they used to do._  
**Vic** _: Think you can help me figure out how to learn to dance tomorrow?_  
**Nat** _: They don't know you can't?_  
**Vic** _: Don't know, but I can learn (think snowballs)_  
**Nat** _: Then I have an idea that may work. It will take a few hours._  
**Vic _:_** _Would you want to help me with hair and makeup also? :)_ _  
_ Nat _:_ _ABSOLUTELY!_ _  
_ **Vic** _: I'll come to your place after Wade leaves.  
_ **Nat** _: It's a plan._

With that simple text she felt much better about what was going to happen tomorrow night. She knew the guys figured their soulmate would have lived at the same time they had been born into and would have been raised in the same culture that they had been. Which would include one-to-one dancing. Most clubs she had worked at were dance floors with modern music, where you didn't need to know real dance steps.

Steve had mentioned that Natasha knew ballet, but she knew the type of dancing Vic needed to learn. She would just have to wait and see what Nat's plan was tomorrow. If anything, it would be a nice surprise for the guys if this worked out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Word explanation - Automat - restaurant where plates of individual food items were behind small glass doors. You would insert a nickel, dime, or quarter for the item, open the door and retrieve it. The kitchen staff behind the wall would then reload the door. Check out some pictures online.
> 
> Angel Pie - this is an actual dessert that my mom has made since I was young. It's one of my favorites but I only get it every few years. (I should get that recipe from her!)


	43. Date Night: Dinner...

Staring at herself in Natasha's bedroom mirror, Victoria took a deep breath. Nat had done a wonderful job with her hair and makeup to the point where she barely recognized herself. It was a far cry from how she looked this morning.

When their alarm had gone off fifteen minutes before they were supposed to meet Wade in the gym, she had found two arms crossing each other, holding her in a warm embrace. She liked how they had unknowingly gripped each other in a protective action over her when they slept. They both still fell asleep on their backs, but it did not take long for them to search for her while they dreamt. Her mind had instantly raced forward hours to wonder what would happen that night. Hopefully they would be just as comfortable when they were all wearing a lot less clothes.

Each of them then gave her simple chaste good morning kisses before heading to their rooms to change. Usually they all lay in bed for a little while, kissing and touching, but still never going far at all. As she was changing into her own workout clothes in her closet, she wondered if they had always been so proper with her for a reason. Had they been holding back in anticipation of tonight? Not wanting to take the chance of going too far? The thought that they had brought a smile to her face. Tonight was _really_ important to the both of them.

As Wade put her through some of her strength training moves, Vic kept a watch from the corner of her eye at the two of them working on the other side of the gym. They were working on some of the machines that Tony had modified to handle the extra strength they both had since normal ones didn't have enough weight for them to bother with. By the fifth time Wade had to tell her to focus, he finally paid attention to them, seeing what was distracting her. Once Wade realized they were both bench pressing just over a thousand pounds, his own attention waned from her, as she had been hoping.

For most of the next hour, Wade would tell her which machine to move to, but he couldn't seem to take his eyes off of the super-human feats they were doing. When they moved to the training mats in the other room to spar on, she was finally able to take a brake as Wade watched them. Luckily, she was able to admire the scene also, thinking that she was going to have to come down here more often with them later on. Her warriors, now very aptly named, were doing much more elaborate actions than they had during the parade.

There were a few times she watched as one of them took a hard swing at the other that actually connected, but never did she ever feel any pain or ache from the hits. She would have to let them know that she was beginning to believe it really was the intent of the hit that made the connection. But right now, she was just enjoying the show that was the two of them having fun fighting while thinking about tonight.

"Is there anything else we need to discuss before I head out of here?" Wade asked coming to stand next to where she was lying on the weight bench, lying on her side enjoying the show, but not concentrating on it.

"No, I think that we'll all be fine," she told him lifting the barbell from the rest and trying to make an attempt at not watching them.

"In all the years I fought, I never saw _anything_ like that," Wade said as she watched Steve using his shield to deflect Bucky's strikes and knife swings. The fact that he was using real ones should bother her, but if Steve wasn't worried then she knew they would be fine. Since they could nag at her with their over-protective ways, she could definitely use this against them.

Afterwards, the three of them had gotten cleaned up before heading to the garage with Wade as he tightened down his bike's saddlebags with the few belongings he had brought. Strapping his duffel bag to the backrest, she noticed Bucky smile at some silent thought. She knew the contents of the bag and wondered if somehow he knew of them too. With a large hug and a promise to not let another two years (three months, eighteen days) pass before they actually saw each other, Wade told them to keep an eye on her, to which they easily agreed. Seeing him turn the corner and disappear was partially heartbreaking.

Returning to their floor, she texted Nat to make sure that she was ready for her to come over, which got an eager 'yes' response with instruction to bring her items for tonight. Telling the guys that she was heading to Nat's got her two curious looks, but she just gave them pecks on their cheeks before leaving them to wonder what was going on.

For the next five hours, she and Nat watched different scenes from different dancing shows that contained dance moves that the guys would be familiar with. Nat even let her be the test subject as to whether she was doing the moves right. Nat informed her that beyond ballet, she had learned proper ballroom dancing to be able to fit in with diplomats at official functions. Overall, the two of them had a very fun day, even playing some modern dance club songs with videos going to learn some newer moves in case she needed them.

When it was finally getting later in the afternoon, she took another shower in Clint's empty bedroom while Nat used her own, due to the sweat they had gotten from dancing all day. Nat promised that by the time she was done with her hair and makeup, the guys would be shocked into silence, and looking at herself, she was sure it would happen. They had never had a proper formal date and the only time they had seen her with any form of makeup was at the strip club and The Pit while performing. But the change was such a dramatic difference, Vic was actually a bit worried. It wasn't that she didn't look great but she did feel a bit out of place with the fancy dress, shoes, hair and makeup. But Nat assured her that with the restaurant and club they had planned to take her to, how she looked would be totally appropriate.

The dress was black on the top, fitted snug to her with its wide straps resting on her shoulders' edges. The front swooped down into a curve, perfectly exposing her soulmark, which Nat pointed out would drive the guys crazy. But she liked the bottom of the dress best since once it snugly hit her hips, it then flared out and quickly bled to a pure white until it stopped just below her knees. The shoes were black with straps to help hold them on while dancing and two-inch heals, which would put her eye-level with Bucky. The only thing that Nat added was a pair of round, ruby red earrings, pointing out that they matched her nail color. The big change was that Nat had her leave her hair entirely down, no braids of any kind, and she had given it a wavy curl at the ends. It bounced slightly as she walked and it should look amazing once they started to dance. She ended up borrowing Nat's dark grey wool coat to wear over it since she had not thought of a coat this morning.

The guys had paged them a couple of times during the day to find out what they were doing, but they both just used the word 'project' as an answer each time, frustrating the guys. Nat had also informed them by text that they were to come to her apartment to get her. Natasha pointed out to them that they should have to pick Victoria up for the date, and being in the same apartment already didn't count. Steve had agreed for them to be there at six-thirty.

When FRIDAY finally paged Nat that they were on their way, Vic's stomach was nothing but a bunch of nervous knots.

* * *

Bucky felt like he was already starting to sweat, and they hadn't even gotten to Nat's yet. He could see Steve slightly bouncing right next to him, his nervousness a bit more obvious. All he could do was try and keep calm, pushing the possible ending to this date from this thoughts before they drove him crazy. They both had discussed about when they would return home later that Steve's bedroom was being designated as the room they would use. They both agreed that Bucky's had a bit too many weapons hanging on his walls to make the mood romantic. They had even take a bit of time to clean it up and decorate it with a bit of a surprise for Vic.

But then Bucky had also pointed out that when the time came, if he became panicked due to not trusting himself, or because of Vic not wanting both of them there, then he would quietly bow out, leaving the two of them alone. Steve had reprimanded him for twenty minutes after that, assuring him that he was paranoid and that this evening would go fine.

Now, they were seconds away from the start of the evening, hoping that with Pepper's and Nat's help, that everything went well tonight without any hitches. Pepper had gotten them a private booth at a fancy sky-rise restaurant for dinner. Nat had helped out with finding a club where they would be able to dance and have some fun before heading back to their place. Growing up they had wanted a proper yet comfortable evening with their soulmate, and they hoped that Vic would like what they had planned.

The only thing which had been brought up as a possible problem was the reporter from yesterday. Going out on the town the way they were led to a greater chance of being spotted and recognized by someone, which would eventually lead to pictures on the internet. They knew that by taking Vic out dancing that with her moving between the two of them for different songs, that anyone paying attention would pick up on what was happening, even if they didn't know why. They discussed knowing that they would not be able to hide Vic forever, but they knew they could protect her, so they agreed that they would not actually try to hide tonight, not in the normal sense. Hopefully Nat's algorithm would help with anything that did pop up, but they started to discuss what the point would be. They were happy and proud to have Vic as a soulmate, the world be damned. Besides, too many hits and the algorithm would be practically useless.

As the elevator doors opened, Nat was leaning on her island, a wide grin easily forming on her face at seeing the two of them all dressed up. Pepper had made sure they both had decent tailored suits for elaborate functions she had made (forced) them to attend, and tonight they would actually serve them well. Even back in the forties, neither one of them had dressed as fancy as they were tonight. They wore almost matching suits with button down jackets. Steve's was a very dark blue while his own was a dark grey. Pepper had said that matching the colors to what people were familiar with would be fine and he had to admit, they did turn heads. But the only one they _wanted_ to turn was Vic's. Steve had told him to not bother trying to hide his exposed hand and just be himself, as if he were at home, so for Vic he had forgone the formal gloves he wore to Pepper's functions.

"Who knew that the two of you cleaned up so well?" Natasha praised them as she kept moving her eyes between the two of them, but mostly on him.

He, of course, had showered and shaved, but he had spent most of his time getting ready by trying to get his messy hair into a resemblance of the swept-back style he had worn it back in Brooklyn. Except for a bit of extra length on his neck in the back, he felt like he had succeeded. Steve had even stopped walking down the hall when he had seen Bucky finally ready to leave. Moments later a slight moisture could be found around the edge of Steve's eyes, knowing that for him it was like looking back in time.

"I knew," Steve beamed at Nat as he glanced around the otherwise empty apartment looking for Vic, who was nowhere to be found.

"I would normally say something like _'behave yourselves'_ , but tonight is for the exact opposite," she grinned at them as she headed down the hallway towards her bedroom. "Victoria will be right out."

"Why am I more nervous right now than when we slept in the bed together that first night?" Steve asked him.

"You are asking the wrong person right now because I've _never_ been this nervous before," he told him with a chuckle.

When they noticed movement from the hallway, both of their heads turned to see Vic walking towards them, her own face looking as nervous as they felt. It was slightly comforting to know that they were all in the same boat. She was already wearing a form-fitting long, thick wool coat, leaving only her lower bare legs and shoes exposed. But when she reached the living area, they were both stunned at the dramatic change in her appearance.

Nat had to have had a hand in getting her ready. Vic was striking. Her long flowing light blond hair resting on the dark grey coat material made it stand out as if it were slightly glowing. Her eyes were done in way that made him not want to look away from them, very long lashes with dark outlines with a hint of red. Dames back in their day never had such dramatic makeup and he was liking the difference. Vic's lips were a vibrant shade of pure red that almost reminded him of his star's and Steve's shield's red color. He also noticed her earrings and nails matched.

"Well, are the three of you going to just stare at each other all night?" Nat supplied once he realized that too long had passed since Vic had entered the room. Vic must have had the same sensation at seeing the two of them, he realized, as she was just staring at them also. He was the first to move, stepping forward while smiling at her, reaching out with his hand to take hers.

"I...I mean, we would say that you look beautiful, but that would be an understatement," he said as she lifted her hand into his, smiling with a bit of a blush coming to her cheeks at the compliment.

"He's right, Victoria. You look amazing," Steve stepped to her other side and took her other hand in his. Steve then leaned in to give her a kiss on her cheek, avoiding the red lipstick, which Bucky had warned him about decades ago. He'd dealt with trying to wipe that stuff off numerous times, but later, he was looking forward to hopefully getting it everywhere.

"After seeing you two in sweats so much, I never would have guessed. You both look very handsome," Vic told them making both of them even happier, knowing that she approved.

Nat then kicked them out and they met the driver Pepper had supplied them with for tonight in the garage, a large town car waiting to take them to their destinations. They had tried asking Vic what she had been doing all day, but she was still just as evasive as her messages and said she would let them know later. The drive to the building with the restaurant was not that long, but when they arrived at the elevator to head up, Vic started to laugh. It took him a moment to figure out why. The entire thing had a glass wall enclosure on the outside wall of the building, allowing the riders a view of the city as it rose _very_ high.

"Victoria, we can go somewhere else," Steve told her moving her a foot away from the waiting box.

"Nope, we're doing this," Vic confidently said before latching on to both of their arms with her own, practically dragging them inside. When the doors closed and it started to rise, he saw that she was trying to look at the door but that every so often, her eyes would glance down at the edge. But if she was scared, he never felt anything. Maybe being with the two of them really did help.

Pepper had reserved a special private booth so that they would all be able sit together since a traditional two-person table would not exactly work. Walking through the copious tables filled with people, arm-in-arm still, he watched numerous heads turn as they passed through, some with recognition towards Steve, but he saw more than a few glancing at Vic. He could easily understand that with how breathtaking she looked. Out of the glances his way, there were a few that seemed to understand who he was. He had never looked like this since coming to the Tower. Even at the events with the press, he had not dressed to impress like he was tonight, leaving his hair still partially shaggy.

Reaching the private booth area off to one side of the large dining area, he saw that they were formed with a view over the table into the city with them being able to sit together on the large curved bench. It also had a high back so that the people in the restaurant would not be able to see them, giving them just enough privacy. Vic then began to unbutton her coat, letting it slip off of her arms as he and Steve began staring at her again. The dress she was wearing hugged her every lovely curve just right while being flowing at the bottom, showing off her lower legs. But exposed for everyone to see was her soulmark, proudly on display, the swoop neckline not even trying to hide it a bit. It seemed she must have had the same thought about people knowing that they had. He actually heard Steve gasp while they just stared for a few moments.

"Nat said that ya'll would like this dress," Vic smiled at them as Steve took her coat and hung it up on a rack near their table.

"She was definitely right," Steve told her then offering her his hand to help sit down.

He used the left side to slide into the booth, while Vic and Steve used the right. The rest of the place would have been able to see Vic standing there looking stunning and he hoped they were jealous. They had asked Pepper about what to order as a wine and she had actually suggested champagne. Neither one of them had bothered with the stuff, but they talked and agreed that if Vic wanted some then they would get a bottle, but when they asked her, she had simply said no. After giving their drink and meal orders to the waiter, she gave them an explanation.

"I don't really bother drinking alcohol," she told them after informing her of their suggestion.

"Any reason?" he asked thinking back to all the times they had been together and realized that she had never touched the stuff.

"It doesn't really do anything for me," she nonchalantly said which got Steve's attention.

"Does it not have _any_ effect on you by chance?" Steve asked thinking exactly what Bucky was.

"Yeah. I tried getting drunk on my twenty-first birthday, but nothing happened, so I never bothered to try again. But I ended up drinking Wade and a couple of Hell's Angels members under the table. That was so much fun," she said, making the two of them laugh at the discovery.

"Well, you are in the right company then," he said leaning over to rub his arm against hers. "Neither one of us can get drunk anymore due to the serums."

Vic gave out another sigh, but not actually looking upset, "So it's another connection?"

"Looks like it," Steve said smiling. "At least we could never be accused of getting you drunk and taking advantage of you."

"I don't need to be drunk for that hopefully," she coyly smiled as she took a drink from her water goblet.

"Keep talking like that and the night may be cut short," he said leaning over to whisper close to her ear, but knowing that Steve would be able to hear.

"Then I'll behave, otherwise my project from today will go to waste tonight," she said peeking their interest.

"Still no hint?" Steve asked to which she just shook her head, not answering.

"Now that you mention it, and I can't believe we never thought to ask, but when is your birthday Vic?" Bucky asked wondering how they never knew.

"October 14," she told them. She had just had a birthday weeks before they had found her.

"Did you do anything special for it?" Steve asked.

"I worked and Wade called to wish me a happy birthday, that's it," she said as if it were a normal occurrence. Unfortunately, he believed it may be.

"If I guessed that you didn't have a cake, would I be correct?" he asked her knowing he was right.

"Yes. The only times I ever had a cake was for the two birthdays when I lived with Wade," she cautiously said, guessing they would not like that answer, but at least she had admitted it to them.

"Well then, we are all getting cake for dessert," Steve smiled at her.

Vic grinned at the two of them, "I'm guessing this is one of those times when I have no say?"

"This time you're right," he told her while making a note to talk with Steve later about adding a birthday present to the list of things to get Vic, beyond the basic household items. And, they still needed to start to figure out what to do for Christmas. Maybe they could combine the two...

"But I did want to let ya'll know about something from this morning, while ya'll were working out," she started making him a bit curious. "I did _not_ feel any type of pain while ya'll were fighting, but I did remember that during the parade, when you," she said pointing at him, "hit Steve's shield, I felt a slight pressure with my left hand. But it was _not painful_ at all."

He and Steve made eye contact, both happy and sad at the news. They had discussed him doing the shield strike knowing the ringing effect that it would have and thinking it would be great during the show, which did in fact get them a lot of cheers. But he had put a lot of effort into the strike, knowing what it would take to produce the impressive sound.

"I think that it really depends on the intention of the strike, the emotion behind it," Vic said reaching down for his hand to take a firm hold on it.

"But you were absolutely fine this morning while we sparred?" Steve asked sounding hopeful.

"Except for being irritated by you letting Bucky use real knives against ya, then yes," she teased Steve with a grin. "Otherwise, I had a fun time this morning, except for Wade leaving and when the two of ya ran out of the bedroom."

"We did not _run out_ of the bedroom," Steve pointed out to her.

"Sure felt like ya'll did," she chastised them putting on a slightly sulky face. "I barely got good morning kisses."

As the smile crossed his face in understanding, he saw a similar one appear on Steve's. Knowing that they had a good bit of privacy, it gave him an idea.

"Well, we can try to make up for a bit of that right now?" he grinned at her, hoping Steve caught on to his plan. He released Vic's hand and gently placed his on the top of her thigh, right where the material of her dress had partially ridden up just past her knee. He heard Vic give a quick intake of air at the simple touch. Steve's hand then found her other leg, matching Bucky's hand placement. They could see her chest rise at taking a deeper breath at the second touch.

Giving her leg a slight pull, spreading them apart faintly, it was just enough so that Steve knew to match his movement, which he did.

"Do you like this?" Steve then whispered into her ear, to which Vic only nodded, her teeth gently biting down sexily on her lower lip. "We have been talking about tonight all day while you were hiding from us."

"I wasn't hiding," she defended herself, her breath a bit heavier than it had been moments ago. He used that as his cue to pull her thigh a bit further out, Steve continuing matching his action. Vic then whispered out, "I was doing something."

"What were you doing?" he asked as they both began to slip their hands very slowly up her thigh, taking the hem of her dress with them, her breath now growing short.

"It's supposed to be a surprise," she smiled as Vic began to squirm in her seat just a bit as if trying to dislodge their lazily wandering hands.

"Could we get a hint?" Steve asked as Bucky saw his fingertips began to make small circular motions on her bare inner thigh causing a low mewling sound.

Bucky smiled at seeing the Punk finally loosening up some. He had told him earlier that when the time came to just go with it and have fun. Vic had never seemed hesitant about them touching her in any way, even though they had kept it fairly chaste up until now. Steve had always been hesitant around dames when they were younger, not usually taking the teasing foreplay as far as Bucky liked to do, but now he seemed to finally be enjoying himself.

Tonight would be the first time he and Steve would be together with, not only Vic, but _anyone_ at the same time. They had not wanted to be together with a dame who was not meant for the both of them. Earlier he had worried about whether she would want both of them around, but Vic was very responsive to the both of them just from doing these simple touches. But what about later?

"No, it's a surprise," she stated a bit firmer, just as the server arrived with their orders, much too quick in his opinion since they would not be able to continue teasing her without delaying them from the rest of the evening for too long. He did see Vic give both of them a victorious grin once their hands had reappeared on top of the table at the waiter set their dishes down. There was no way Bucky was letting that stand.

So, after the server had left, he cleared his throat to get Steve's attention, and then looked down. Bucky then moved his lower leg in front of Vic's and then used it to pull her leg towards his own. Steve gave him an interested look and quickly followed suit. Now, they both smiled as Vic was sitting there with her legs spread once again as she sat between them, the grin now gone from her face, but replaced with what he considered arousal, maybe wondering how far they were going to take this new move.

"Now, to make up for this morning," he leaned over to whisper in her ear, "I want you to give Steve a _very nice_ kiss, but be _mindful_ of the lipstick. We don't want all these people knowing what we were _doing_ back here."

Vic slyly grinned at the command, twisting and leaning over while grasping onto Steve's neck to pull his lips firmly onto her own. Bucky wasn't sure who the low moan actually came from, but having Vic so willing listen to him and seeing them kiss made him want to walk right out of this place and head directly home. When Vic pulled back, he was surprised to find that there was not a bit of lipstick on Steve at all.

Vic noticed his assessment of the bare lips, because she then proudly informed them, "Lipstick doesn't smudge anymore if you get the right kind."

"Good to know, Shalun'ya," Bucky whispered in her ear, calling her the Russian name for _minx_.

"I think that Bucky's going to feel a bit left out after _that_ kiss," Steve then whispered in her other ear. "I want to see if that lipstick really does not come off. Show me by giving him the same kiss you just gave me."

Vic's hand then wound around his neck so that her fingers rested just under his hair. Pulling him over to her, their lips met with her tongue pushing its way inside his mouth, a hit of bubblegum flicking onto his own tongue with the quick little movements of her own that brought some wicked ideas to his mind. When he let out a low moan, he realized it had probably been Steve making the sound a few moments ago after a kiss like that.

When they broke apart, all three of them were grinning, enjoying the almost public display. Picking up his silverware he watched Steve doing the same. Vic turned her head between the two of them.

"Aren't ya'll going to let my legs go?" she sounded curious to which he just smiled.

"No," Steve then leaned over and told her, "They are going to stay open just like that for us until it's time to leave."

Hearing Vic give a slight naughty moan, as well as hearing Steve's bold statement, brought a smile to his face.

For most of an hour, they sat while having normal conversations the entire time, but he was _very aware_ of Vic's leg underneath of his. He was sure Steve was feeling the same way, but Vic just sat and indulged them, not once complaining at the exposed position they had left her in. He caught Steve glancing down at her bare open legs almost as many times as Steve caught him. The edge of her dress was sitting very high on her smooth thighs, just barely hiding her panties from them. It was hard to hide the smile that each of them got from being caught peeking from the other two.

They all sat eating not only dinner, but then ordering large slices of cake for each of them. The only two choices were chocolate and red velvet, and since this was to make up for Vic not having a birthday cake, they all ate slices of the red velvet. As she slowly ate the cake, Vic would saying teasing phrases while doing movements with her tongue, like licking extra icing off of her fork with a bit of flare. He was not sure how Steve was holding up but there were at least two more times during dinner and dessert he almost stood up and told them they were heading directly home.

When it was finally time to leave, Steve helped her to stand from the booth, but when Vic reached for her coat, Steve held it away from her.

"You don't need to cover up while we are inside," Steve informed her, getting a quizzical look from her.

"Why not? Everyone is going to be able to see it," she told them, not saying soulmark out loud.

"We talked earlier about it and we don't care," he then added to the conversation.

He could see the worry in Vic's eyes, knowing what this could mean.

"Victoria, the reporters were going to find out about the three of us eventually anyways, and this way, we can just enjoy a night out together without hiding and worrying," Steve told her.

She looked over to him, as if she wanted to make sure that he agreed with Steve, so he just smiled and nodded.

"Alright, since you both are so sure," Vic stated as she then linked their arms together the way they did all the time, each of them on their side next to her. Making their way back out of the restaurant, there were many more heads now turned watching them, along with a few phones discretely hidden at table level taking videos and pictures he guessed.

Natasha's algorithm was going to start going crazy over the next few minutes.

"I hope Nat hadn't planned on having a quiet evening," he pointed out to them as the elevator doors closed, Vic and Steve laughing.


	44. Date Night: Dancing...

Walking into the dance club that Natasha had suggested threw Steve back seventy years in an instant. Whomever had been in charge of the design had _really_ done their research. The entire place could easily have been frozen in time like the two of them had been. The only difference was the quality of the music, which sounded much better going through the modern speaker systems that seemed to be discretely hidden away behind the walls' design details. There was a live big band actually playing tonight on the elevated stage at the far end of the club. Most of the tables were packed with people, as well as the dance floor with its intricate two-toned wood flooring pattern in the art-deco style that had been so popular.

Glancing over at Bucky, Steve could see the same stunned expression at the club's interior that he probably had. Bucky's eyes were also darting around the room, and Steve did notice that his posture was a bit more ridged, as if he were also scanning for threats. The restaurant was easier to deal with since everyone had been at tables and did not interact with them. But here, people flowed freely throughout the large space, coming into almost physical contact with them.

"Are ya'll ok?" Victoria asked them, pulling slightly on their arms to get their attention. She must have also noticed the change in the both of them.

"Yeah, it's just a bit surreal," Steve told her, gesturing with his head at the place.

"I'm guessing that means that the architecture is accurate then?" she asked, looking the place over again.

"It looks just like somewhere we would have gone to before the war," Bucky said, sounding a bit _not_ like his new normal self. The happy tone that his voice usually carried since Victoria arrived was not as prominent, which started making him wonder if coming here was actually a good idea. Steve then stepped aside leading Victoria, which would then lead Bucky, off to the side of the entrance they were still standing in front of. He moved them so that the three of them could talk for a moment.

"Are you alright, Buck?" he asked, not wanting him to be here if he was uncomfortable with it.

"No, I'm fine. It was just a bit of a shock. If anything, it kind of feels like we are back in Brooklyn and everything that has happened since then...never actually did," he answered with a half-smile.

"Are you sure?" Victoria asked, still holding onto the both of them before giving them a very coy smile and saying, "We could always just head home."

"You are not getting out of this that easy, Amoureux," Steve called her _lover_ with a smile to which Bucky grinned and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He had asked in the car what the word Bucky had used in the restaurant was, learning it was a term of endearment, even if a bit mischievous. Bucky then pointed out that with Vic giving them nicknames that it was only fair that she have some of her own from them.

"He's right, Shalun'ya, we are staying," Bucky told her sounding much better with a grin on his face. They had been looking forward to dancing with Victoria, him more than Bucky, he believed.

Even with Bucky always trying to set him up with dames growing up, it was the rare occasion when he actually had the chance to dance with them. If it wasn't for Bucky's insistent ways, he would probably still be a virgin, not that he had a lot of practice in _that_ area. But he was at least confident enough for tonight, especially with Bucky being there.

Steve glanced around and spotted the stairs up to the VIP balcony section that Nat had put them on the list for so they would have at least a bit more privacy when they wanted it. Natasha had even mentioned to them that there was a back door from the VIP area if something were to happen and they needed to use it. They didn't anticipate having to, but it was nice to know that it was there.

Leading the two of them around the edge of the dance floor, Steve gave Victoria's name to the bouncer guarding the stairs to the elevated area overlooking the dance floor. Nat had pointed out that anyone looking over the VIP list would easily spot their names and it would draw attention to them. So she had suggested using Victoria's since it would be a bit more private for right now. Later on, especially after tonight with the way it seemed to be going thanks to phone having cameras, _everyone_ would know her name.

The hostess at the top of the stairs showed them to their reserved space. The VIP area had been designed to be large, built-in white leather couches with small knee-high tables for drinks to rest on, made of a heavy iron base with a black marble top. The entire section was painted bright red with gold trimming everywhere, with large white feathers dividing the individual booths, giving a very high-end feel to it. There was an iron railing a few feet in front of them so they could see the entire dance floor. Being so close to the holidays, it seemed a lot of people were enjoying the season by coming out and celebrating on a weekday. They had hoped for a bit less of a crowd but it may be easier to blend in with all of them down there.

"I will be right back," the hostess said, disappearing through a door at the end of the walkway, probably towards an upstairs bar area. Sitting down, there was plenty of room for them to spread out, but both he and Bucky were right next to Victoria, who didn't seem to mind as she placed both of her arms on the back of the couch surrounding each of their shoulders.

"I have a feeling that we caused a bit of a scene in the restaurant," Victoria mischievously told them as he caught himself looking down at her soulmark once again. She had left her coat at the front door's coat check room, not worrying about anyone seeing her mark here.

"I _know_ that we did," Bucky said, grinning as he then moved his arm to rest with hers. Their hostess then returned with a tray carrying an ice bucket filled with a bottle of champagne that had a notecard attached and three flute glasses.

"We didn't order this," Steve informed her.

"Someone called earlier today placing the order and your tab for this evening has already been taken care of," she informed them with a smile. "Would there be anything else?"

"Some water for us, please," Victoria said getting a nod as the waitress once again left.

Lifting the bottle out of the ice bucket, Steve pulled the notecard off of the ribbon holding it on. Opening it up, he read it with a smile before reading it aloud to them.

_"Try not to be too loud tonight! Your Thoughtful Landlord."_

"Lovely," Victoria grinned, taking the notecard and glancing at it before tossing it gently on the table, finding it funny. "Tony's very subtle. Who would have _thought_ that he had it in him?"

"I say we try for the exact opposite," Bucky said, leaning a bit over so he was closer to her ear. "What do you think Steve?"

"Sounds like it would be fun to annoy Tony for once," he grinned at the suggestion.

"Then ya'll might have some work ahead of ya," Victoria slyly answered.

"I don't think that either of us would mind," Steve told her, getting a playful grin from both of them. "How about the two of you head on down for the first dance?"

"Are you sure, Punk?" Bucky asked, looking over at him curious. "I've had a lot more dances than you have."

"I'm sure," he smiled at them. After Bucky stood up, but before Victoria had, he whispered very low into her ear so that only she heard, "Make sure he is fine before we leave him alone."

Victoria smiled at him and gave him a kiss before taking Bucky's offered hand and rising. If he was curious about what he had told her, Bucky didn't act it. Leading her down the stairs, Steve smiled as he watched them walking together, while leaning back and getting comfortable on the couch. The hostess then appeared with three water goblets, placing them on the table.

"Would there be any type of fruit or sweets tray we could order?" he asked her, remembering seeing similar items on the other tables as they walked to theirs.

"I can have a tray of both made up for you, if you would like?" she informed him.

"Yes, please, let's do that," he agreed, as she nodded and headed back through the same door. If Tony was paying, and taunting them by alcoholic notes, then they should at least have some fun. Opening the bottle, he poured himself a drink, before looking back down at the dance floor. But what he found stopped the flute in mid-air.

Victoria and Bucky were not doing the basic simple dancing that he had expected them to be doing. They had discussed the possibility of having to go slow with Victoria and teach her the steps with each new song. But he thought that he just figured out what she had about working on a 'project' meant all day. She was dancing with Bucky as if she had been raised back in the thirties and forties with them. She looked beautiful as she twirled with Bucky, her hair flowing behind her, smiling and laughing while having a good time. At one point, Bucky caught his eye for a moment, giving him a knowing smile at also discovering her new learned talent. Steve raised his drink in salute to them.

After dancing three songs, they came back up to the table, finding the tray of desserts already having been delivered to the small table.

"What's this?" Victoria asked as she picked up a water and drank down most of it.

"I thought that we may like a treat after some dancing, and since Tony's paying…" Steve grinned at them as Bucky pickup up one of the finger sweets that looked to be made of chocolate and eating it. Steve then poured two more flutes of champagne and passed them over. "We shouldn't let it go to waste."

"Why not?" Victoria said holding her glass out. "So, who has a good toast?"

Thinking for a moment, Steve answered, "To Tony," he started getting matching strange looks from them, "for dragging us out to the strip club that night and helping us find the missing piece to our soul."

"I can _definitely_ drink to that," Bucky grinned wide as they clinked flutes together, Victoria slightly blushing at the endearing term he had used.

A few minutes later, after giving Victoria a small break, he started to lead her down to the dance floor.

"How did Bucky seem?" he asked as they headed down the stairs.

"He's fine. Once we started dancing, it was like he opened up more than I've ever seen him do," she told him as they started moving to a slow dance. It took him a couple of steps before he seemed to remember how to do it. Victoria had no problem at all it seemed. "So, how much dancing _did_ you used to do?"

"Not as much as I wanted to," he honestly told her. "The dames that I did manage to dance with were just as much a wallflower as I was back then. None of them actually _wanted_ to dance with me, but they knew that being nice to _me_ meant that _Bucky_ would notice _them_."

Victoria seemed to take this in for a moment before saying, "Their loss then. From what I've seen, you _were_ the sweet one while he was the heart-breaker."

"I _was_ the sweet one?" he asked smiling.

"Well, after following Gradina's lead at dinner, I'm guessing some of him has _finally_ rubbed off on you," she teased while pressing her body a bit firmer against his. "You don't seem to be the pure Flocon de Neige I thought you were."

"But isn't that a good thing?" he asked before giving her a kiss as the other couples danced around them.

"It's looking to be," she smiled as they continued dancing. Leaning up, Victoria whispered into his ear, "I'll let you know in the morning."

The next hour had them moving between their table and the dance floor, Victoria taking turns dancing with both of them while pointing out that it was not tiring for her to so as they had wondered aloud. A discussion while consuming the some of the champagne came to the conclusion that maybe one of the reasons Victoria always seemed to have so much energy was because she _did_ have to move between the two of them. Any normal girl would have been tired and her feet hurting, but she kept up with the both of them, trying to make sure neither one of them felt left out. When Victoria pointed out that she had also spent hours today learning to dance, it really shocked them that she was able to keep going.

Steve did notice a couple of times during the night that people who had recognized either him or Bucky were taking discrete pictures with their cellphones as they danced. Since there was only a simple iron railing between them and the view to the dance floor, someone standing just right would also be able to get a picture of them all sitting together. Even though he never actually saw it happen due to dimmer lighting, Steve had no doubt that it had. They all agreed that if they had tried to hide, the night would not have been as much fun. It was well over an hour and a half after arriving when they finally decided to just sit and relax before heading home.

"I have a feeling that even though this was fun, ya'll probably liked dinner better," she said putting a fresh raspberry into her mouth.

"Why do you think that?" Bucky asked finishing off the delicious flaky chocolate items Steve had barely managed to get two of.

"With the teasing that ya'll were doing there, I just figure that since that hasn't happened here, then…" she supplied licking her lip just a bit, his eyes darting to her tongue's movement.

"We enjoy just being with you, teasing, dancing, or just sitting on the couch watching a movie…It doesn't matter," Steve told her, moving his arm so that it rested behind her shoulders while gliding his fingers over her bare shoulder. "Besides, since this has a bit more of an audience than at the restaurant, we're patient enough to wait for somewhere a bit more private to continue the teasing."

"There's a difference between not hiding and giving a show," Bucky told her, sliding his arm over his so that he could touch her other shoulder.

"Besides, Natasha's probably already furious at us," Steve grinned at them, as they joined in by laughing knowing he was probably right. "She'd hunt us down if we went too far here. At the table, it was just the three of us."

A few moments later, Bucky seemed to become very serious, his hand moving from Victoria's shoulder to his own arm to get his attention.

"Vic, were you really alright with the two of us touching you at the table...at the same time?" Bucky asked her, voicing the same fear he had at the beginning of the evening at home.

"Of course," she answered seeming confused a bit by the question. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because we are not going to push you into being with the both of us if that is not what you want," Bucky told her, then hesitantly adding, "Or if you are not comfortable being with one of us."

Steve watched as Victoria's eyes narrowed after a moment, staring at Bucky, who looked as serious now as he did before a mission.

"Steve, has Bucky mentioned something like this to you before?" she asked turning to him.

"Yes, earlier before we came to pick you up," he informed her as she started to nod her head in understanding.

Pushing her flute and water goblet a bit further back on the table, Victoria moved from being between the two of them on the couch to sitting on the small table so she could look at the both of them at the same time.

"I'm going to start by reminding you," she said pointing at Bucky, "that I already pointed out that I have absolutely no problem with being with you either because of your history or your arm. If there is something you are worried about, then all three of us will work through it. But otherwise, from the times we were together, my closet, your bedroom, the bed in the morning, dinner tonight, I figured that both of you want the same thing as I do. So, unless I _really_ read the signals wrong, or ya'll _planned_ on separating tonight, then all three of us _together_ is what I've been looking forward to."

Steve kept his smile as sedate as he could, knowing that Victoria had just pointed out the same thing that he had tried to do. Bucky sat for a few moments hopefully taking her words to heart before he spoke.

"Alright then, but when the time comes tonight, if something happens and you change your mind, then you let us know."

"Deal," she smiled at them.

"Victoria, what about how we held your legs at the dinner table? Did you mind us being a bit _bossy_?" he asked as nicely as he could. He didn't want to be as blunt as he could have been, or how he figured Bucky would be.

"Not a bit. I want ya'll to show me what you want, what you like. There is the probability that together ya'll may want one thing, but separately you may want another, either less or more _bossy_. Remember, I've studied a lot of ways...I'm good with trying _anything._ And later on, there's even a few things I want to try," she informed them with a devious grin.

Steve swallowed a small lump that formed in his throat as he listened to her. If what she had just said was true, his mind began to race with the possibilities, remembering the dime-store short stories he used to read as a teenager. And did Bucky just blush at hearing that?

"That a very bold statement," Bucky then said with a smirk. "I'm sure between the two of us, we could think of some very _naughty_ suggestions."

Victoria then leaned far forward, her elbows on her knees, her head resting on her intertwined fingers, and smiling sublimely stating, "Bring them on, Gradina!"

"How about we just get through tonight first, you two?" he said hoping to end the staring contest going on between the two of them.

Reaching out, Steve took her hand into his, pulling her forward to sit on the couch again, but instead of turning around, Victoria knelt between their bodies, resting her hands on their thighs for support.

"Then how about we head home?" Victoria asked, using the key word that always brought a smile to Bucky's face nowadays. She noticed the look also. "That eager?"

"It's not just that," Steve pointed out to her, "You used the magic word…home! Someone's taken a real liking to it since you moved in."

Leaning over, he watched as Victoria gave Bucky a long chaste kiss, not like the one at dinner which would have been too much of a show for the prying eyes here. She then leaned her way over to him, giving him the same kiss.

"Now, let's head home," Bucky said when they were done.

They both stood up as Victoria held her hands up for them to take. Using them for support, she slid her legs from the seat of the couch to the floor, standing between them. Turning around, he saw her scan the dance floor and other private booth areas for a moment.

"This is going to be worse than when we left the restaurant," she pointed out as they started to leave the booth.

"It's worth it," Steve smiled as walked arm in arm like always. Down the steps and through the crowd, he saw heads turning to watch them, but nobody approached them or said anything directly to them. He saw more than a few lips whispering into ears as people's eyes watched them pass by, but he just considered the three of them lucky to have found each other after so much just so they could be here.

Bucky helped Victoria with her coat as he used his phone to signal the driver to meet them at the front of the club. Standing at the entrance doors, he looked past the doorman and noticed a couple of lingering people. Studying them, Steve saw the person he suspected he would, the same reporter from yesterday outside of the Tower.

"That's her, the reporter," Steve nodded towards the outside as they came to stand next to him. The car had not arrived yet, so they just waited inside. "Do you want to take the back entrance that Nat mentioned?"

"There's no point. If we didn't want this to happen, we could have been a bit more discrete," Victoria mentioned bring back their own argument about hiding. "We could just split up to get to the car?"

"There is no way you are going outside alone!" Bucky instantly informed her shutting down that line of thought very quickly.

"We will walk right to the car, and nobody say anything, got it?" Steve told the two of them, receiving matching nods. "We'll worry about giving a statement at a later time."

Just then the car pulled up out front, the driver texting that he was in place, not seeing them through the partially tinted doors. He did check to make sure that Victoria's soulmark was covered by the coat, which it was. He didn't like the idea of it being on display where the reporter, or a photographer, would be able to see it too clearly. There may be pictures from earlier but right now they could get a very clear shot. It was only meant for him and Bucky to see.

Opening up the door, Bucky took the lead, blocking Victoria and Steve's view of the reporter, putting himself between them. Being so dressed up, there was a chance she may not realize it was Bucky in time. And it seemed to work as Bucky made it to the car door before the woman was able to look behind Bucky and see him and Victoria.

"Captain Rogers, care to explain your relationship to Victoria?" the reporter called out, holding her phone to record his answers. They just kept walking as Bucky opened the back passenger door to the car. As more similar questions were called out to all three of them from the reporter, he did notice that the woman used Victoria's first name. Somehow they had indeed learned it.

Reaching the car, he held Victoria's hand as he let her slide into the car's seat first, with him getting in next. Bucky closed the door behind him before walking around the car and getting in on the driver's side. As soon as the door closed, the driver headed off towards the Tower.

"They used Vic's name," Bucky quietly said a moment later.

"I noticed," he responded.

"So?" Victoria vaguely asked them.

"How did they find it?" Bucky pointed out. "Did they overhear it at the restaurant? At the club? Or did someone tell it to them?"

"Why would it matter how they found it?" she then asked.

"All employees are required by Tony to sign non-disclosure agreements due to all the stuff that goes on with our group. If it was someone from the Tower, that means that there is a leak. Overhearing it either here or at the restaurant would just be dumb luck," Steve explained.

"You two worry about the _strangest_ things at the _wrong_ time," she sighed, leaning comfortably back on the seat between them as they headed down the street.

"What do _you_ think we should be _worrying_ about then?" Bucky asked her.

"Whether either one of you know how to remove a modern bra," she bluntly stated, causing the driver of the car to give a coughing chuckle at overhearing her comment.

"Vic!" Bucky firmly but calmly spoke her name. Bucky then leaned over so that he was much closer to her ear, only Steve and Victoria being able to hear his next comment. "Remarks like that are only meant for mine or Steve's ears."

"But then I'll never be able to shock and annoy Tony," she whined back in a whisper, also keeping her voice too low for the driver to hear.

"Then how about keeping it out of the public at least?" Steve asked taking her hand into his and giving her knuckles a kiss.

"I'll try…but no promises," Victoria told him.


	45. Date Night:…and More

A few minutes later the town car pulled into the garage of the Tower, with the driver stopping right next to the private elevator. Exiting the car, the driver left them for the parking area as they waited for the doors to open. Victoria unbuttoned the coat she was wearing, taking it off and draping it over her left arm, his eyes once again drawn to her soulmark. A strange silence had fallen over the three of them since arriving in the garage, Steve realized, as the elevator doors opened and they stepped inside, with him giving the order for their floor. They were about half way up, none of them talking or looking at each other when Steve heard the sound.

Both his and Bucky's head turned towards Victoria as she then took a large step forward towards the doors while still reaching behind herself with her free hand, while finishing pulling down the back zipper of her dress. They could see her skin between the sides of the parted dress, the back of a black bra also visible.

When the doors opened, Victoria turned around to face the two of them as she stepped backwards into their darkened apartment with a devious smile on her face. They had not left any lights on except for one in the living room turned to a very low setting, barely giving off any light. She tossed the coat off to the side onto the floor near the kitchen table before a second later letting the dress slip down over her body to pool at her feet, leaving her standing before them wearing only a black lace strapless bra and matching panties with her heels. Her breasts were barely contained in the item, the curve of her body was sleek, and her legs seemed to go on forever. Seeing Victoria standing there, exposing her beautiful, smooth, flawless skin for them, something nagged at the back of Steve's mind, but then Victoria smiled at them…and it was lost.

"Aren't ya'll a bit overdress now?" she asked, taking another few steps back from the elevator.

Seeing Victoria moving away is what finally registered to the both of them that they needed to exit the elevator. Moving forward with a purpose, he stepped over her fallen dress as he unbuttoned his jacket, seeing Bucky doing the same out the corner of his eye. As the elevator door shut behind them, the apartment became much darker. He heard Bucky's jacket hitting the couch as his own landed maybe on the island. With matching swishing sounds, both of their ties quickly joined their jackets. But all of Steve's attention was directed on the vision before him.

Victoria was still slowly moving towards the hallway behind her, smiling with her eyes darting between the two of them, waiting to see who was going to make the first move. When he saw her glancing over at Bucky, Steve made his move.

Two large steps were all that it took for him to be able to wrap his arms around her waist, Victoria giving out a delightful, happy squeal as he lifted her slightly, turning her backside towards Bucky, who had moved two seconds after Steve had. Now, both of them had Victoria trapped between them, as he felt Bucky's arms wrapping around her waist also.

He leaned over, giving her a kiss as she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him against her. Opening his mouth, he prodded with his tongue at hers as Victoria then eagerly opened up and accepted him. Steve could feel Bucky's hands against his own body as they moved over her stomach and hips, forcing her body backwards against Bucky's hips, making Steve lose contact with her figure. Victoria then moaned into his mouth in response to Bucky's actions. Using his own hands also still around the small of her back, Steve pulled Victoria forward back against him, eliciting another moan as she made contact with his hardening shaft.

"Tug of war, Punk?" he heard Bucky ask with a chuckle. Releasing her mouth, he used his hands to turn Victoria around so she was now facing Bucky.

"I have a feeling that we will both win this game," Steve answered as Bucky's hand came up to her neck, pulling Victoria in for his own hungry kiss. Using a hand to brush away the lovely white hair covering her shoulder, Steve began to give her bare skin nipping kisses, starting at her shoulder to moving up her neck till he reached her ear. He kept his other hand around her waist, holding her firmly against him. "Victoria, I want you to start unbuttoning his shirt."

Her hands then moved from Bucky's neck to between the two of them, obeying his request as they still kissed. He then released her, taking a step back so that he could unbutton his own shirt. Both articles dropped to the floor at the same time. There was a bit of light in the hallway, enough for them to be able to really see each other. If Victoria even focused on Bucky's now exposed arm, Steve never noticed. Bucky then guided her to turn back around so Victoria was facing him again.

Resting his head on her left shoulder, as he looked right at Steve with a smirk, Bucky firmly told her, "I think that Steve needs some help with his pants."

Victoria's left hand came up to run down Bucky's cheek before she turned her head, giving him a quick kiss.

"I think you may be right," she then grinned, turning back focused on him.

Victoria then moved forward, her hands resting on his bare chest as she gently pushed him backwards, up against the hallway's wall. A second later, he watched as she knelt down right before him, her head now even with his waist. Her hands then traveled down his legs until they reached his feet. Lifting one foot up at a time, she slipped both shoes and socks off, tossing them...he didn't care where. Planting her hands on his legs they traveled back up, eventually crossing over his hard member, giving him a sharp inhale, before Victoria started to unbuckle his belt. She pulled it out with her hands a few inches, only loosening it before moving to the button and zipper.

As she pulled his pants down, Steve lifted his legs, allowing her to be able to remove them all the way. He felt more than a bit strange standing there in only his briefs as he grew even harder, especially with Victoria's smiling kneeling body before him, as his mind wandered to another possibility...but that was not happening tonight. Bucky pulled his attention away from Victoria by kicking his own shoes off down the hallway, hitting the far wall with two solid thumps.

"Someone else is not undressed yet," Steve informed her, looking down at Victoria as she smiled up at him, her tongue swiping over her top lip, the sight making his pulse race even more. He watched as Bucky stepped closer to where she was kneeling as Victoria turned, doing the same maneuvers to remove his pants, letting Steve see that his best friend was just as hard as he was behind his own briefs.

When the pants were finally off, Bucky held his hand out for her to take. Helping Victoria stand, Bucky surged forward causing her to step back so that she was once again pressed steadfastly between the two of them, causing a moan from Victoria. His now firm shaft was resting between her ass cheeks, while Bucky's was against her front.

"Steve, care to prove to Vic that you can figure out a modern bra?" Bucky asked but never once taking his eyes from her face. Even with the little light in the hallway his fingers found the clasp, lifting it in the proper direction so the eye-hooks released. The only reason her bra didn't fall down was due to the other large soldier's chest pressing up against her breasts, holding it in place. Grabbing the two ends, he held them out to her sides to display so that Bucky could see that the object was open.

"Care to back-off a bit, so we can see what prize this was hiding?" Steve asked, getting a grin from Bucky as he did as Steve requested. Letting go of one end, the item fell away and he tossed it aside.

Bucky's eyes drifted down to her exposed breasts, which Steve was unable to see, so he reached across in front of her and took Victoria's right hand in his left one, using it to turn and move her to his side, before guiding her backside against the wall. Bucky moved forward, taking her left hand in his right, as they both then identically lifted her arms so they were over her head, pinning them against the wall. Doing this move was exposing her body for them, while their own shoulders were touching from being directly in front of Victoria. She was now trapped before them, so seductively biting her lower lip as her eyes darted between them. Steve could only stare at the large rounds mounds, rising and falling beautifully with her heavy breathing.

"Has anyone ever touched your naked breast before?" Bucky coolly demanded, causing Steve to firmly swell even more at the thought of her response.

"Never!" Victoria heavily answered as she looked between the two of them, lust clearly written on her face.

Hearing her reply, he looked over at Bucky who gave him a nod as they both reached up at the same time, each of them running their free hand over a breast, causing a loud moan from Victoria. Using his thumb, Steve rubbed it firmly over her pink nipple, watching it instantly grow hard from his enjoyable task.

Looking over, he realized that Bucky was doing the exact same with his left hand, and luckily it seemed that Bucky had forgotten about his earlier fears now that he was captured in the moment of touching Victoria. Taking a chance and leaning down, Steve swiped his tongue over the now firm nub before giving a gentle bite, earning a seductive whine for his effort. Bucky then did the same and now they could see the wanting expression from Victoria for their actions.

"So responsive," Steve noted as Victoria closed her eyes as they continued teasing her for the next few minutes. Both of them were moving from kissing her, to each of them sucking on her breasts and nipples, all the while holding her in place, but she didn't seem to mind at all, giving them time to explore her. The sounds that Victoria was making were so beautiful. Eventually she began to squirm against the wall where she was pinned, her hips swaying outward for the two of them, obviously needing more. But they both held off, teasing by not giving Victoria what she wanted...yet.

Grinning towards Bucky, he asked, "Shall we move to the bedroom now? I think that someone is almost ready."

" _Almost_?" Victoria asked with disbelief in her voice as Bucky took a step back.

"Yes... _almost_! We've only just started," Bucky informed her. "Grab her, I'll get the door."

Steve then swiftly moved his arms as he lifted her up bridal style, so that he could carry Victoria into his bedroom, doing as Bucky asked, holding her just like he had last week in the barn before jumping down from the loft area. Victoria giggled as he turned her around towards the door, her arms going around his neck for support. He took only a moment to enjoy the feeling of her bare body's heat against his own skin before moving.

Stepping inside of the bedroom as Bucky closed the door behind them, they were all assaulted with the scent of all the fresh flowers and roses that Bucky had insisted they go get earlier in the day. They both had agreed that Victoria deserved to have flowers, but then as they got to the florist, they realized they had never asked Victoria what her favorite type was.

After a few moments of discussion, they had agreed to get two dozen roses ( _Dames love roses_ – Bucky) and two bunches of assorted flowers ( _She grew up in the country_ – Steve). Now, with the doors to his room being closed for the past few hours, the entire place smelled just like the flower shop.

He watched as Victoria looked around the room at where they had set up the vases on his furniture. He had left the lights on at a low setting, but it was enough so they would have no problem seeing each other. They had discussed candles, but Steve pointed out they couldn't leave them burning, and neither one of them knew that they would want to break from the moment and light them, so they agreed to leave them for another time.

"I'm guessing your room normally doesn't smell this nice?" Victoria asked, running the back of her fingers over his cheek, grinning at him.

"Nope, it's all for you," he told her as he dipped her quickly, causing her to squeal again and laugh. He figured that she would like the fun playful action.

Walking over to his bed, which had received a fresh navy colored fitted bed sheet earlier today, Steve knelt on the edge and gently placed Victoria closer to the center of it while he lay on his side of her. They had left off the top blanket and flat sheet that Steve would have usually used, knowing they would not need them. Bucky then appeared on Victoria's left side, sliding up onto the bed so that she was now between the two of them. Looking down he saw Bucky's silver hand already sliding up the inside of her thigh. Bending over, Steve kissed her as his own hand began to rub over a nipple. Seconds later Victoria gave a startled jerk and a moan into his mouth.

"Steve, she is so warm," he heard, making him break from the kiss to look down her beautiful body. Bucky's hand was resting at the peak between her legs, gently circling the area with his entire hand as Victoria began to squirm and moan. "Feel her."

Reaching down, his probing hand replaced Bucky's, who had leaned over to take her nipple into his mouth. Between the two of them touching her, her entire body was wiggling, just waiting for them. For only them.

"I've never felt anything like it," he admitted as the heat from her body enveloped his hand. He made his touch much firmer, wanting to see what happened. Victoria's hips began to push against his hand, using them to make him touch her where she wanted him to be. He then felt something else, boldly saying, "Her panties are already wet."

"That's desire in its purest form, Punk," Bucky chuckled before leaning over to capture her lips with his as she wrapped her arms around Bucky.

Never had any of the handful of dames he had ever been with reacted so responsively to him touching them. Steve watched as Victoria's hand that had been on Bucky's back slid from it and landing on his own knee. Leaving his hand between her legs but moving his fingers around the hot, wet realm, her own hand then traveled up his thigh, not stopping until Victoria had found his hard shaft, wrapping her fingers partially around it while still trapped behind his briefs. He heard a loud groan from Bucky, and looking over, he saw that she had done the same maneuver to him.

"Before she drives us both crazy, why don't you get going, Jerk?" Steve humorously asked, moving his own hand away from her hot arousal so that he could move further up the bed.

Bucky also moved, but he headed downwards, already having discussed the next part earlier today. Sitting with a large clump of pillows behind him, Steve spread his legs then reached down. Carefully holding under Victoria's arms, he pulled her further up on the bed so that her head now rested on his chest, her back pressing onto his hard member. Over the next minute, Bucky slowly positioned himself between her legs, rising higher and higher by kissing the insides of her thighs as he teasingly moved to where he needed to be.

Finally reaching the black material, Bucky then reached up to take a hold of the sides of her panties, slowing dragging them downward before tossing them onto his desk, making him laugh a bit. He didn't bother to remove her strapped heels, Steve noticed. Victoria tilted her head up so that she was looking at him, a bit of worry now in her eyes, knowing what was about to happen. This was entirely new for Victoria, even if she had 'studied' it, as she had informed them, but they had agreed that tonight needed to be all about her enjoying herself.

Running his hand over her forehead and down the side of her face, Steve gave her a reassuring smile. He looked to Bucky, who was waiting for his signal that Victoria was situated comfortably, to which he nodded before his face disappeared into the point between her legs. Steve witnessed her expression, as well as Victoria's entire body, change as Bucky began the passionate assault with his tongue: Victoria's eyes closing, as she gasped for air while her breasts rose higher, arms reaching out to dig her nails into the mattress, her back arching off of him slightly, a lovely keening sound starting.

It was the most erotic sight ever for him to behold.

* * *

Bucky lifted his head to stare at his soulmates as he heard Vic loudly wail in pleasure, a crooked smile on his lips at knowing it was _he_ who had caused the wonderful sound. Vic's body was once again arched back, while Steve still held onto her hands. It had not taken him long to make her orgasm, but during that time, Vic had reached down with her siren red nails and tried to grab a hold of his long hair. With a quick look to Steve, the other had understood, taking a firm hold of her wrists, holding them to his chest above her head, very pleasingly trapping Vic in place between the two of them. His own hands had taken hold underneath on her round cheeks, holding her hips in place where she could not escape his perusing tongue.

Vic's lascivious cries as her body kept responding more and more to each lick, swipe, and suck were music to his ears after so long. Never had any dame made such sensual mewling sounds for him. Knowing that her body was so close to releasing, he had taken a final move, using his teeth to gently clamp down on the protruding sweet spot she had been responding to, more than any other. And that was all it took.

"Now, she's ready!" he grinned at Steve as he began to slide his body up over hers. Vic was panting very heavily, her eyes closed, her face flushed a beautiful shade of red he was going to make sure they saw much more often. Lining up with her, he crushed his mouth onto her parted lips, invading hers as she tried to gasp for air. Vic eagerly returned his kiss, while begin able to taste herself on his tongue. When Bucky pulled back, he told her, "You taste so sweet, Shalun'ya."

"Considering that Tony wanted us to keep it quiet, that was quite a scream you made Victoria do," Steve told him as he slid out from underneath her, releasing Vic's wrists so that she was lying flat on the bed, her eyes now darting between them as they moved, still looking a bit out of it. He liked that look too.

"I'm sure you can do the same. Like you said earlier…she's very responsive," he grinned at her as he went to lay next to Vic on Steve's side, propping his head up on his left hand. Steve stood up from the bed, removing his briefs before kneeling between her waiting spread legs. Turning to Vic, "I got first taste, but Steve here gets the real honor."

Grinning at him as her hand touched his face, Vic asked with a grin, "How did ya'll come up with this agreement? Rock, paper, scissors?"

"Actually, we agreed to this on little Stevie's sweet sixteenth birthday," he told her, making Vic laugh at the idea. Reaching over to caress her right breast with his flesh hand, he began tweaking her nipple until Vic's laugh turned to a moan. Vic gave him a very knowing pointed look for the action. "Seriously, we did."

"Bucky felt guilty that the dames liked him better, guessing that our soulmate would also, so he made this my birthday promise. I pointed out that he didn't have to, but he was very adamant about this earlier," Steve smiled at her, before asking, "So, who do you like better?"

"Oh, no!" Vic said pointing her finger at Steve, a serious look crossing her face. "I am not choosing, and you will _never_ ask that again! Either of you! And no kisses for a week to the one who does!"

"See…told you she wouldn't do it," Steve told him while he leaned over taking another kiss for the wonderful answer she had given. As soon as Bucky moved away, Steve leaned in for his own kiss.

Looking over at Steve, he told him, "She going to be very tight, I could tell with my tongue," receiving a gentle punch on his arm from Vic for that salacious comment.

He watched as Steve moved slowly into position between her legs, giving her a long kiss while getting a couple of rubs of his cock over her wet lips. Moving just enough, Bucky grasped onto her right hand with his metal one, remembering how Vic had tried to crush his real one the other morning. He then lifted them together over her head, lying them out of the way, before he nodded to Steve as Bucky then leaned over to give Vic a passionate kiss.

As Vic keened out as Steve gently, but steadily, pushed his way inside, he sucked her tongue into his mouth, keeping her focus split between the two of them, to help distract from the sting of her first time. Her red nails made scraping sounds on his metal hand only for the first few gentle thrust before relaxing, her body starting to match Steve's motion.

Needing to come up for air, he lay next to her, continuing to hold her hand as Steve rocked the bed with each thrust. The sounds now coming from her equaled the ones he had been able to produce. Vic began to move her hips with Steve's, helping to rock the bed underneath them so much he began to worry. But then Vic turned her head to look at him, her face showing only arousal rising with each thrust. Vic never once let go of his hand, reaching over with her other hand to grab his head to pull him in for kisses, making him a part of her experience, while his other hand kneaded her breast. Watching, and he realized participating with, the two of them for the next few minutes, he eventually had to run his own hand down the front of his briefs, having to reposition himself to get comfortable. There was no mistaking the sounds Vic made, being so close to organism again.

"Reach right between her legs and feel around. Find the right spot and she'll scream for you too," he smirked at the look Vic gave him for giving Steve just a bit of help. He could tell that she gripped his hand harder in retaliation for doing so, but seconds later, Vic threw her head back, her other hand digging onto the mattress, wailing as Steve's fingers found the same spot.

Between hearing her erotic scream and her body clenching down on him, he saw Steve shake from his own orgasm. He wasn't able to hold himself up for long, so he used his elbows to support himself as he lay down carefully on top of Vic, trying to catch his breath. He hadn't seen the Punk so warn out like this since before the serum. Steve then kissed her before rolling to the other side, lying on the bed worn out.

"I don't remember it ever being like that," Steve breathed out, severely trying to catch his breath.

How much energy had the Punk just used? He didn't think it could be too much since Vic hadn't complained and seemed more than fine. Maybe it was just because it was Steve's first time in over seventy years. Hell, he would probably have the same experience, if he wasn't so worried once again, now that it was supposed to be his turn.

"That was _definitely_ better than watching videos," Vic laughed out as she stretched both her arms over her head, her entire body slinking as she wiggled seductively, an alluring sheen of sweat over all of it. Steve then joined her in laughing while Bucky pulled her hand to his lips, kissing it.

"I know that was a lot, especially for your first time," he told her as she turned to look over at him, deciding to give her a way out in case she was too scared to admit to it out loud without prodding. "I'll understand if you are too sore."

Vic's eyes narrowed, listening to him before shaking her head. She then released his hand before rolling over and crawling on top of him. He reached up to touch her cheek, and as he did so, Vic leaned down, crushing her lips onto his. The feeling of her breasts squishing between them was terrific. Back in their day, dames expected to be on the bottom, so he liked how they rubbed over his chest as Vic moved and breathed.

"It looks like you're not getting out of this," he heard Steve say from where he was still lying on the bed, off to his left side. "Maybe if you ask, she'll go easy on you."

Vic then rested her entire body's weight onto his chest as he felt her hands reaching down for his last scrap of clothing, his briefs. Lifting his hips just enough for Vic to get them partially down, she was able to get them to his thighs, but it was enough for his hard shaft to now be pressing against her mons. He could feel a bit of wanton heat coming off of the area. As Vic's hands then ran up his sides to return to his chest, he felt the clothing continuing to be pulled all the way down his legs. Breaking her kiss, he looked down and watched Steve's foot push them the rest of the way down.

"You looked like you needed some help, Jerk," Steve smirked at him as Vic then began to grind her hips down desirably onto him, culling a loud groan from him with the action.

When he had pulled his head away to look at Steve, Bucky saw Vic's eyes dart to his left shoulder, taking in the rough, red scar tissue exposed for the first time so that she could really see it. He wanted to say something to get her to stop looking at it, but Vic then tilted her head down towards it. The next thing he knew was that Vic was skimming her lips tenderly over the rough skin and metal edge, planting small chaste kisses. He looked over at Steve, to try and figure out what to do. She was supposed to find it repulsive and dangerous, not lie naked on top of him kissing it.

"Stop doubting and trust her," was all that Steve told him as her mouth continued to move downward over his chest along the rough edges. He felt her hand then gliding down his side until she slipped it between their bodies. Seizing his shaft firmly in her fingers, his breath hitched as he then felt Vic position him right at her opening, but not letting herself down on to it. Instead, Vic's warm, wet tongue began a running swipe up the scar, causing a strange erotic sensation to course through him. As he grunted out at the unexpected pleasure he felt from it, Vic _then_ lowered herself onto him, drawing a half-cry as he closed his eyes.

Lying there, letting Vic straddle him, his mind began to race. Wasn't she scared or frightened in the least at the sight of him? All the times that she had said as much, he always figured that when this moment finally happened, that it would become too real for her and she would hesitate, or maybe even run from him.

Suddenly, Bucky felt a firm punch on his right shoulder, causing him to open his eyes and look confounded at the naked soulmate of top of him, holding her balled fist before his face where there was no way to miss it.

"Do you get it now?" Vic harshly asked.

"I sure did," Steve grumbled, rubbing his own right shoulder, matching the spot where Vic had hit _him_.

"Stop doubting me, Gradina!" she stared at him. Still a bit shocked she had hit him like that, all he could do was nod in understanding.

He found himself staring at Vic for only a second before she leaned in for a fervent rough kiss, pulling him from his doubting thoughts and into the wonderful moment. Letting Vic give a few minutes of grinding thrust of her own, he then grabbed a firm hold of her waist as he then rolled them so that their positions were reversed, Vic giving out a cute giggle at the sudden movement.

Bucky then began his own calculated thrusts into her, triggering even more delightful cries from her as Vic's body began to sway under him, trying to take more from him. But he slightly held back from embedding fully in, still worried about hurting Vic. After a few shortened thrusts, he felt a sharp pain on his ass cheek, causing his forward movement to fully complete the plunging motion, sinking deeply into her, receiving an enjoyable moan of pleasure from her. Vic had wrapped her legs around him and jabbed his butt cheek with the pointed heel of her shoe. Smiling brightly up at him while pulling his head down for more kisses, he began to understand that everything Vic had told him was true.

"She's more demanding than a drill sergeant," Steve said as Vic reached out for Steve's head, making him lean over and kiss her as he started to grind harder into her. Steve reached over to begin kneading a breast as they kissed. Even after being with Steve, he could feel that she was still so tight. Watching Vic and Steve kiss as he continued to pump, listening to her moaning was bringing him close to his own orgasm, but he wanted to make sure that Vic had one more of her own.

Starting to reach down, he was going to let his fingers find that sweet spot one final time, but he felt two hands suddenly wrapped around his wrist, stopping him. Steve looked down to see what she was doing and saw her stopping him before looking over at Bucky, a look of curiosity on Steve's face.

"Oh, yes. I want to hear you scream again," he told her as he tried to move his hand but finding her grip too strong, or maybe he wasn't trying too hard. Vic didn't say anything, but she did mew a lovely complaining sound. "Steve, I'll need you to hold her down."

Steve smiled at Vic as he then reached for her hands, pulling them free and planting them above her head, using only one of his hands to do so. With the other, Steve began to pinch at one nipple, so Bucky took that as his cue to do the same to the free one. With her legs still wrapped around his waist, Vic's lower body was now smashing hard against him, impaling herself all the way down onto him, causing him to moan at the feeling. With her doing most of the work now, he reached with his hand to the same spot he had found earlier.

Rubbing it in a circle, with her cries getting louder, Vic's body began to arch off of the bed, forcing herself down even more onto him. Not letting it go on for too long, he gave the finishing move, making her scream as she came once again. The instant her body clamped down on his cock, he was done, his own body releasing and shaking, before weakening so that he too had to collapse onto the bed next to her.

"See what you almost missed out on?" he heard Steve say from the far side of the bed. Raising a hand, he gave him the bird, not bothering to open his eyes to even see if Steve saw it, but he heard a chuckle so he knew that Steve had.

"If he doubts me, or himself, like that again, next time I may just let him miss out!" Vic then said which actually caught his attention. Opening his eyes, he quickly rolled over on his side, his right arm going out over her body to trap her into place.

"No more doubts!" he firmly stated, grinning at her and taking a kiss. "But also…no more heels!"


	46. You've Broken the Internet

"Well, I hope the three ring circus is happy. You've broken the internet!"

Tony called out to them as they arrived at the common room where Pepper had asked to meet them in the message she had left for once they were awake. Tony, Pepper, and Natasha were in attendance for the spectacle that Steve knew was going to happen. The moment that Bucky had stepped into the kitchen, since he had headed out first for coffee, FRIDAY announced that they were to meet with Pepper about last night as soon as they were all available. Pepper _never_ left them messages like that. She may have for Tony when he had messed up somehow, but not him, or Bucky, and so far Victoria.

"How _overly_ dramatic," Victoria called out to him as she raised the back of her hand to her head in a mock gesture as they headed up the stairs to where they were sitting at the couches waiting.

"He _might not_ be this time, Victoria," Pepper informed the three of them as they took the couch that looked suspiciously like it had been left free specifically for them. "Turns out that the public relations department's phones have been ringing off the hook since before daybreak early this morning."

"My algorithm started going off at dinner time," Nat told them with a bit of a smile, seeming to find it more amusing than being angry at them. "I finally turned off the notifications at midnight so I could get some sleep."

"So what was actually posted?" Steve asked, wondering what pictures they could have gotten. "I believe that we behaved ourselves very well," which received him a nudge from Victoria and a raised brow, so he added, "when people could see."

That got him a couple of strange looks from Pepper and Nat, while Tony shivered and scrunched up his face before he turned around and flicked his hand-held device at the large screen across the way, and it lit up like crazy, proudly announcing, "I've taken the liberty to have them arranged by the time stamp each of them were taken! My own little immoral timeline staring the good Captain and cohorts!"

There were only two of them walking to their table at dinner. But then Steve saw shots taken using the glass window's reflection of them, while they'd had Victoria give each of them the long kisses as they held her legs open. His face flushed at seeing them, but he also found the pictures slightly sexy knowing what the dinner guest had _not_ been able to see. He heard a chuckle from the far side, figuring that Bucky was probably feeling the same way that he was. The next shots were while they were eating.

"See, here we have some nice, normal shots of you behaving," Tony said as he flicked through them.

"That's only because they couldn't see under the table," Victoria then blurted out, causing Pepper to blush, Natasha to laugh out loud, and Tony to look like he was slightly ill. By the time he could turn to face her, Bucky was already whispering in her ear, but he could see a grin on his face, as well as Victoria's. He knew that she had no regrets with shocking them.

"Keep going," Steve instructed him, rolling his hand at Tony to get his attention.

The next shots were of them leaving the restaurant, nothing bad about any of them. There were a few fuzzy pictures of Victoria's soulmark, as if they were specifically trying to get a clear shot of it, which somehow there were none, probably due to her moving at the time. The dance club shots were about what he expected. There were plenty consisting of each of them dancing with Victoria, as well as the ones he figured there would be of them all sitting together on the couch up on the balcony level, eating and drinking the champagne. There were also a few from when Victoria had turned around to talk with them before leaving.

Finally, there were the better quality ones from outside the club, which made him suspect that the reporter, Julie, had a photographer somewhere just off to the side where he had not noticed him. By this point, Victoria's coat covered her soulmark so there was still no evidence to confirm with their relationship.

"Here are just a few of the morning tabloids," Natasha said pointing down at the coffee table between the couches that had at least five different cover stories about the three of them. It looked like the best quality pictures had been purchased to use as cover shots, most showing Victoria smiling as she enjoyed herself dancing with one of them. None of the pictures had a clearly defined shot of her soulmark, making him wonder what the articles actually said.

"I even _printed_ ," Tony said making the word sound evil, "the online TMZ article from the reporter that Nat told me confronted you yesterday."

"One of these articles actually suggest that the two of you were trying to get 'the unknown female' drunk since it's been speculated that neither of you should able to due to the serums," Pepper informed them as Steve picked up the printed out article. Since Julie had been the first to confront them, he wanted to see what she specifically had written.

"Well, that's ridiculous," Victoria stated flatly.

"Is it?" Pepper asked.

"Of course it is, since I can't get drunk," she informed them, getting strange looks from all three of them. "I never have been able to."

"It's another possible connection due to the soulmark," Bucky told them as Steve continued to skim through the TMZ article. The denials he had given were first gotten out of the way before moving on. From there, it was mostly filled with speculations as to the nature of their relationship: Was Victoria Roth his soulmate? Was she Bucky's? Was she just one of theirs and the other was allowed to 'share her' since they were best friends? Was she just someone they had met, no connection to them with a soulmark due to how old they truly were? Steve was surprised that it didn't mention being a multiple soulmark match, but then again, they were very rare.

"So, what type of statement do the three of you want put out there to try and calm this down?" Pepper asked when he had put the printout back down.

"This reporter, Julie, was outside of the club as we were getting into the car, and she knew Victoria's name already," Steve informed them, causing a scowl to cross over Nat's face. "When she stopped us out front of the Tower two afternoons ago, she didn't mention Victoria's name, but last night she did, first name only. But in this article, it gives her last name also. Is the TMZ article the only one which gives Victoria's name, either partially or full?"

Nat and Pepper then picked up different tabloids and gave quick scans of them. "It looks like that to me," Pepper said, as Nat supplied, "Yes, this shows 'unknown female' also."

"So, we have a possible leak somewhere?" Pepper asked not looking happy at that possibility.

"Maybe, but we used Vic's name at the club for the VIP area. The reporter Julie _could have_ bribed an employee for it," Bucky answered.

"I'll put our PR department on trying to find out where she got her information from. Either way, once we put out a statement, they _will_ know your name Vic," Pepper said.

"We figured as much," Victoria said, sounding resolved with the idea of that happening. "Just do whatever you have to, as long as they," she said indicating him and Bucky with her thumbs, "agree to it."

"We are all in this together," he reminded her.

"Ya'll are the ones that are going to have to deal with the hateful comments. I grew up with them, and have dealt with them for basically all my life. I'll go along with however much you want them to know," Victoria said looking between the two of them.

"It's not like we are going to lie. I say we just put out a statement that gives all the pertinent information," Natasha pointed out. "We should give Vic's name, but no history. Then, it may be best to explain that the soulmark is for three of you together. If you don't at least do that, then there will be all sorts of wild theories."

"I think I just read a few of them," he said turning to Bucky, "One theory suggest that one of us is ' _sharing_ ' our soulmate with the other."

"No! If they are already thinking that, we need to put a stop to it!" Bucky stated defensively as he moved uncomfortably in his seat. "It's one thing to be meant for the both of us, compared to 'sharing' and calling Vic loose. I'll not have them saying anything like that about Vic!"

"Alright," Pepper said, raising her hands to calm him down. "Let me put together a sample announcement and run it through PR and when it's polished, I'll send it to the three of you to approve."

"Don't forget about mentioning Happy," Tony then pointed to them, looking please for some reason.

"What about Happy?" Victoria asked for all of them.

"He's been dealing with reporters hanging out in the lobby all morning wanting interviews and waiting to get a shot of any of you," Tony told them with more than a bit of a smile.

"Why do you find that funny?" Victoria asked him.

"Because this is _just_ the type of crazy _security_ incident that he actually _enjoys_ dealing with," Tony pointed out. "Do you realize how much _weight_ he has been able to throw around already this morning alone? He's going to be in hog heaven for the next few weeks."

"How secure are we in here then?" Victoria asked, never having dealt with this before.

Tony in his usual flare, put his arms out as if his hands were resting on something in front of him and boldly declared, "None shall pass!"

"Well, that's _not_ good," Victoria then said, getting a strange look from Tony.

"And why is that?" Tony asked her.

"Because the Black Knight _lost_ that fight," she informed him, to which Tony opened his mouth to say something, but stopped, considering her words.

"Damn…I didn't think of that," he said rubbing his arrow haired chin for a second. Yelling "Ah ha!" he raised his arms above his head dramatically, "They shall not pass!"

"Wrong again," Victoria then sighed at him shaking her head. "If you go with the movie, the line is ' _you_ shall not pass', but remember, Gandalf also got taken down."

"Vic, you are _ruining_ my _moments!_ " Tony grumbled crossing his arms and staring at her.

"Besides, all Gandalf did was get the party to run away so he could get all the experience point for himself to go up a level," she then said totally losing him, and probably Bucky, with the strange comment, but Tony must have gotten it because he started laughing hysterically.

"What does _any_ _of that_ have to do with the _reporters_ in the _lobby_?" Bucky asked trying to get the conversation back on track.

"It means that you're safe up here. So, unless you _want_ to be bombarded with questions, don't head downstairs," Natasha offered.

"So, stay inside today…got it," Victoria then said slumping into the couch, leaning on the both of them.

"I'm sure we can find something to do," Bucky practically whispered in her ear, but he was able to hear. Victoria then poked him in the side, but Steve saw her smiling at Bucky. He quickly thought back to as they had all woken up this morning.

After making a late night shared snack of the last of the Angel Pie using only one fork, they had moved back to Victoria's room to sleep in. Bucky had woken him with a nudge over her sleeping form, giving him a mischievous grin. Victoria was on her side facing Steve, and he saw Bucky slipping his arm over her side. Seconds later he heard the first moan from Victoria as Bucky began to rub his fingers directly between her legs. Without even opening her eyes, she reached out until she had found him facing her, pulling him in for a kiss. Steve had then moved his hand to join Bucky's, both of them working her body into a frenzy very quickly with their fingers exploring everywhere. Victoria had finally turned her head to scream into her pillow as the two of them grinned at waking her up in such a sexual way. Bucky had said they should do that every morning.

"Something you would like to share with the class, Steve?" Tony said as he recognized that he had zoned out from the conversation as he thought about this morning.

"No, just considering options, but I think that a simple statement would be best. If anything, see what some celebrities used in their press releases and use that as a template," he answered, hoping that it covered his tracks enough to not have Tony prying any further. Natasha was giving him a calculated look as if she knew he was not being fully truthful, but thankfully she didn't call him out on it. He turned away from her, before his face went all red and gave away his thoughts.

"Give the PR team about an hour to get something together," Pepper told them, standing up to go and work on the wonderful mess they had made. It was going to come out eventually, and this way, they wouldn't have to hide in any way during the Gala next week.

* * *

"So, how was your evening?" Natasha asked her as they were sitting at the bar, while the boys chatted away. Vic noticed how Tony was actually interacting with Bucky today, more than he ever had. They were talking about the spectacle that they had caused last night, something that Tony could totally relate to.

"Good," she grinned, knowing that she was probably wearing a slight blush now.

"Just _good_?" Nat sarcastically asked, wanting more information. All she gave was an even more devious grin, to which Nat raised her eyebrows in question.

"Well, we do need to clean up all the clothes that were scattered everywhere," she decided to give her that little bit of information. She had heard dancers in the changing room talking, so she knew that it was not unusual to talk after a night of sex, but she wasn't sure how much to say when it came to Nat being their teammate, not just her friend.

"That sounds like it was _very_ promising," Nat was grinning, lifting up the orange juice mimosa to sip. Vic guessed that after having to deal with her algorithm going off for a few hours steadily, Nat deserved, and probably needed, the pick-me-up.

"Once we got to the garage, it seemed to get a bit too quiet, making me wonder if they were going to hesitate, so I just made sure to press the matter. Zippers make _a lot_ of noise in a quiet elevator," Vic grinned out, earning a heartfelt laugh from Nat, and some scolding looks from all the guys. They must have figured out what they were talking about in hushed words away from them. She also knew that guys liked to talk, but then she didn't think that Tony wanted to know anything about their sex life at all.

"I'm glad that everything worked out good for the three…?" she asked her with a raised eyebrow, so Vic nodded in agreement at the number, "…of you. With the reporters, I'll say give it a few weeks, probably before Christmas, and then the next new big thing will hit the internet, and you will practically be forgotten."

"Here's to wishful thinking," she said raising up her plain orange juice in salute.

* * *

All three of them turned back around from looking over at where Nat and Vic were chatting quietly at the bar…except for Nat's little outburst of laughter. Tony was a bit shocked at that unusual sight, almost wondering what had brought it on...almost.

"I can't believe that the three of you have somehow created more of a scene than I was ever able to do," Tony shook his head at the two men sitting on the couch near him as he sat in an end chair. "But it is nice to have Pepper irritated at someone other than myself."

"We didn't actually _try_ to, unlike you usually do," Steve told him with a smile.

"No, Steve normal scenes growing up usually involved arguments and fist fights," Bucky stated.

"That would have been the icing on the cake," he informed them, "If the two of you had managed to get into a fight."

"I'm sure it wouldn't have taken much," Bucky said getting his attention. "One guy even _trying_ to hit on Vic would have had a very bad night."

"True," Steve then agreed, with a wide smile. "By the way, Tony, thanks for picking up the tab at the club last night for us."

"Well, I am generous that way," he joked with them.

"If not humble," Bucky mumbled.

"Also, we wanted to let you know that the construction of the Tower is first class," Steve informed him with a bit of a grin with the strange comment.

"Thanks? I guess," he looked between the two of them trying to discern their looks.

"Yeah, you haven't complained _once_ about all of the screaming that we were making Vic do last night, so the floors and ceilings must be _very_ soundproof," Bucky said with a smirking grin.

Steve turned to Bucky and started to say, "Maybe tonight we could try…", as Tony suddenly stood up.

Covering his ears, he walked away from the two horrible guys trying to sear perverted thoughts about the good, wholesome Captain into his head, yelling back at them, "I'm not listening!"

Tony didn't even want to think of how they were defiling his little drummer girl.

* * *

"Where are you going?" Bucky asked when he saw Vic walking out from the hall dressed in some of the older clothes she had before moving in with them. She was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, but also her sneakers.

"I'm heading to the garage. Remember, I actually have a job here now. I figured that I could try and find out which cars Tony has messed up, or maybe figure out the crazy tool configuration he tried to start for storing them before it turned into his personal version of the chaos theory," she answered coming over to lean on the back of the couch near him. They had been paged saying that the statement was ready, so Steve said he would go and deal with it. Bucky had been flipping channels waiting for Vic to reemerge from her room, hoping for some cuddling on the couch, not realizing that she was planning on going somewhere.

"Steve should be back in a little while. Sure we couldn't change your mind on staying?" he asked her reaching over to take her hand.

"I'm sure you could, _that's_ why I'm heading to the garage," she smirked at him. "I know that it was _you_ starting that trouble this morning."

"I have _no idea_ what you are speaking of," he smirked right back at her. Vic grinned and leaned over to plant a long kiss on his lips.

When she backed off, she headed for the elevator saying, "See ya'll in a few hours for lunch."

Less than ten minutes later, Steve emerged looking fairly calm, hoping that meant the press release was to his approval. Neither he nor Vic had actually wanted to do anything with it. On the way back to their place, Vic had even joked about the three of them just walking into the lobby together and announcing they were together. She said it would be like when Tony just announced to the world that he was Iron Man. Neither one of them understood what she was talking about so Vic then had FRIDAY pull up the press conference that Tony had given. Steve had still been frozen at the time, as well as him, and HYDRA had no reason to tell him _how_ Tony had made the announcement.

"I'm guessing that you liked what they came up with?" he asked as Steve stepped next to him on the couch, after glancing down the hallway towards Vic's room. "She's in the garage."

"You actually let her leave?" Steve grinned down at him.

"I tried to convince her to stay, but no luck. Vic may actually want something to do to keep her mind off of the reporters not too far away," he told him as Steve came to sit on his side of the couch, looking a bit worried.

"What's wrong?" Bucky asked.

"Just remembering something you brought up a few days ago, about HYDRA learning about Victoria. They will definitely know about her by tomorrow, if they don't already from today's papers. I looked at the security feeds and there are at least twenty reporters from different places waiting for the statement. The PR department told them they would have it over the next hour," Steve told him.

What was left of HYDRA was mostly broken and scattered units, with no true defined leader that they were able to find information on. Rumlow had changed his persona to Crossbones and taken a large contingent of sleeper agents with him when he slithered out of D.C. after the Helicarriers, but he didn't seem to care about learning how to organize and run multiple cells. The others seemed to take orders from him, when given, but all of them seemed to be trying to survive on their own, for the most part. They had been able to take out almost a dozen small units over the past year. None of them had been on American soil through. The closest was a small base in Mexico, which had been only five guys. Nat could have taken that one out in her sleep.

"For the next few days, we'll just try and keep Vic inside and away from the reporters. After that, anytime that she wants to head out somewhere, one or both of us will go with her. Or at least Natasha," Bucky told him seeming to get an agreement from Steve in the form of a head nod.

"You'd allow Victoria to leave with only Nat? I surprised that you aren't downstairs hiding in the air ducts guarding her right now," Steve told him grinning.

"Very funny, Punk. I'm not Clint," he sighed at him not bothering to mention that he had already check the garage security feeds five times since she had left, just to be on the safe side. The last time he saw her she was listening to loud metal music as she started to pull all of Tony's tools from their shelves and drawers, scattering them into different piles on the floor around her. "But Natasha is a capable fighter. I wouldn't let her go out with only Tony or Pepper though."

"What about Bruce?" Steve asked him knowing where he was going with this.

"Undecided. He would be effective if a fight broke out, but I don't think he would have the _mentality_ to make Vic's safety a priority, like he would Nat's."

"You've thought this through _way_ too much," Steve was shaking his head at his comments.

"I'm surprised that you haven't," he said as his eyes glided over the Stark pad lying on the coffee table in front of him, only having to activate the screen to check on Vic again, but he was not going to prove Steve right by doing so while he was watching him.

"So then, want to head to the gym?" Steve asked him.

"Why not? Vic's not going to be back for a few hours," he said standing up and heading to his room to get changed, leaving the pad on the table.

From behind him, he heard, "Garage security feeds? Really, Jerk?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FYI - I don't do celebrity gossip (unless it pertains to movie parts being cast) so the only paparazzi I know of is TMZ. So, I'm not trying to pick on them, they just happen to be the ones I know of off the top of my head, and it works. BUT, so you don't think the story is going to be filled with this, the reporters are a very minor roll but a very useful one (as you will see later on).
> 
> To Everyone: Thanks for all the positive reviews and kudos. There are a few more parts / chapters with sexy time and they should be on par with how Date Night was written except for one or two kinky areas...because we all want a bit of kinky Bucky and Steve...right? :)


	47. Archive Time

Over the next few days, Steve found that the three of them seemed to get into a nice routine. Bucky had tried to wake Victoria up every morning by making her scream, with his help of course, which she didn't seem to mind in the least. But one morning, they had both woken up before Bucky, and she had taken it upon herself to give Bucky a bit of payback.

Victoria had told him to move over into her spot, which he had, before crawling on top of him. As he had morning sex for the first time ever, Victoria had reached over and began to stroke Bucky awake...in more ways than one. Afterwards, both of them had tried to convince her to stay home that morning, but she grinned and told them that they could go the rest of the day without her after their 'spontaneous morning exercise'.

Victoria would then always head to the garage, while they went to the gym for a few hours, before meeting back in their apartment for lunch. They usually made it back to the apartment first, so they handled either ordering lunch from somewhere close or they would end up making soup and sandwiches, their fallback meal. He wasn't sure if the grilled cheese sandwiches she had made were really that good, or if Bucky just didn't know how to cook them properly. But both of them agreed that the club sandwiches she had made were the best, being almost six inches high with triple meats on a toasted bread neither of them had ever tried before that had stuff inside of the dough. One sandwich had filled them up, without the chips and fresh chopped fruit she had Steve cut up to go with them. He had told Bucky that they may have to start going to the gym _after_ lunch also, if that was how Victoria dealt with lunch,Wade's warning clear in their heads now. Victoria had also started working with FRIDAY to have their grocery list altered slightly to have items delivered so that she could cook some of her own dinner meals for them.

After lunch, he would work with FRIDAY and sometimes Nat on any files recovered from the raided HYDRA bases they had done, trying to track down the next leg, or tentacle, he sometimes silently called it. Bucky would sometimes come with him to view the files, but Steve didn't want to press him into dealing with anything that may be too upsetting for him.

The only partially troubling thing was that they was narrowing down on another small base, which meant that they would probably have to head out on a mission within the next week. That meant they would have to leave Victoria here for a day or two, without them. Steve may have used the fact that they would not always be here, so she would have some private time as one of the items to convince her to move in, but now, they both considered not being here with Victoria a bad thing.

The best change was that, for the most part, Bucky seemed to be behaving much more like his old pre-war self for the past few days. The carefree personality had slowly been coming out ever since they had first met Victoria, but since their date night especially, there seemed to be something a bit _more_ to him. The last bit of lingering doubt that Bucky had been carrying around was finally gone and it was starting to show. There were times when Steve would catch the relaxed smile on Bucky he used to know so well as they all sat on the couch together. He had even taken to teasing Steve like he used to do: ruffling his hair as he walked by him, flicking Steve's ear as they sat on the couch, or messing up his shirttail as he was heading to meet with the PR department, who had numerous request for more information about Victoria.

For the most part, the three of them had not bothered looking at the tabloids that Tony liked to leave in the common area for them to see. Victoria had started making the newspapers into little origami animals, or paper airplanes, then throwing them at Tony instead of reading them. None of them cared to watch celebrity shows, so they didn't start just to see anything about themselves. Except for the occasional PR person leaving messages, they had been able to ignore the outside world very nicely. He was sure that _eventually_ something would happen that they would have to handle, but so far they had just been able to enjoy being together as the had been doing.

The one shocking incident was concerning Bucky and his arm. Since coming to the Tower, he had only been to Tony's lab one time for a repair that _had_ to be done to his arm due to an incident during a mission. But yesterday, Bucky had actually contacted Tony on his own, wanting to see if he would be willing to look over his prosthetic for routine maintenance, something he had not had done in almost three years.

Tony had jumped at the chance to get a thorough scan of the limb, which was something Steve knew that he had been wanting to do since Bucky arrived, even if he hadn't cared for him being here. The technology behind it was about half a century old, but yet, according to Tony, was more advanced in some aspects than some of the tech out there today.

After running the scans and examining some of the components, Tony needed to make a few minor adjustments to prevent anything from going wrong. Bucky agreed to let him, but only once Victoria and he had arrived to be there with him. The procedure was not too evasive, but Bucky was still a bit hesitant since he was so used to the HYDRA scientist and technicians, who had not been gentle with him. Victoria had stood behind his chair running her fingers through his hair to keep him calm the entire time with it working very well since he remembered one video of Bucky having to be strapped down and sedated before they could examine his arm for a repair years ago.

For dessert that night, Victoria surprised them with a homemade apple pie and ice cream, telling Bucky it was for being ' _such a good boy_ ' and letting Tony help him. He sneered at the term until she did the same tongue maneuver with a sample of the pie that she had done with him, stopping all his whining.

But later that night, while Bucky was out of the room, Victoria had then asked him about viewing the archive of files on Bucky's history. Steve figured that seeing his arm worked on brought it to the forefront of her thoughts. She wanted to see if he thought that if she brought up viewing them to Bucky now, if he would get too defensive or worried. Steve had told her that with how happy and open Bucky had been for the past few days, it would either be the best time, or depress him back into his old ways. Victoria had given him a playful smack saying that his advice was practically useless.

When Bucky had come back into the room, they had both brought up about Victoria needing to know more about his history, with him pointing out that now that Victoria was public knowledge, it would be useful for her to know about his past in case a reporter asked her anything. They both agreed that she didn't need to be caught off-guard on the chance it did happen. If she was left unaware of something that had happened that was known, it could look bad for them, as if they may have tried to hide his past from her.

Bucky had agreed that Victoria could access any files that she wanted to, letting her know that he was indeed not trying to hide anything from her. Steve had asked if Victoria wanted either him or Bucky to go with her, but Victoria's first response had been that Bucky didn't need to see or relive any of that again, which he was grateful for her saying. As for his offer, Victoria said that he had been through some of it before, and Steve's time would be better served trying to distract Bucky from worrying.

They had spent part of the morning in the gym, while Natasha had agreed to go with Victoria to the archive room, where the paper files and VHS tapes from Siberia were, as well as digital videos which were kept on a standalone computer with no internet access. Tony and Nat had set it up right after SHIELD fell to make sure they had access to the files, but that there was _no_ _chance_ of any of it getting out.

Now, late this afternoon, Steve was sitting at the island bar in their apartment watching Bucky, who had been mostly pacing back and forth across the den for the past half hour, as he had done a couple of times during the day. Victoria had wanted him to keep Bucky from worrying and he was not succeeding at doing that in the least.

"Will you sit down? You're making me dizzy and nervous," Steve told him when he saw Bucky starting to bite on his thumbnail, while staring out of the window at the street far below. "What are you looking for?"

"For Vic to run screaming from the building," he said trying to make a joke, but sounding like it was only halfhearted. "Besides, you don't get dizzy anymore."

"First, after watching you I just might. Second, you know Victoria is not going to run," he pointed out while eating his slice of apple pie, while Bucky's piece remained untouched sitting next to him at the bar. "If there was something in particular that you didn't want her to know about so soon, you could have asked Nat to pull a couple of things for her to start with."

"I'm just worried about what she might be reading. I wasn't going to tell her that she _couldn't_ know, I'm just afraid of what will happen once she _does_ know," he said, finally making his way over to sit at the island.

"She's probably going to start with the information that was leaked onto the internet first, the public files that she ignored before. Victoria may not even get a chance to read anything too in depth with the unreleased private files," he tried giving him as a possibility.

Steve was not about to point out that so far Victoria had been gone from the apartment for seven hours total. He would leave that alone, if Bucky hadn't already figured that one out. He was not sure what was happening down in the archive, but if she really was only reading the public files, she would have been done a long time ago. There was a chance she was watching some of the videos, from his mission reports, maybe even some of the footage of him in the Chair. He had thought about texting Nat to ask what they had chosen to review, but then Bucky would want to know what she told Steve, and he figured that it would stress him out more, so he held off.

There were still a lot of public files to go through, some that were decoded before Nat and Tony had a chance to strip the more secure ones from the internet. He sometimes wondered why they had different security encryption levels for any of Bucky's files. He would have figured that they should all have been at the same high-level access-only encryption, but both Tony and Nat had tried to explain how encryption changed on almost a daily basis as new decryption programs were written. So an older file had an easier security measure to break than a newer one.

"Natasha would have called or something if anything bad happened, right?" Bucky asked him, picking up his fork to poke at the pie.

"Yes, she would have," he tried to reassure him, "But they are doing fine. No news is good news."

"There is no _good_ _news_ when it comes to my files," he sorrowfully stated, finally taking a bite of pie.

The only bright spot so far today was that after asking Tony about how they could take Victoria on a date to a hockey game, the man had gotten a large grin on his face. Pulling out his tablet, Tony had informed him that there was a hockey game in two days. Looking at the site Tony had pulled up, he smiled at seeing that it was Victoria's team, the Blackhawks, that would be in town playing the Rangers. He didn't bother mentioning _who_ her team was to Tony, who would _definitely_ whine about them not being a New York team. Stark Industries had a reserved private box for all sporting events, because Tony never knew what he would want to do and when. There were even a few reserved seats on the glass they could use if they wanted.

Of course Tony then informed him that it would _have_ to be a full-blown night out on the town for everyone who wanted to go, which was probably going to include Tony, Pepper, Nat and Bruce. He had easily agreed since it would be a nice surprise for Victoria once she completed today's personal mission, as he considered it. Bucky had readily agreed to take Victoria out on the date, especially since they would be in a private box where reporters could only get shots of them from a distance, not badgering them with questions.

When the elevator finally opened over eight hours after she had left, Victoria stepped out with Natasha right behind her. Bucky had immediately turned towards the doors at hearing its arrival, his eyes latching onto Victoria instantly with her first step out. Bucky looked like he was about to run away, as if his presence would scare her. Victoria, on the other hand, walked right over to him without a bit of hesitation, once she found him again standing in the den. He noticed that even with Bucky standing right next to the window, that she never once slowed or had a bit of fear come over her.

He and Nat, who had come to a stop next to him, watched as Victoria wrapped her hands around his head, forcing him into a deep kiss. They could see that Bucky was hesitant at first, but eventually he seemed to let his mind wander away from the fears he'd had the past few hours and into the now, meeting her emotions with his own.

When Victoria finally broke off from the kiss, she took a hold of his left hand and silently led him from the den, giving them a smile before heading down the hallway to Bucky's own room, closing the door behind them. Steve could only stare in wonder before Nat spoke for the first time since arriving, reminding him that she was even there.

"So, _that_ was a very long, interesting day," she informed him, walking around the island to get a plate and helping herself to a slice of pie.

Turning from looking down the hallway, he looked at her, curiously asking, "What happened down there?"

Sitting on the stool that Bucky usually sat in, she took a bite of pie as she shook her head judgmentally at him.

"You seem to have forgotten to mention that Vic knows _Russian_ ," she coldly told him, not sounding happy.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Neither of us thought about that," he honestly said. They knew that Victoria could but so far, except for their nicknames, she had not spoken any of the different languages that she knew, even when she was alone with them. "But what about the files? Which ones did she go through?"

Natasha took a bite of pie before answering, "All of them."

"What do you mean all of them?" he asked not understanding the simple phrase.

"Just that. Vic went through _all_ of them," she stated while eating more as he still tried to understand.

There were so many files that even he had not had gone through all of them. He had watched some the videos, even if he couldn't understand what was being said without FRIDAY giving a translation. He had tried to go through some of the paper files, but he had the same problem, that they were mostly written in Russian. Victoria would not have had that problem.

"Vic spent the first hour, flipping through the paper ones, then looking at file names on the computer. I asked her if she wanted to see anything specific, but she just waved me off, saying that she was fine. Then she started to move the files around, into different piles. It wasn't until a bit later that I realized she was organizing them by date. She would put a sticky note on a file if there was an adjoining video log to go with it. After an hour or so, she then picked up the first file and started flipping through it. Her entire focus was on the files. I tried to get her attention a few times, but she never responded. It was a bit unnerving to watch, and that's coming from me. _And_ I've seen Tony on one of his work benders."

Steve could only stare at Nat as he pictured Victoria in the small room, for hours going through each file now date ordered. Then he remembered her mentioning the speed reading. Closing his eyes, he gave a slight chuckle as the true understanding hit him.

"Wade mentioned that to us also. It's like a project that needs to be completed. No distractions or delays, just total focus from beginning to end without hesitating if possible. I...we didn't think about her doing that with the files. We figured she'd just start with the public ones," he told her pushing his empty plate away as Nat continued to eat hers.

"At first, I thought that she was only glancing at each of the Russian folders before moving on, but then I realized that she had already put them in date order. Once I figured that out, I reasoned that she knew Russian, but I still don't get why she just skimmed each one."

"She didn't," Steve told her getting the look he was expecting. "Victoria knows how to speed read."

Nat's expression changed to one of complete shock. "Are you telling me that Vic just _read_ every HYDRA and SHIELD file on the Winter Soldier's dozens of assassinations in a day? And all the records of how they conditioned him? Some of those files were useless maintenance and training reports."

"Maybe, but it obviously didn't stop her. And then she came right up here and kissed him. Any idea why Victoria took him to the bedroom? Besides the obvious," he asked her with a grin.

"All she told me in the elevator was that Bucky needed a hug. Beyond that, your dirty mind is as good as mine," Nat winked at him, finishing off her apple pie. Steve stacked up the three plates and carried them over to the sink.

"Bucky's been pacing the entire floor since we got back from the gym this morning. His mind was not on training to the point where he was dropping his guard so often that I was worried I would make contact and injure him," Steve told her as he washed up the dishes.

"That's definitely saying something about him," she answered sounding exhausted. "I tried to watch the videos from where I was sitting across the office, but after a while, I just couldn't. The things they did to him were horrible. Vic even found an S.S.R. file about his initial capture, from Azzano, about what happened before you found him. Then she moved to when the Russians found him after the train before moving to the HYDRA files. Years ago, someone took the film reels and transferred them to VHS tapes. Since you've been down there, Tony decided to keep up that tradition and have them all converted again so that every one of them are now digital video files. Vic would have the video going as she read over the file associated with it. It was a strange type of multitasking. Her attention was so focused she never responded to me asking her if she wanted to stop for lunch."

Steve had wondered why they had not come back up at lunch time, but he had figured that they had either gone out or had something delivered. After talking for a few more minutes, with Nat pulling up the security feed from about the half way point for him to see. Victoria was sitting cross-legged in the office chair in front of the computer, the file in one hand, her hand working on the mouse in the other. Her eyes were darting between the two, but somehow he knew that she was able to understand both at the same time.

When she was done with a file, Victoria placed it into the file cabinet that they had just carelessly put all the paper files into, but now they were date organized, if they ever needed to find something specific. They may just be able to ask Victoria about the file, if her memory was as good as he was starting to believe it was.

He and Nat talked for about twenty more minutes, him letting her know that they may be onto another base, which would mean a mission very soon. He also told her to be ready for the hockey game in two nights, which she actually said she was looking forward to. She explained that growing up in Russia, hockey was like baseball to them.

After seeing Nat out, he made his way down the hall, stopping right outside of Bucky's room. Pressing an ear to the door, he listen to see if he would be disturbing anything but there was not a single sound coming from inside.

Gently he tapped on the door, waiting for any type of response, but after a few seconds, there was nothing. Starting to get a bit worried, he turned the knob and silently cracked the door open.

He was not expecting to see what he found inside.

Victoria was sitting against a large mass of pillows with her back to the headboard on Bucky's bed. She had removed her shirt, leaving on only a soft sports bra, the type that she seemed to favor. Bucky was lying between her legs, his arms wrapped around her waist, his head using her trapped breasts as a pillow as he gently slept, his own shirt also removed so they were skin to skin. Victoria was stroking his hair as he looked more peaceful now than in his normal sleep.

When Victoria saw him watching, she smiled and motioned for him to come on inside and sit on the bed.

He carefully moved to his spot next to her so that he was also leaning against the large mass of pillows, glancing down at his napping soulmate. Giving a slight quiet chuckle, he pointed at Bucky with a questioning look towards Victoria.

In the quietest whisper he had ever heard, she told him, "He looked like he could use a nap."

"And the shirts?" he smiled at her, trying to match her whisper and failing.

"My idea, not his," she smiled back. "I saw his deer-in-headlights look. He was _very_ stressed today, wasn't he?"

He nodded his answer, as he reached out to take her free hand.

"How are you doing, now that you know?"

"I'm fine. I will go to the gym later and destroy a punching bag like you sometimes do though," she grinned, lifting his hand and placing it onto Bucky's metal shoulder. It was not too often that he was ever able to touch Bucky's arm without him flinching at the gesture. But as he rested his hand on it now, he saw Bucky's body wiggle slightly, as if getting even more comfortable, nestling further into Victoria's embrace. Both of them smiled at the strange movement, but he never _seemed_ to wake up in the slightest.

Running his hand carefully over the metal, he found that the joints where the plates met were much smoother than he had always thought they were, with only smaller gaps for mobility. Initially the metal was a bit on the cold side, but he found that if he let his hand stay in the same place, it would absorb his body heat, matching the warmth that his own skin was. Bucky had not let him do such a simple comforting gesture since coming to the Tower except for brief moments, like in the barn at Clint's. Other times were usually when sparring while his limb was covered. Even lying in the bed together with Victoria, he would still pull away from accidental touches sometimes. But Steve had woken many a mornings and found their arms touching while protecting Victoria, but he had not taken a chance at really touching the arm.

His mind went back to that first time on the rooftop when he had spotted Bucky, not realizing that it was him. When the assassin had caught his shield in his metal hand and then returned it with a toss so hard that he was pushed backwards, Steve had known right then that he was about to go up against someone more powerful than he ever had before. He had been anxious about how to handle fighting someone with such a frightening limb. But now as he touched it, there was not a single bit of worry or panic like he had felt during that first fight on the street.

"It's amazing, isn't it?" Victoria whispered to him as he recognized that he had been staring silently at the silver limb.

"Yes…especially when it's not trying to knock my head off," he said a bit cheeky to her, to which she smiled at him.

"After Zola was able to continue his experimentation, Bucky fought them for a long time, none of their normal mind control methods would work. HYDRA was about to start a new experimental method created by different doctor than Zola when they finally managed to break him enough for a new Chair calibration to work. Did you know that the one thing that finally helped to get him to that breaking point was when they showed him a newspaper article about you going down with the _Valkyrie_?" she asked him, continuing to run her fingers through Bucky's long hair.

"No. I wasn't able to go through all of the files since they were mostly in Russian," he admitted, his heart dropping in his chest at thinking of Bucky being held prisoner once more. He had most likely thought that somehow Steve was going to show up, once again, and free him. But that had never happened. Instead, Steve had gone down into the ice believing that Bucky was already dead. He had failed his soulmate.

"Zola's file said that after reading the article of your 'death' that Bucky seemed to give up. That he became more ' _acquiescence_ ', and acted like he had no reason to fight them anymore," she whispered as Bucky stirred slightly on her lap, her fingers still running through his hair. "I think that, at that point, he didn't _want_ to remember what he had lost."

Steve dropped his hand from the metal shoulder, his body starting to feel cold at hearing Victoria's words. Was it possible that _he_ was indeed the reason that Bucky had stopped fighting them? Had Steve's actions broken his friend and soulmate for HYDRA? Had Bucky never even considered at the time, that their other soulmate may have been alive, and that he need to fight and escape so that he could find her?

Steve started to slide away from them, but after only a few inches, Victoria's hand gripped his arm firmly, holding him in place.

"Don't you _even_ move!" she bitterly whispered to him. He relaxed just a bit back down as commanded, a bit shocked at Victoria being so demanding towards him. "You are _also_ the reason that he was finally able to break free of HYDRA. After the fight on the overpass and in the streets, his mind kept trying to remember you. Bits and pieces seemed to 'interfere' with his conditioning. Pierce had to order him wiped after that fight, but you were _still_ able to get through to him the next day on the Helicarrier. That's how important you are to him. All HYDRA did was keep him alive for the both of us to find."

Steve kept watching Bucky as she had been talking, hating to hear about all of this, the horrible things that Bucky had gone through all because he had not been able to save him on the train. Victoria then pulled on his arm so that he was not only leaning up against the pillows but also against her, letting him rest his own body down some against her. Her fingers began to gently play with his own hand, running in a calming caressing motion over his fingers.

"You can't change the past. Everything that I just mentioned, was still there, even if you didn't know about it. It happened and now, it's gone. Stressing about the 'what ifs' in life will weigh you down, emotionally and physically, if you let them. Don't waste your time looking back, you're not going that way. All you can do is look forward and decide what you want to do with the possibilities ahead. Do you want to be miserable wondering _if_ you could have found him before the Russians did? Or do you want to look forward to the three of us going camping in the mountains in a few months once it gets a bit warmer?"

"Camping," came a mumbled voice from her breasts, quickly focusing Steve on the here and now.

He knew that Victoria was right, but it was hard to change the way he had been thinking for so long, the blame and guilt he'd carried around since first discovering Bucky was alive. But the grin now on Bucky's face was definitely the best reason to take Victoria's words to heart. He would not mind waking up every morning without wondering about how life would be different _if_ Bucky had not fallen from the train. Could he even do that? Could he adopt Victoria's ' _it's in the past_ ' motto and only look towards the future?

He at least wanted to try, Steve thought with a smile.

"Camping," he then agreed with Bucky, reclining back a bit more on her side, taking his hand and once again placing it onto Bucky's shoulder. This time, even with him being awake, Bucky did not flinch away or say anything about the touch.

"Good. So...want to tell me about Peggy?" Victoria deviously grinned at him, as Bucky began to chuckle.

"Fondue," Steve heard whispered, before he gave Bucky's ear a flick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some SHIELD files about the Winter Soldier would have included information and/or notes from Peggy Carter, as well as Bucky's SSR debriefing with Peggy of the HYDRA factory once back at camp. That how Vic would have picked up on the connection. Bucky would have then heard the 'fondue' story from Howard later on.  
> BTW, in the MCU - Peggy liked Steve...Steve carried a shield...Peggy founded SHIELD. Please tell me that you had already figured out that connection.
> 
> So, now that our little group is a lot more comfortable with each other, there will be more time passing between chapters at times, as you saw with this one, working towards...did you actually expect a spoiler?


	48. Zamboni

Arriving at the arena, Vic glanced at the waiting reporters out of the windows of the limo that Tony had everyone pile into for their night out. They were at the private entrance for the box holders and celebrities to use, so the reporters were held off at a respectable distance. They let Tony and Pepper go first, letting him take the spotlight while hoping that Tony would be a good distraction like he usually was. They had agreed to let his shamelessness work for them this time. She was wearing her new jersey underneath a winter coat, along with a wool cap and gloves, wondering how long until a reporter commented on not following a New York team like Bucky had.

Taking Steve's hand to help get out of the vehicle, she heard the almost instant change in the loudness of questions being tossed out by reporters. Reaching back into the car, she then offered Bucky her hand, which he took, coming out next to her. Ignoring all of the sounds from around them, she put her arms through theirs, the same way they had been doing since first meeting them, and started to walk down the path following Tony and Pepper. Bruce and Natasha were the last to get out, but she didn't notice any reporter even looking their way.

She did glance back to see Happy get out of the limo from the front seat with her box of special treats which Tony assured her that he could get to the team. He seemed to grin at her as if there were more to it, but knowing Tony, it would be a show. After hearing that they were all going to the game, not just Bucky and Steve, she was a bit nervous until Steve explained the private box as well as the seats on the glass. Tonight was the first night leaving the Tower together since their date night just over a week ago, so the reporters were bound to have field day with shots of them.

There were many shouts of request for a picture of the three of them, but they never stopped walking forward. Tony, of course, loved the attention so they were able to walk past him as he continued to wave and strut with Pepper _trying_ to get him to keep moving. She did hear a couple of questions for them concerning the depth of their relationship, more than one requesting to know if they had slept together yet. She grinned at wondering if they would have even believed that they had been sleeping together without sex even being involved. Probably not, she figured.

Winding their way to the private box suite, Vic was fairly impressed with the overall size and layout of Madison Square Garden. This was the first time that she had come to the large arena for anything. Usually she was working and would just watch games online on her nights off. She had shown Bucky and Steve the app on her phone to help with tracking scores and standings, earning her a couple of curious looks. They must not have expected her to take the game _that_ seriously.

Inside of the private suite they found that Tony had ordered up enough food for twice as many people in their group with a private bartender to serve drinks. Walking over to the large window overlooking the ice rink, she smiled at seeing the Zamboni and workers getting the ice ready for the start of the game. Tony had delayed them so they had not gotten here in time to watch the warm-up action. The stadium seats under the box's window were not too far down so Vic was glad to find that she had no problem standing right next to it. But the glass would give reporters a very good shot all the way to the back wall so they would have to behave tonight.

Taking off her coat and hanging it in the small available closet, she heard an audible gasp from behind her. Turning around, Vic saw Tony staring at her, his eyes fixated on the Chicago Blackhawks jersey that was now exposed.

"How dare you?" he said dramatically pointing at the offending item. "Happy, kick her out!"

"Why did you think that I wanted to make sure that I could get my box to the team?" she asked him, wondering how he had not figured this out.

"I thought that you meant that you wanted to meet the Rangers, not those annoying... _other guys_ ," he said waving his hands around.

"Does that mean that you _can't_ get the box to the _correct_ team?" she asked egging him on a bit.

Steve and Bucky knew why and what she wanted to happen, but she had told them to not mention anything to Tony, hoping that it would give an opportunity to annoy him some. They had both readily agreed with smiles.

"Of course I can! Tony Stark, remember?" Tony informed her while puffing his chest out a bit at the accusation of _not_ being able to accomplish something. "But now, I just don't want to as much."

"As long as you do, Tin Can," she called over her shoulder after grabbing back onto Steve and Bucky's arms to drag them to the bar table at the window.

"Looks like it will be a full house tonight," Steve said while she was watching the crowd of people still filing into the seats below. But she then noticed that Steve was looking over to a specific section. That was when she saw the reporter's box, a couple of them with cameras already searching the private boxes for shots. "At least we can _talk_ in private."

"Just remember to chew with your mouth closed tonight," Vic nudged him with her hip. "Can't have the Captain proving he has bad manners."

"I do not chew..." Steve started before realizing that she was teasing him, earning her an adorable scowl from him as well as a poke in her side.

"They didn't waste any time either," Nat said walking over to the three of them with her phone out. Holding it up, they could all see the photograph taken of them getting out of the limo minutes ago already posted to an online gossip site.

"They have nothing better to do," she shrugged. "We'll just ignore them and enjoy the game."

They spent the first period up in the box with everyone else eating a mixture of spicy chicken sandwiches, hot dogs, tacos, and cookies, which Tony had the different vendors send up as their dinner. It was not long before everyone was drinking and having a great time.

But before the second period started, she asked Pepper how to get to the seats below since they would be swapping goals. It would give them the opportunity to watch the action up close. She couldn't understand how Tony was just sitting on the couch watching the large TV instead of seeing the real thing, but his loss was their gain, she figured.

Nat pointed out that they would be more exposed down below, but she told her that they would be fine and then she made Bucky promise to Pepper to behave. It was not like they were going to be doing anything bad, since they weren't Tony. Nat told her to text or call if she needed backup, which she agreed to. Pepper gave her the necessary passes for the seats, and pointed them out from the window.

Grabbing both of her warriors, she dragged them out of the suite after putting their hats and gloves back on. She twisted and tucked her hair under her wool cap, hoping to give a bit of a disguise so they would blend in better. Both Steve and Bucky had ball caps to wear, but the reporters would probably find them anyways. She knew the two of them were much too good looking to go unnoticed for long.

The seats were just off to the side of the net, with the teams emerging from the locker room by the time they arrived at the glass. They sat in the front row seats, getting a couple of strange looks from the other fans who had already been in the area for the first period. She was sure they were recognized, or at least Steve was, and if they figured out who he was, they could easily figure out who she and Bucky were.

"This location is too open and exposed," Bucky mumbled to her as he looked around.

"We are fine," she pointed out to him. Vic guessed that his sniper training was just too ingrained in him. "Nothing is going to happen except for maybe a couple of fights on the ice...if we're lucky. Stop worrying, Gradina."

Once the game resumed though, she pushed all thoughts of reporters and fans to the back of her mind. The game was still tied at zero, but hopefully the best actions would be on the far end when the Blackhawks scored. When the first real good board checking happened right in front of them, she noticed both of them slightly jump at the action, as if they expected the boards to not hold. She on the other hand had cheered and clapped at the opposing player losing possession of the puck as it was taken back down the ice.

About half way through the period, Victoria watched as the goalie Crawford took a drink from his bottle, scanning the crowd, his eyes resting for a bit longer on the three of them than anywhere else. It had been one year, seven month and twenty days since she had given her goodbyes in Chicago before heading south. Did he recognize her with her hair tucked away, or was it one of her two body warmers that had caught his attention?

When the game finally was over, the Blackhawks having scored twice during the last period right in front of them, giving a shut-out to the Rangers, they headed back up to the box to meet up with the group. Tony looked dejected as she gave a little victory dance right in front of him, earning a tight-gripped hug from Bucky.

"Don't taunt the poor loser," Bucky said as he swept her up into his arms.

"I am not a loser," Tony said shoving most of a cookie in his mouth in a bit of rage eating.

"No, of course you're not…but your team is," Bruce pointed out to Tony, which earned him a chocolate chip to the back of his head as he and Nat sat at the window bar watching the crowd outside dissipate with disappointment at losing.

After waiting for a bit of time to give the teams time to change, they followed their security escort through the back hallways to the private VIP room so that they could meet the team. Vic carried the box of treats herself, even after Happy had agreed to still be responsible for it (which meant keep it away from Tony). But she told him that he didn't need to.

Arriving at the room, Vic could see through the door that the team was mingling with other fans already. Luckily reporters were not allowed in this area, giving celebrities a bit of privacy. Reaching up, Vic pulled off her wool cap, shoving it into her pocket before fluffing out her hair, wondering what was about to happen. She had told Steve and Bucky that it was possible some team members would easily spot her and maybe say hello if they remembered her.

As Tony walked in, he drew the crowd's attention towards him as she guessed he expected it to be since he looked over his shoulder at her with a smirky grin. But as she stepped inside right behind him, with Steve and Bucky at her sides, she found a couple of familiar faces zoning in on her, thanks to her unique hair, drawing the room's attention off of Tony.

"Vic!" she heard screamed from at least three different areas of the room before she saw very large moving walls heading for her.

* * *

Tony turned to watch as Vic quickly shoved the box from her hands and into Steve's hands for protection as the first guy crushed her into a bear hug. For the next minute, she was greeted by the guys on the team who were not paying a bit of attention to him. He was standing off to the side watching the spectacle, not used to someone else getting all the attention from a room.

"I thought I spotted you in the stands," one of the guys said after she introduced Steve and Bucky to him and the other team members. They both had worried looks on their faces as she had hugged the unknown males, but neither one of them moved to stop the festivities. Vic must have forewarned them as to what to expect. But now, all the males surrounding her were chatting away, laughing and doing fine with meeting her overprotective soulmates.

"Please tell me you have some?" another guy asked, to which Vic then turned to Steve and took the mystery box from him. As she opened it up, every player standing next to Vic reached inside, pulling out what seemed to be a chuck of brownie with icing on top. Walking over, he cleared his throat to get Vic's attention.

"Care to explain?" he asked her as it drew quite while the players stuffed their faces with the treat she had brought them.

"I worked at the United Center in Chicago for…a while over a year ago. I got to know the team and would make them these brownies as a treat, but only if they won," she informed him. Looking into the box, he saw that at least half of the items were gone with the first grabs. Reaching towards the box, Vic pulled it away from him, stunning him a bit. " _Yours_ are at home, an entire box sitting in your kitchen. _These_ are for the team."

"Fine, but they better be as _good_ as they _look_ ," he told her, walking back over to take Pepper in his arms.

"You seem to be taking all of this fairly well," she squeezed him a bit before giving him a kiss.

"For someone who seemed to try and hide and not make herself or her talents known, Vic seems to have a lot more friends than foes," he told her as the rest of the group began to mingle around the three musketeers. One of the players took the box from her and disappeared into the crowd with it, laughing as he stole the remaining items for himself. "Were you able to talk with Vic and confirm the news articles that came out today? It read a lot like what she told me right after moving it about how she was bullied, so I unfortunately have a feeling that it will all be true."

"I didn't want to spoil tonight, so I figured I'd ask Victoria about them tomorrow," Pepper told him as they watched their friends talking happily. "But I did notice that all of the articles tried to put a spin on her old schoolmates, calling out the bullies for their behavior, even if they had been kids at the time."

"Has any of them mentioned the other people from the different places where she supposedly worked that the paparazzi were able to dig up?"

"No, but that may be because of what I found out earlier from Steve while waiting for you to get ready," she told him turning to look at them again. "They haven't looked at a single paper or news report since this all started."

"How is that possible?" Tony asked not understanding how they couldn't be curious.

"I guess that _they_ don't sit in front of a screen _all day_ with FRIDAY pulling up the latest gossip," she snidely remarked.

"That was _one time_ , I swear," he defended himself, kissing Pepper again. "But they do need to see some of the things and have Vic either confirm or deny them with PR. Think you can get her down there tomorrow?"

"I think she will be fine with it," Pepper said as they started to walk into the crowd to mingle.

* * *

Since it was of course Tony Stark, who could basically get people to let him do whatever he wanted to with a bit of bribery, Steve actually put in a request that Bucky had thought of. He had told Bucky to ask Tony himself, but he was leery of what Tony might say to helping him, even if it was for Victoria. But upon requesting the favor from Tony, who, of course, had Pepper do the leg work for him, they were able to get permission for the surprise. So after hanging out with the team for a while, the entire group followed the security guy through more hallways until they found themselves at a storage room for extra equipment.

"So, care to tell me what we are doing here now?" Victoria asked them again. They had told her that it was a surprise and refused to give her any more information than that.

"See those cubbies," Bucky said pointing at all the extra ice skates shoved into wall boxes for anyone to use. "Find your size and get them on."

As she comprehended what was going on, he saw her face light up at the idea of ice skating for the first time. Everyone else had ice skated before at some point and was looking forward to having a bit of fun.

As they first stepped out onto the ice, Natasha and Pepper took off, having been skating for years. Tony and Bruce were a bit more laid back since it had been a while for them. Granted, it had been a while for him and Bucky, but it came back to them pretty quick. Nat glided over to Victoria to give her a few pointers but then she requested that Nat, who was the most proficient skater in the group, do a couple of the basic moves around the ice.

He and Bucky understood what was happening as Victoria intently focused on watching Nat turns, hops, stops, and even do a couple of simple jumps. When Nat headed back over to them, the group watched as Victoria then pushed off from where the two of them were holding her hands and began to move over the ice as if she had been doing so for years.

"Did Vic just do what I _think_ she did?" Bruce asked coming to a stop right next to him, the three of them watching Victoria glide around the ice with Nat right next her.

"Yep, she just learned to ice skate," Bucky told him with a grin.

"I _really_ need to get her into the lab sometime," Bruce said, pointing out that they had been a bit 'busy' with their now expanded relationship. Nat then circled around to grab Bruce's arm and lead him off to circle the rink.

Victoria headed back to them after her initial skate test, coming to a quick stop before them.

"This is fun. A bit cold, but fun," she said holding her hands out for each of them to take as she then pulled them out onto the ice.

"This is nothing. Try being buried in the stuff," he grinned at her, earning himself a quick slap on the hand from Victoria.

"Maybe next time you'll bail out and try walking home," she scolded him.

"How about instead there _not_ be a ' _next time'_ at all?" Bucky supplied.

For most of the next hour, the entire group just had fun skating around the rink, with Nat showing Victoria a few more advanced moves while everyone watched, with Bruce and Tony paying particular attention to the way she 'learned' to skate. Steve glanced at the stands every once in a while, but for the most part, the people on cleaning duty paid them little mind.

Pepper had cornered him at one point out on the ice to inform him that even though they wanted to ignore the press, that there were stories starting to pop up about Victoria that the PR department needed her to confirm the truth of. To see if the interviews of people she either grew up or worked with were accurate or not.

Pepper gave him a brief description of a couple of the articles being published, specifically the ones concerning Victoria being bullied in school. Pepper told him the basics of the stories of how the fellow schoolmates had talked about how Victoria was 'weird' and 'acted strange', but after asking Pepper, she told him that none of them went into detail as to the ability Victoria had to copy someone else's actions. There was a good chance that they did not know, which was a relief. It was not something they wanted to become public knowledge. Pepper then went on to mention the stories mostly told how Victoria was quiet, had strange colored hair, would always have her nose in a book, and would throw off the bell curve due to always getting a perfect score on any test and quiz. Steve found that a bit funny…they had been mad that she was smart.

He had told Pepper that he would talk with Victoria later about going down to the department tomorrow, earlier than later, so that Pepper could see what they were able to put together with PR about the truth behind the stories. He explained that Bucky would probably go with Victoria since he had already planned on trying to work on the files with Natasha since they were so close to locking down the location of the next HYDRA base. He would need to warn Bucky a bit so that anything that they found out about would not be a complete shock and wouldn't go off on a poor PR person. If they needed him, he would only be floors away.

At the end of the night, they all headed to the storage area to return the borrowed skates, everyone in a great mood and talking about stopping somewhere for a late night snack. Walking down the hallway towards the exit where Happy was waiting with the limo, Steve glanced around and realized that Tony had disappeared.

"Has anyone seen Tony?" he asked a bit loudly, getting the entire groups attention. Even Pepper had not noticed him missing to wherever Tony had snuck off to.

Everyone glanced around without success, but then Victoria took off running back the way they had come from, leaving all of them curious as to where she was going. He and Bucky then followed behind her, then the rest of the group, and they watched as Victoria detour from the hallway into an open large door that headed inside of a dark room.

Seconds later, before either of them could see where she had gone, all of them heard Victoria call out, "Step away from the Zamboni, Tony!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For me, this was a small filler chapter, needing to tell how they are dealing with their new fame. It also points out how hard the paparazzi are working to get information.  
> I wonder who may find that useful...maybe you'll find out in the next chapter (ok, that was a spoiler).


	49. Mission is a Go

Victoria stood in the doorway to the mission prep room where almost everyone was getting ready to leave. Tony was absent only because he was working on his suit in the lab upstairs where he stored it. Bruce was also absent since he was not going to head out with them. That would leave him and Pepper here with her until they returned tomorrow at some time. They were meeting up with the SHIELD Helicarrier after heading somewhere east. Steve had told her that they were going to somewhere in Europe but technically since she did not have security clearance, then officially he could not tell her.

She understood, and had told him so, but it still worried her that they were going in the first place. She had known that this was a possibility since that first night they ate dinner together here. So, tonight would be the first time she had slept alone in roughly two weeks. Besides being very lonely, she was worried about what her new sleeping habit was going to be. Had she been around them long enough to continue to sleep through the night or would she be back to the standard three hours?

"They'll be fine," she heard Pepper's voice coming from behind her. "The first few times will be the worst. But it does get easier."

"I'm still at the _'I can't believe I have to deal with this at all'_ stage. There are not too many significant others out there for superheroes, I'm guessing," she told Pepper as she watched Bucky loading up a small box of extra ammo after already filling a couple of magazines for each gun he loaded.

"No, not really. Maybe we should start our own support group, or blog," Pepper joked.

"Should we let Bruce join since Nat's going out and he's not?" she asked back.

"Only if he lets us give him a makeover. I'd love to do something with the mop-top," Pepper told her. "If anything, how about the three of us get together and have dinner delivered?"

"Sounds like a good plan," she decided as she watched Bucky toss a crumpled piece of paper at Steve's head. The fact that Steve didn't even seem to be looking in that direction and still managed to swat it away with his hand was impressive.

"How are you doing after yesterday?" Pepper asked leaning on the wall next to her so they could talk a bit privately.

"I'm fine. I still can't believe how many people out there are liars. It took almost thirty minutes to go through the names of the people claiming to know me," she told her turning away from the room.

"I talked with the Janice last night before she had the statement sent out. She was very impressed with how you handled the rude comments," Pepper told her.

Vic gave a small smile thinking back to yesterday and sitting in the office with the head of the PR department, Janice Green, for almost two hours. Bucky had come down with her, but what Janice needed was for her to confirm relationships or deny them with all of the people claiming to have known her. The reporters had been able to track down a couple of her old bosses, like Chef Sawada, who had given her a great compliment about her skills and work ethics, as well as Richard with the messenger service.

Then there had been the two coworkers from years ago that she had tried to befriend who had condemned her for have a soulmark meant for three after they had accidentally seen it while she was changing into her waitress uniform. Vic had barely remembered them but it didn't matter. There was only one incident that stood out for her. Her family.

The reporters had finally been able to find out where she had grown up and gone to her family's house to try and get a statement from them. It didn't work out too well for the reporters as her uncle had appeared on camera with a hunting rifle while threatening them to get off of their land. If the reporters had thought that the local sheriff was going to help, they were out of luck. When the sheriff had shown up, they had informed him they were threatened 'with bodily harm' but he had only told them they deserved it for trespassing. They didn't realize that the sheriff was her oldest cousin Kevin, the the shotgun wielder's son.

Vic had actually been a bit worried, thinking that her entire family would suddenly appear on the screen, condemning her like they had for all the years she had grown up with them. But except for her uncle and cousin, none of her family ever appeared. She didn't know what to make of it. Would they be a bit more accepting of her now that she had been gone for so long? How did they feel about her soulmates being Avengers? She had considered calling them but with everything that was going on right now, they probably wouldn't even answer a call from an unknown number, figuring it was a hounding reporter.

"I dealt with the rudeness years ago when they actually happened. Hearing them rehashed old stories doesn't change anything. I was a bit more surprised by the celebrity _support_ that were received," Vic told her thinking back to the actors and politicians who had come forward and commented using different forms of media to support them. Two popular movie actors had even 'come out' to the press with their own soulmark meant for three, as well as five politicians from around the country. The consensus was that if Captain America, a national symbol, could have such a soulmark, then there was no reason to hide their own.

Most of the backlash did come from more religious areas of the country, and even then the comments were minimal. Maybe they would not have the great problem with hate towards them that she had feared at first.

"What are the two of you talking about?" Steve asked as she felt his arms wrapping around her from behind since she had turned to be able to talk with Pepper.

"Publicity," Pepper told him, to which Steve groaned. He was still a bit upset by the rude comments more than he was happy by the nice ones when he learned about them later on once she and Bucky had gotten back to the apartment.

"Are you all ready to go?" she asked as Steve rested his chin on her shoulder.

"I am, but Bucky is still packing more guns," he said turning her a bit so she could see back into the room. "I think he and Nat are in a competition."

The two of them were indeed loading up gear bags with a variety of items.

"I thought you said this was a small base?" she asked.

"It is," he groaned. "If he picks up that baseball bat, I'm leaving him here for _you_ to deal with."

Turning around in his arms, she put her own around his neck, saying, "How about I cook something special for dinner tomorrow for when everybody get home?"

"You know neither one of us will ever turn down your cooking so expect the same from everyone afterwards," he informed her, giving her a kiss.

"Good. I'll even put Pepper and Bruce to work with me," she grinned looking over her shoulder at Pepper, whose eyes went a bit wide. "Don't you cook?"

"Not really. I'm more of a ' _running a corporation'_ type of gal," Pepper informed her.

"It won't be bad at all. Maybe just some heavy lifting," she told her getting a strange look from the two of them. After seeing the hockey team the other day, it had made her realize that making a couple of her homemade Chicago deep-dish pizzas would be perfect for this group, and being about 5 pounds each, they were not exactly light. But she would have to do a bit of shopping for fresh ingredients and a couple of proper pans. "Just come home and you'll see."

"Fine," he said giving her another kiss.

Pepper then went off saying she was going to find what was holding Tony up _this time_ as Bucky and Nat finally put their bags into the back of the Quinjet. Nat headed for the elevator as Bucky came over to the two of them, his arms moving to join Steve's in holding her. He gave her a kiss on a part of her neck which her braided hair exposed, his smooth shaven face feeling nice on her skin. Bucky had told her that it was easier to wear the face mask with it shaved.

"Victoria, there is something we wanted to say, and with there being two of us, we didn't want _this_ to become a competition," Steve started as Bucky loosened his grip. Moving to Steve's side, they led her over to the bench, guiding her to sit down as they both crouched before her. Seeing them both look so serious started to worry her. "FRIDAY, could you lock the elevator from opening here to give us a few minutes of privacy?"

" _Yes, Captain_ ," the AI responded.

"We discussed how to say what we wanted to this morning, but nothing really sounded just right," Bucky then said.

"Having you here with us for the past few weeks is the happiest that we have been in a very long time," Steve told her. "Especially since we had basically given up hope of ever finding you after so long."

"Since I came to the Tower, I still didn't feel all there or that I belonged somewhere. The fact that I now do feel much more like my old self has to be because of your presence. But so you know, it is being with you overall that means the most to us," Bucky then said, his lips doing that cute little smile that sent a relaxed feeling through her body.

"Although, sexy time is pretty good," Bucky then commented, getting a smile from her and receiving a nudge from Steve at losing the seriousness of the conversation.

"But we did agree that, before we left today, that we wanted you to know that…" Steve said.

"We love you," the finished in unison.

Vic knew that she was just staring between the two of them at hearing their admission. She had begun to panic when they had started, thinking they were going the exact opposite way for some reason, but instead they were both now smiling at her like schoolboys...they were adorable.

"Both of ya need to understand this...I didn't grow up having anyone telling me that so there was nobody for me to feel that way towards. The closest that I've ever come would have been all of those years ago when I lived with Wade. When I left him, I knew then that he was the first person I truly cared about. And thinking about ya'll leaving today, I feel that same the same way, but worse."

Grinning, she opened her arms and wrapped one around each of them, pulling them both into a large group hug, which they reciprocated by holding onto her waist. She decided to take a chance...

"I love you too," she then said with her head right between theirs, "But I want ya'll to understand something, which is, when I say 'you' I will _always_ mean the _both_ of you, no matter _whom_ I'm saying it to or when. Got that?"

"Yes," they again said in unison hugging even tighter as loud thumps began to echo through the room and Tony's voice then came over the intercom.

" _Why the hell am I stuck in the elevator with the doors locked_?"

* * *

Later that night, Pepper invited Victoria and Bruce to her and Tony's suite, instead of going to the large common room where everyone usually gathered, saying it was too large for just the three of them and a bit impersonal. They had ordered dinner, consisting of large salads and sandwiches, after Victoria informed the two of them that they would be helping her to make homemade pizza for dinner tomorrow night, as long as the team returned without being delayed. When she mentioned that Tony usually ordered dinner while the team was flying back home, Vic had just told FRIDAY to not allow him to make a food order as well as having the AI promise to _not_ tell Tony what they were making. Pepper couldn't help but find it amusing that Vic loved to slightly antagonize him, giving him a bit of payback.

So far she had noticed that Victoria seemed to be adjusting to the Tower's strange lifestyle fairly easy. She had taken to working sometimes with Tony on the cars without too much complaining, or quitting like all of his previous mechanics, which was a miracle in itself. Every time that Bruce had questioned Vic about the ability she had to learn anything, she had been open to discussing it, from what Pepper could tell. Going shopping with Natasha the two times had been enjoyable, she admitted. Overall, Pepper decided that Victoria had to be the most easy-going person she had ever met. Something this ragtag group needed.

"So Bruce, why didn't you want to go with the team?" Victoria asked as they were close to finishing up their dinner. Pepper, as well as everyone else, already knew the answer, but she must not have questioned the guys about it if she was asking. Or maybe Vic had...

"I, uh, don't really _like_ to have to go on missions," he poorly stated, leaving himself open for more questions.

"Why?" Vic then bluntly asked.

"Because I'm worried about not being able to control myself," he admitted aloud. They all knew the reason but she knew that Bruce was also hesitant to talk about it.

"How much in control are you normally?" Vic casually asked taking a bite of her sandwich.

"For the most part, at the beginning, it's much easier. But after fighting for a while, it starts to become harder to maintain that control," he explained to her.

"Have you tried practicing to keep control?"

"Practice? As is change into the Hulk here and go a few rounds with the team?"

"Yeah, have you?"

"Definitely not," Bruce answered with a chuckle. Pepper wondered where Victoria was going with this line of questioning.

"You do know that they would help you? That way you wouldn't get stuck here all the time. I'm not saying you aren't fun to hang out with but you could be out there with them, protecting them," Vic told him, getting a strange look from Bruce.

"Protecting is not what the big guy does," he stated firmly.

"Yes, he does," Vic sounding as if her answer was obvious as they both stared at her now. "Nat told me about what you did in Sokovia, how _you_ shielded her from the shots Ultron took at ya'll and then got her safe to the Helicarrier. You may think of the Hulk as something separate, but after hearing a couple of stories from her, I think that there is only _you_ ," she told him, finishing off the last of her sandwich, Bruce openly gaping at her candidness.

"Vic may have a point, Bruce," she decided to chime in. "You keep worrying about how you are going to hurt someone on the team, but for all of the time that you've been here, working with them, it has _never_ happened."

"But it _could_ ," he pointed out.

"I think that you have a similar problem like Bucky was having," Vic started to tell them as she moved back to finish off her salad, making Pepper wondering how personal this was about to get. "He kept worrying about what could possibly go wrong concerning his arm with me: would he hurt me, hold me too tight, hit me while sleeping. But you know what happened? _Nothing_."

"But it still _could_ happen," Bruce then pointed out to Victoria.

"But at least _now_ , Bucky is _living_ his life while not letting it _consume_ and _worry_ him, unlike _you_."

Pepper saw Bruce open his mouth to say something, but nothing came out.

"Just how _bad_ are you going to feel if Natasha gets _hurt_ on a mission, knowing that you _could have been there_ to stop it from happening?"

Pepper could not believe the look on Bruce's face at hearing Victoria say that. Everybody knew how he felt about her but not a single person, except maybe Tony, would ever elude to it. But here Vic was pointing out how Bruce was hiding away in the Tower while the woman he possibly cared about risked getting hurt. Nobody had confronted Bruce in this way, ever.

"I think that when the next mission comes up, that you need to wear those stretchy purple spandex pants that Tony made for you with pride, and get out there with your team," Victoria smiled at him. Then, holding her fork pointed right at Bruce, she informed him, "Oh, you are officially taking Natasha as your _date_ to the Gala!"

Pepper lost it at that point, laughing so hard that she felt the beginning of a tear in the corner of her eye. She was definitely enjoying having Vic around.

* * *

Later that night once she was back at the very dark and quiet apartment, Vic stopped to take a look around. The only lights were from the buildings outside, which was not much to begin with. There was not a sound at all except for the gentle hum of the refrigerator. This was the first real time she had been alone here since moving in, not counting getting to the apartment a few times before the guys arrived for lunch.

Sitting down onto the floor right in front of the elevator, she laid down and stared at the ceiling, wondering what Steve and Bucky were doing right then. If they were headed east, then they were in a later hour time zone so they may already be asleep. And by the time the sun rose tomorrow for her, they may already be in the firefight they were expecting. Bucky and Nat may have been goofing off with taking so many weapons, but what if they actually needed them? What if the intel on the base was wrong and it was much bigger and more well defended than they thought? She could feel the slight panic starting now that she was back home and alone.

"FRIDAY, could you put on Rachmaninov's _Isle of the Dead_ , please," she asked the invisible AI who was always listening.

" _Of course, Miss Victoria,"_ FRIDAY said as the melody began to play softly.

Lying down and calming her breathing, Victoria stretched her arms over her head. This was much easier to do in the large open area than in her closet or old apartment. So, trying to not think of all the things that could go wrong with the mission, Vic began to wonder about jumbled series of strange things. What kind of beds did the Helicarrier have? Would her warriors share a room? Did they pack their toothbrushes? Did Steve polish his shield before a fight? Did Bucky polish his arm? Did Tony polish his suit? Did Natasha laugh at them if they did? The pointless silly questions helped to take the place of more threatening ones.

After a few minutes the AI lowered the music a bit and asked, _"Miss Victoria, do you require medical assistance_?"

"No, FRIDAY, I'm just trying to calm down again. Just like that last time when I was in my closet," she said hoping the AI agreed with her again. "I'm just worried about the guys...well, the whole team really. I'll be fine in a little while."

" _I can contact the Captain or Sergeant if you would like to talk with them, if that would help_ ," FRIDAY informed her, starting to worry Vic that the AI just might do that.

"No, please don't!" she commanded, beginning to think really quick. "FRIDAY, if Steve or Bucky were distracted during a mission because of being worried about my well-being, their proficiency during battle would be compromised, and therefore one or both of them would be a liability to the team. Do you agree with my assertion?"

A few moments passed before the AI told her, " _Yes, I can agree with that deduction_."

"Then let's just keep this between us, without the guys knowing, and you will see that I'll be fine."

" _Very well, Miss Victoria_."

"Actually, is there anyone in the gym right now?" she asked hoping it was empty.

" _No, both Miss Sweet Bell and the Green Machine are in their quarters_ ," FRIDAY said unfortunately getting a laugh from Vic at the names.

"Did Tony ask you to change Pepper's and Bruce's names to those?" she inquired sighing while shaking her head already knowing the answer.

" _Yes, he did_."

"Can they change them back?" she asked.

" _No, only the Boss can authorize that_."

"Could you do me a favor, FRIDAY?" wondering if this would work.

" _I will try_ ," the AI said.

"Look up the definition of 'teasing' and run it against what Tony did by changing their names."

A few seconds went by, " _Tony is teasing Sweet Bell and the Green Machine by using words associated with their names or their persona_."

"Yes, exactly! Now...how would you like to help me tease _Tony_?"

" _I would like that, Miss Victoria_."

"Great! Now, when the team gets back, every time that Tony walks out of the elevator and onto any floor, could you please play the theme to the _Mighty Morphin Power Ranger_ , season one, opening song? Only when Tony finally asks, tell him that he has to change Pepper and Bruce's names back to normal for it to stop. Oh, and _do not_ let him order you do stop the song from playing, otherwise _he_ will not be teased. _This_ is how we will stand up for Pepper and Bruce, together, alright?"

" _Yes, Miss Victoria_."

"Thanks, now I think I'll go hit something for a while," Vic said getting up off of the floor and heading to her bedroom to change.

* * *

Sitting at his desk, with his laptop's screen monopolized by Rumlow's face, Johnathan Weiss found looking down at the notes he was taking on his desk much more interesting than looking up. He hoped that the day never came when he was used to seeing that horrid mass of scars.

"The money transfers for the weapons purchases will be completed by noon tomorrow, sir," he told the burned man, finishing the notes for the tasks he had been given.

" _We finished clearing the base in Feldkirch two days ago. By the time they get here, we'll have the new site already operational_ ," Rumlow informed him. They had easily calculated which base had the most information about it at the site of the Avenger's last raid, so they had made sure to clear it out quickly.

"Is there anything else to be taken care of?" Weiss asked turning back to look at the screen. He at least needed to seem unaffected by the sight of the current so-called leader of HYDRA, but that was only when it suit Rumlow.

" _No, I'll contact you the next time I need something_ ," Rumlow told him about to break the video connection.

"If you have a moment," he quickly said, stopping Rumlow from severing the link, "There has been a development that I wanted to see if you were aware of."

" _What is it_?" Rumlow asked not sounding happy, but then he never did.

"Since you did not mention it, I was wondering if you have by chance been following the celebrity gossip?"

" _Why the_ _ **fuck**_ _would I do that_?" Rumlow practically yelled at him.

"I think that you may find _this_ interesting," Weiss said transferring a file so that it would appear on Rumlow's screen. He could see the man's eyes darting around the screen at all of the surveillance photos that his people, plus the paparazzi, had taken over the past two weeks or so.

" _What the_ _ **fuck**_ _is all this_?" Rumlow asked not understanding. " _What the hell am I looking at_?"

"It turns out that the Asset and Captain America were hiding a secret. Not only were _they_ soulmates, but their mark also indicated a _third_ member. And they very recently found her. That's who the woman in the pictures is. Victoria Roth, soulmate to the Asset _and_ Captain America."

Rumlow's eyes went wide as he stared at the screen again, reexamining the photos more closely this time before beginning to laugh like he had been told the greatest thing ever. Which, Weiss thought, he may have just been.

When he finally calmed down, Rumlow said, " _I can't fucking believe it! This is too good of an opportunity to pass up! I want you to keep an eye on her, find out anything that we can use._ _ **She**_ _will be the perfect key to retrieving my Asset. And maybe getting revenge on the good Captain at the same time_."

"I already have a man on the inside of Stark Tower. He was the one who informed me of her presence before we knew exactly who she was. I then had that leaked to the press so that they could begin the leg work for me. Now that they have released an official press statement confirming her identity, I can begin a more thorough background check," Weiss told him.

" _You do your damn background check, but do **not** let any of them become suspicious! If they increase security around her, then she will be **useless**!_" Rumlow told him, staring off to the side of the camera creepily smiling, probably still looking at Victoria's pictures. With his next comment, it confirmed his suspicions. " _She's much too pretty for the likes of them_."

Weiss did not even want to think about Rumlow's current fortunes with women. He'd knew what had happened to a couple of the females Rumlow had been with from the men who were assigned to his cell. He'd had to pay a lot of money to bribe a few authorities to drop the investigations for the couple of bodies that needed covering up.

" _It looks like I will have a use for that **Chair** after all. I'll start the process of finding a location and then getting the system out of storage and working on getting a team together to run it. It's going to take some time and we need to take this opportunity slowly. Right now, they will be on alert because of the reporters and worrying about us finding out about her. I'm a patient man. It will give them some time to get to know one another. Maybe even fall in love…if the Asset can even do that anymore. Let them get into a nice safe routine. That way, when we take her from them, they will both be willing to do __**whatever**_ _I demand to get her back_."

"Yes, sir," Weiss said taking a deep breath, partially calming down knowing that nothing was going to happen immediately. It would take a couple of months to have the Chair's system ready. But if there were any major delays…

Rumlow may say he was a patient man, but Weiss knew better.


	50. An Intermission: Steve's Sweet Sixteenth Birthday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, as I was originally posting this story (July 2017), I realized that the next day (July 4) was Steve's birthday (even though I'd known this, it just didn't click).  
> After taking a day to think of something, I put together this stand-alone intermission chapter just for fun.

**4** **th** **of July, 1934**

**Brooklyn, New York**

* * *

The sun was finally setting and they had yet to find the perfect spot. At least that was what Bucky was calling it. Right now, he'd settle for the top lid of a trashcan to sit on after walking from his apartment all the way to where the East River met the Upper Bay at Manhattan's tip.

With the depression having been going for years with no sign of letting up, any chance people had of free enjoyment was at a premium so the waterfront was now prime real estate. They still had a little time before the fireworks display would begin across the bay. Even if it wasn't from the 'perfect' spot, Steve knew that he and Bucky would still enjoy the colorful display.

"Come on, Bucky," he said as they wove through the thick crowd, "let's just sit anywhere. We've been walking for hours."

"It hasn't been _hours_ ," Bucky told him, leaning down and throwing his right arm around over his shoulder to encourage him on, and Steve knew that he was right. Steve also knew that there was no way he would ever be able to physically walk for hours with how sick he normally was. He had just gotten over another summer cold three weeks ago. "I promise we'll be sitting within 5 ticks."

"Didn't you say that 5 minutes ago?" Steve asked getting a nasty look from a smooching couple on the blanket he just used the corner to trip over. At least he didn't fall on his face…this time, thanks to Bucky helping to hold him up.

"I didn't _promise_ last time," Bucky grinned at him.

They had left his place after eating an early birthday dinner with his mother, Sarah, just the three of them, so they would have time to get here. She had cooked a large bowl of Hoover Stew since she knew Bucky would be joining them. Hers always tasted great because she pan fried the hot dog coins before adding them into the pot. For dessert, since she was unable to get the ingredients for a real cake, she had made an orange flavored Jell-O mold with a real orange slices cut up in it. He had asked if she wanted to come with them tonight, but she had already agreed to take a late shift at the hospital since it would pay a bit more being a holiday…and they always needed the money.

"Here we go," Bucky told him as they stopped next to a tree. For the most part since it was bit back from the waterfront, there was nobody sitting directly under it since the sun was now going down and the shade from it was not needed. Luckily the trunk was large enough so that the both of them could lean against it and still look out over the water.

"Perfect," Bucky informed him, plopping down on the dry grass. Stepping over, Steve sat down on his right, that way Bucky would be up against his good left ear like always. "See, told you the walk would be worth it."

"I hope you are ready to carry me home later," Steve joked to which Bucky ruffled his hair into a messy pile.

"Not a problem," he honestly told him. Bucky had to carry him on more than one occasion…much to his chagrin. He hated that his body continued to prevent him from keeping up with his healthy soulmate. Every other week he always seemed to be laid up a for a day or two, but unless the weather got really bad, Bucky would barely get a sniffle. How was it that they were meant to be together? Was Bucky only there to make up for Steve's inabilities?

"You know that I hate it when you actually do that," Steve told him running his hands through his hair to fix it back into place.

"If you need help, I'm there. You know that," he told him as Bucky checked out a couple of girls walking over the grass not too far away from them. Steve could see that he was intently looking at the soulmarks that were visible due to the buttons of their shirts being undone to help alleviate some of the summer heat. Bucky must not have liked what he saw since he remained seated and got comfortable. He must have also seen Steve waiting for an answer before saying, "They were a bust."

"You think we are going to meet her so soon?" he asked him watching the people migrate a bit closer to the water's edge now that the sun was a bit further down.

"It's your birthday. What better present to get than a soulmate?" Bucky smiled at him. Leaning forward, Bucky then reached into his back pants pocket and pulled something from it. "Actually, I had to wait until we were away from your ma before I gave you your present."

Steve reached out to take the offered small item folded up into a bit of old newspaper.

"You didn't have to get me anything. I know that you're strapped for cash," he told him but still very appreciative of the item, without even knowing what it was.

"I worked for two weeks cleaning Mr. Peterson's shop after closing in _exchange_ for it, so therefore no cash changed hands, so you can't complain," Bucky told him. "Go on. Open it."

Pulling away the edge of the newspaper, as the first good visual of the cover of the book appeared, Steve quickly shoved it against his chest, hiding it from any prying eyes that may be nearby.

"Buck! I can't believe you got me this," Steve glanced around to see if anyone had noticed.

Since the area seemed safe, he chanced another look at the cover. Bringing his knees up, he used them to help shield the item from bystanders. The dime store pulp fiction magazine was called _Spicy_ _Detective_. On the cover was a sexy looking dame bound with rope as she was being taken away by a man who looked just a like a villain straight out of a comic book with the costume he had on. Steve knew that as he was staring at the erotic image that his face was starting to feel a bit flushed, and he was pretty sure that his heart was racing a bit too much also.

"I checked under your bed to make sure you didn't have this one already. When you are done, I want to borrow it," he gave Steve a knowing smile and wink at the suggestion.

"I'm surprised you didn't already read it," he told him double checking the area as he began to flip through the book at the inside artwork. He would never chance drawing anything like this himself, worried that his mother would find it and give him a spanking…sixteen years old or not. Then there was the speech that he would surely receive for liking the idea of the damsels in distress.

"It was your birthday present. Of course I didn't read it. Now, staring at the cover numerous times at night…" he then gave another sly smile.

"I think that we may have to talk about what is way more information than I need, you jerk," he grinned at Bucky.

Wrapping it back up in the newspaper to hide the cover image, Steve shoved it into his jacket pocket, "Thanks, Bucky."

"It's your birthday. I had to get you something," he told him as another girl went to walk past them, Bucky's eyes fixing on her soulmark, that even Steve could see was not a match. Their own shirts covered the ones on their chests, hiding the multiple image so that others would not see. They had agreed to only expose it once they had found their match. Dames were a lot more open with having theirs seen. Men's shirts were made to automatically hide theirs.

"Where do you think she is?" Steve asked him.

"Our dame?" he looked over at him with the same smile that he usually got when they talked about their soulmate. They had long ago agreed that their third had to be a dame, and a good looking one at that. "She's right over there."

With that, Bucky pointed over to the island of Manhattan, looming right in front of them with all of the skyscrapers being built on it. His eyesight allowed him to see the fuzzy lights cutting into the darkening skyline.

"Are you sure?" Steve asked him.

"Unless she moves to Brooklyn, I'm sure that she not here already. But with all the people moving into those tall buildings, she's got to be there waiting for us," he told him, sounding as if he was certain of the statement. "So, you still think that she's a redhead?"

Steve remembered during their last talk after they had saved up to go to a Saturday matinee double feature of some old Clara Bow films that had been out for a while. But the posters for them showed her with that red hair of hers, and it had just caught his attention. But something that unique was probably not going to happen for them.

"No. She's probably got brown like yours," Steve told him.

"She may have blond like yours," Bucky pointed out.

"No. I don't think so," he simply offered, which got Bucky looking hard at him.

"Why not?" he asked.

"I don't think that she needs to be anything like me at all," Steve said knowing that it was going to bring up the same argument again.

"There is nothing wrong with you, Steve," Bucky firmly stated. "Any dame of ours would of course take after you."

Looking over at Bucky, he asked, "Don't you think she may take after you?"

"The only reason that she needs to take after me is so that she can protect you by keep you out of fights when I'm not around," he gave him a snarky grin.

"Great," he sarcastically said, "Nothing like have a dame beating up punks in alleyways for her weakling soulmate."

"You're the only punk around here," Bucky said nudging Steve's shoulder with his own. "Did you see that magazine on Tommy's newsstand with that photo of Jean Harlow on it? Her hair is so white blond that it makes yours look like dirty beach sand."

"No, I haven't been up that way in a few days," Steve told him as more people passed them. The sun was now mostly down so hopefully the fireworks would start soon. "Do you mean like Mildred's hair from down the street?"

"No, man. I mean as in almost white. I've never seen a dame with that color before so I'm not sure what she did to get it that way," Bucky told him with a smile, probably remembering the picture. Harlow had always been shown with very blond hair, so he was curious as to what the color photo showed. "I sure wouldn't mind her looking like Harlow."

"As long as she had great gams, you won't care what she looks like," Steve said but then getting his own worry about that comment.

"Yeah," Bucky said a bit dreamily. He didn't have the same fear that Steve did when it came to her height. He was now sixteen and barely at five foot. With all of his health problems, he knew that there was little chance of him getting much taller. Bucky already had to bend over a bit when he put his arm over his shoulder. Steve did smile at thinking that with his height, he might be directly at her bazoombas' level.

Carefully glancing at Bucky, he once again began to think about how disappointed their soulmate was going to be with him. He was always sick, he couldn't do any type of labor to get a decent paying job like Bucky was hoping for out at the docks. Then there was his physical appearance. Short, thin, and weak. None of those are what any soulmate would look for. Bucky on the other hand was exactly opposite. Tall, muscular, and strong. What any dame would want.

"Why do you have that look on your face?" Bucky asked him without even glancing his way. How was it that he could do that every once in a while? "Be honest."

Taking as much of a breath as he could, "Why would anyone want to be soulmates with me?"

"Well, I don't think that she will have a choice," Bucky smirked at him, earning a weak punch in the arm from Steve. "But what's wrong with having you as a soulmate? You're always trying to do your best with any task that your ma puts you to. You do great in school, a bit better than me actually. Even though you usually get your ass kicked, you'll call out a bully in a heartbeat for picking on someone even smaller than you. You're a great person, Steve."

It was a bit hard to hear all of those qualities, when he wasn't sure how to put them to any use. None of them helped to put food on the table for him and his ma. Years from now, when they finally found their dame, would he have to rely on Bucky to have a good job to support the three of them? Would one of his ailments finally catch up with him to where he became bedridden and have to have constant care? What would happen if she was just as sick as he was? Would Bucky then be responsible for caring for two invalids?

That was probably one of his worst fears above all else. That their dame would be just as sickly as he was. With as much as he got sick, there was no way he could help to take care of her if that happened. If she was anything like either one of them, then hopefully she would be as healthy as Bucky always seemed to be. Steve knew that he didn't care that much about her hair or height as long as she was healthy.

"Alright, whatever you're thinking of, stop. We're here to have a good time," Bucky told him with another shoulder nudge. After a minute of silence, he could see a worried look appear on Bucky's face, as he asked, "Are you really worried that our dame will like me better for some reason?"

"Why wouldn't she? Look at you and then at me. What do you think?" he pointed out.

"I think that our dame will look past anything on the outside and see the same great guy that I know," Bucky told him. Steve could only hope that what he said was true. "I'll tell you what…I just thought of another birthday gift that I can give you."

"Bucky, don't. I don't need anything else," he said thinking of the book in his pocket.

"Naw. You'll like this one," he gave Steve a cheeky smile. "I promise that once we find our dame, when it's our first time together that I'm going to make sure that you get the first dip."

Steve turned to stare at the soulmate sitting next to him, realizing what he was offering to him. To be the first one of them to have sex with their soulmate. They had talked numerous times since they had hit puberty and figured out why these detective pulp books had intrigued them so much, and Steve knew that Bucky was looking forward to being with their dame as much as Steve did. Would she even want to be with such a scrawny punk though?

"Buck, you don't have to do that," Steve told him.

"Too late. Birthday gift given," he said reaching over and giving Steve a punch in the arm, a bit firmer than he usually would and with a large smile.

"Shouldn't our dame have some say in who she sleeps with?" he asked him.

"If she doesn't sleep with you, then she doesn't sleep with me," he firmly stated and Steve could see the seriousness in him, knowing that Bucky meant this.

"Buck, what about if I'm too sick where I can't? That's not something that you need to be saying," he told him.

"Then we'll worry about it when we finally find our dame," Bucky told him. "Until then, we'll just have to keep reading those detective magazines and getting some ideas as to how to have some fun."

"You know, there's a good chance she may not like the idea of…" Steve looked around quickly, stopping anything he was about to say aloud. " _That_."

"No, our dame will like _that_ ," he stated with certainty again, as well as another smirk.

With that comment, they heard the sound of the first explosion coming from across the bay. Looking off to their left, they could see the fireworks were already going, with the delayed sound reaching them seconds later. For the next few minutes, the colorful explosions dominated the sky, bring more than just a bit of happiness to them.

No matter what, Steve decided, he would use his one birthday wish and put it out to the universe for all of his worries to go away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that you liked this short idea. I threw in a couple of things mentioned in my story to give a bit of background.  
> I would like to think that given the conversation, that this could be the first time that my Steve and Bucky called each other Jerk and Punk.  
> The dime store detective novel will show up again very soon in a normal chapter, so this helps with that background (Steve's alluded to it once before).  
> Describing what they keep looking for in a soulmate was fun to do, especially since it piece-meals Vic together for them.  
> And then we get to the birthday wish...I believe that the universe was listening.


	51. Birthday Presents

"I can't believe that we missed Rumlow _again!_ " Iron Man cried out as he threw his hand up into the air and stalked off inside of the emptied warehouse.

Steve looked around the area, irritated at the events himself, but keeping his emotions in check much better than Tony was. There was no mistaking that the place had recently been emptied out of whatever project Rumlow had been using the small base for. Nat was in the office area trying to see if any paper files had been left, but it seemed that HYDRA had done a thorough job of evacuating this time.

"Tony, see if FRIDAY can find any type of connection between the names on this warehouse and any other place, nearby or further. A matching parent company, or even another property owned or leased by whatever entity they were using here," Steve requested as he continued to scan the area for any hidden threats. Bucky was walking the perimeter of the warehouse, looking for someone, anyone, to hit. But it seemed he was going to be disappointed today.

"Like I _didn't_ already have that going?" Tony sarcastically replied while stepping out of his suit, putting it into guard mode as he walked away and went to help Nat in the office area. Pointing his fingers at himself over his head, Tony called out, "Genius, remember?"

Steve just rolled his eyes, taking in the rest of the warehouse. From behind a shipping box, Bucky emerged then started walking towards him, his own weapons being stored around his body as he moved. Seeing him in his full Winter Soldier outfit, now stalking towards him seemingly with a purpose, it brought a couple of flashbacks to Steve of the overpass in D.C. He wondered if Bucky ever had the same happen to him from the Helicarrier fight, when he had been in his own uniform.

Somehow, Steve didn't think so.

Coming to a stop right in front of him, Bucky reached up and muted his earcom then removed the dark tinted goggles that hid his eyes, revealing the eye black underneath.

Great... _now_ it was a flashback to the rooftop.

"We need to get Vic a birthday present," the strange set of words appeared from the assassin's mouth, shocking Steve into silence from anything that he was about to say.

After a few moments recovery time, not sure he had really heard correctly, Steve simply asked, "What?"

"A birthday present. You remember what those are, right? I sure do," Bucky joked, as well as sounding amused at Steve's disbelief of having this topic brought up when they had been expecting to be in the middle of a firefight. He then muted his own earcom to keep this conversation private.

"Yes, I _know_ what a birthday present is, Smart Aleck. But what made you think of that right now?" he asked him.

"Well, there's nothing else for me to do here _right now_ , so I thought of Vic," Bucky told him, folding the goggles into a side pocket of his cargo pants.

"Good to know that you can keep _focus_ ," Steve teased him, sliding his shield into place on his back.

"Put Rumlow right in front of me and I'll show you _perfectly aimed_ focus," Bucky grinned, patting one of his side arms.

Instead of answering the rhetorical statement, Steve glanced through the window leading into the office at Tony and Nat talking together about there not being any files left. The idea of getting Victoria a birthday present was not a bad one, he considered. "What were you thinking of?"

"I think that jewelry would be appropriate," Bucky's voice sounded happy and his eyes seemed to get creases at the edges, letting him know that he was indeed smiling under that mask.

"I'm sure that any jewelry store around here would just _love_ to let you inside looking like _that_ ," Steve sarcastically stated waving his hand towards Bucky in his full Winter Soldier outfit. Steve also watched the scattered SHIELD agents slowly gathering back together near the door, their own searches probably having turned up nothing.

"Obviously, we'd get changed first. Well, maybe not you. They might be more helpful for Captain America," Bucky remarked while glancing up at the rafters again. He may be thinking about Victoria, but Steve could tell that his mind was still partially on the now pointless mission.

"I'm not going anywhere like this," he informed him as Tony and Nat came out of the small room towards them. Turning to them, Steve said, "Let me guess. There was nothing useful in there at all."

"Roger, Rogers," Tony said amusing himself, his hands casually resting in his front pockets. Steve sighed and dropped his head at the horrible joke. "That was a good joke, you just don't get it. Ask Vic to show you the movie _Airplane!_ when you get home."

"This time, whoever was in charge of packing knew what they were doing," Nat informed them, crossing her arms as she glanced over at the agents. "But a special someone did leave us a lovely parting note."

With that, Nat motioned for him and Bucky to follow her as she led them back to the office. Stepping inside, she turned and pointed at the wall that was not visible through the window. Scratched into the wood surface, looking to have been done with the tip of a knife, was the words, 'Better luck next time' with a chicken-scratched skull and crossbones symbol as the signature.

"So, Rumlow himself was here for the evacuation," Steve stated as he glowered at the annoying message.

"Somehow they knew that we were coming," Tony pointed out from the doorway, leaning on the casing.

"They _always_ seem to know when we're coming," Bucky grumbled from next to Steve.

"It looks like we are about four or five days behind him now. That's better than a few months ago when we were two weeks behind. We're slowing catching up," Nat offered, patting his shoulder as if that would somehow help him to feel better about another wasted mission.

They all filed out of the office, back into the main warehouse area where the SHIELD agents waved them over towards the door. They would let them do a second sweep of the area, just in case they had missed something, but somehow he doubted it would do any good. But that meant that the Helicarrier would still be over the area for a few more hours. He smiled as he considered Bucky's idea while Tony and Nat walked away.

"Alright, let's go get changed and then we can head into town. There's sure to be a store with something that would be just right," Steve told him as they left the warehouse.

* * *

"So, where are you two sneaking off to?" Nat asked as she leaned on the wall in the hallway outside of all of the quarters they had been assigned to on the Helicarrier for this mission. Steve had seen her waiting the moment he left his room.

"We are not _sneaking_ anywhere," Steve told her as he straighten up the shirt he was wearing, tucking it in as he walked towards Bucky's door. Their rooms were right next door to each other's. She had actually held her tongue when they met up with the Helicarrier yesterday about them not requesting a room that they could share. That would be more of a Tony comment.

"So you just requested transportation down to the city for what? To hang out?" she asked as Steve knocked on Bucky's door, as he then put on his coat.

"No. We have something that we need to take care of," he told her as the door opened. When Bucky saw her standing there in her own civilian clothing, he looked over at Steve.

"You asked Nat to come with us?" he asked as he picked up a heavy coat to wear in the town.

"No, she's just being her usual self," Steve informed him, which gave her a bit of a smile. She liked the fact that they always figured she knew what was going on. Most of the time she did, while the rest was body language. She had seen the two of them talking by themselves at the warehouse after muting their earcoms. It was easy to tell by the smiles that came over Steve's face every once in a while that the conversation had nothing to do with HYDRA. The only other thing that would matter to the two of them right now would be Victoria.

"So, what does this trip have to do with Vic?" she asked hoping that her assumption was right.

"Did I hear Vic's name mentioned?" Tony's voice echoed down the hallway as all three of them turned to see him strolling towards them.

"What _is it_ with the two of you?" Steve asked shaking his head. "Can't we get _any_ privacy?"

"I'll have you know that since Vic moved in, I have yet to override your privacy setting on FRIDAY for your living quarters," Tony informed them with a smile as he strutted to a stop next to them. "I do not need my eardrums set on fire by listening to you defile my employee."

"That is _not_ something that you should be bragging about," Bucky deadpanned.

"Bucky has a point, Tony," Nat had to agree.

"Anyways…Bucky and I are just heading down to the town for a bit. We'll see the two of you later," Steve said starting to move away, Bucky close on his heels.

"Great, I _hate_ being stuffed inside this box," Tony stated opening his own quarter's door and grabbing a coat from right inside.

"Nope," Steve commanded, stopping and raising his hand, as if that simple gesture would work on her and Tony. Had he not been paying attention for the past few years?

"Why all the secrecy?" she asked crossing her arms and staring at them. "What are you two up to?"

"We are never getting out of here at this rate," Bucky answered, dropping his head as his hair flopped into his face. "You may as well tell them so we can go."

"Fine…but remember that what happens next, it is on you," Steve informed him before turning back towards where she and Tony were standing in the hallway. "We recently found out that Victoria had a birthday in October so we are going to see if we can find her a belated birthday present."

"Perfect!" Tony stated clapping his hands together. "I need to get Pepper a 'forgive me' present. We can all shop together!"

"Why do you need a 'forgive me' present?" she asked him wondering what Tony had done _this_ time.

"I technically don't...yet! But the stash that I have hidden at home is getting low and I need to replenish it," he informed them, which she actually heard Bucky and Steve chuckle at the idea. She had helped Pepper discover its location years ago, but Tony still had no idea. "Besides, can either of the two of you speak Austrian German?"

Bucky and Steve then both looked at each other, shaking their heads. They hadn't considered that.

"What are you thinking of getting Victoria?" she asked opening her door to grab the coat she had already placed right inside so that it would be easy to grab.

"Jewelry of some kind," Bucky answered.

"That narrows it down," Tony sarcastically replied as they all started down the hall together. At least it wasn't an appliance, she thought.

Less than thirty minutes later, they were standing outside of local jewelry store on a quaint stone paved street in the Austrian town. Tony, of course, led the way inside, heading right for the shiniest display they had while she watched Bucky and Steve glancing around the entire store. Seeing the lost look in their eyes, she comprehended that even though they knew they wanted to get Vic something, but overall they really were lost as to _what_ to get.

"What type of jewelry does Victoria already have?" she asked them, hoping that help lead them in some kind of direction.

They looked at each other for a moment, before Steve answered, "A pocket watch."

Natasha knew that she was staring dumbly at them, but with _that_ answer, what else was she supposed to do? "That's not jewelry. Doesn't she have anything that you've seen her wear?"

"Not really," Bucky said staring in the case nearest to him. That seemed to explain why she hadn't brought any with her to go with her outfit for their date the other night.

"Well, then, you need to consider the basics. Earrings, necklaces, bracelets…"

"No bracelets," Steve suddenly interjected, getting her and Bucky's attention. "No wrist watches either."

"Why not?" Bucky asked, not knowing like her why Steve had interjected that request.

"She doesn't like the feel of things on her wrists. That's why she uses the pocket watch," he told him.

Bucky's mind seemed to be going through a memory search of some kind, before he pulled Steve off to the side of the small shop closer to where Tony was looking at items, as they began to whisper very quietly about something. About a minute later, they left their strange huddle and came back over to her.

"Alright, earrings and necklaces," Steve informed her. She really wanted to know what that talk had been about but instead she motioned them toward a counter display that may work.

"Since it's a birthday present, how about something with her birthstone?" Nat asked them.

"That sounds good. Any idea what the stone for October is?" Steve asked.

"Opal," Tony's voice carried across the shop, as the three of them turned their heads to stare at him.

"Why do you even know that?" Bucky asked.

"Dated a girl named Opal once in college," he informed them.

"Of course you did," Steve said shaking his head.

Turning to the case, she scanned the items inside, seeing that they were organized by stone. Moving down the counter, she pointed out the section to them. For the next few minutes, she watched as they discussed which item or items to get. They were still debating if they should get one or two. She had a feeling that they were going to be doing talks like this a lot.

"Are Frick and Frack ready yet?" Tony said coming over to her with a small bag in his hand. He was used to having to buy items for a female.

"Nope. Give them some time. This is the first gift they are getting for their soulmate. As well as the first gift they've probably given to _anyone_ in over seventy years," she pointed out to Tony, who actually seemed to considering her words. Holding out the bag in front of her, she took it for safekeeping as he then headed over to the two confused men.

For the next few minutes, Tony had the jeweler pull out all of their opal items so that they could get better looks at them. She watched as Tony actually helped them decide on a matching set of earrings and a necklace with a round deep blue opal stone on each. One item for each of them, and then Tony made them agree that she could wear one item without showing favor to either of them, to which they easily agreed.

"I proud of you, Tony," she told him as they guys were having the items rung up. Smirking at him, "That was the most useful you've been in quite a while, including missions."

"Flattery, Natasha? Soliciting for your own gift?" he asked as the two of them headed out of the shop to wait on the street.

"I'll settle for no more sexual innuendo jokes about me and Banner during a firefight," she sneered at him.

"How about cold hard cash instead? That's so much easier," Tony smiled at her as she gently shoved the bag for Pepper's 'stash' against his chest.

"Did you happen to catch what Steve and Bucky were talking about during that private talk when they first got here?" she asked curious. He had been a bit closer to them. He may not have seem to be paying attention but she never put anything past Tony.

"I heard only a bit. Steve mentioned Bucky being held prisoner then something about a connection with the soulmark. What started that talk?" Tony supplied.

"Vic doesn't like to wear watches or bracelets apparently. So putting those two bits together…" she said letting Tony fill in his own ideas.

The three of them did seem to have very strange connections when it came to the soulmark. Hopefully they would all be able to handle anything else that they found out about later.

* * *

"Looks like my Asset is trying to be a real boy," Rumlow commented to Tevin while watching the small group leave the jewelry shop with their purchases. Both Rogers and the Asset each had small bags in their hands, obvious gifts for their lovely soulmate Victoria.

Rumlow's face twitched as the feeling of the Nano Mask he was wearing rubbed against a part of his cheek where it did not lay flat, not that it really did that anywhere thanks to Rogers. Twice he had reached up, almost ripping the damn thing off and exposing his face before he stopped at the last moment, leaving it on to show only a random citizen that would not alert the two. Moving his jaw so the Mask felt better, he watched the group rounding the corner of the street out of sight, not even realizing that he had been right there sitting while watching them.

"From what we have seen on previous base raids, I would wager that all of the HYDRA programming is gone, but the Asset's training is still fully intact. It also seems like most of his memories have returned," Tevin informed him. "I'm not sure how effective the Chair will be on him."

"Then I'll keep using it on him over and over again until it _does_ work!" Rumlow spit out, standing up from the small table located outside on the street in front of the café. Tevin automatically stood to follow him walking away in the opposite direction of the hated group. "Once they get comfortable and settled into a routine, and I have everything in place, only _then_ will we strike. Make sure that all other cells know to stay away from the Winter Solider and the Captain. I don't want them alerted by some stupid underling trying to make a name for himself. They are going to be _mine_."

* * *

"What do you mean I can't order dinner?" Tony yelled at the ceiling of the Quinjet, as if that would somehow help.

Bucky turned his head so that Tony wouldn't seem him grinning at his childish behavior. Both he and Steve knew that Vic already had something planned but it seemed that nobody, including Pepper, had informed Tony.

" _Tonight's meal has already been planned for and been taken care of_ ," FRIDAY's voice informed him yet again. Tony grumbled and plopped down into the pilot's chair, pouting like a pro, Bucky thought.

"It will be fine, Tony," Steve calmly said from the seat next to him. "Just sit back and wait until we get home before you get all annoyed at something not going your way."

"You knew about this, didn't you, Rogers?" Tony asked pointing a finger at Steve, who put up his hands defensively. "This is a conspiracy!"

"I'm not the one who did it," he truthfully stated without truly answering Tony's question. They knew that this was on Vic, but she had never told them as to what she was making. He didn't care what dish Vic made, he was sure that it would delicious, just like all the other ones she had made for them so far.

When they finally landed, they were informed by FRIDAY to come to the common room's kitchen and dining area for tonight's 'welcome home' meal. Since they were already dressed in civilian clothes, he and Steve agreed to put their gifts in their cubbies until later when they could give them to Vic in private. He, Steve, and Nat took the stairs up to the next level but Tony needed to take his suit to his workshop so he hopped on the elevator.

Reaching the common room, the three of them could smell the aroma of pizza heavy in the air. They could hear talking and laughter coming from the kitchen area so they headed up the next flight of stairs. Entering the kitchen, they saw Bruce lifting a large round pan out of the oven, placing it next to two other ones already on the counter. Vic and Pepper were talking as they washed a couple of very large pots in the sink.

"About time! I was set to eat all of these without you," Bruce said, tossing the potholders behind him onto the counter. The girls then turned around at hearing Bruce talking to them. Steve rounded the island with the dinner cooling on it to wrap Vic in his arms and gave her a kiss.

Seeing her brought back the private talk he and Steve had in the jewelry shop, about Vic not liking things around her wrists and possibly being a connection due to his captivity time. Later on that night, when they were alone, he pointed out to Steve that on more than one occasion each of them had held onto her wrists during sex. Steve had told him that maybe it only had to do with items, not hands. Either way, he wanted to talk with her about it before anything else happened. He wasn't about to do anything that she may not like just because either one of them did.

Suddenly, the strangest cheesy music began to play from the large common room below.

"Sounds like _Tony's_ arrived," Vic deviously smile getting a strange look from everyone. "Bruce, go ahead and get the salad from the fridge. Shake the dressing and pour it on top."

"Why does that keep happening!?" Tony screamed to which Vic responded by laughing as she finished washing the pot.

He could then hear FRIDAY's voice from the room, but not clearly enough to understand the words.

"Victoria!" Tony's voice boomed.

"Do we want to know?" Pepper asked looking over at her.

"Let's just say that Tony has to fix something that he's done," she grinned without giving a good answer.

When he finally arrived in the kitchen, before he could complain, Tony's expression changed from irritation at whatever Vic had done to curiosity as he glared at the pizzas on the counter, asking, "What are those?"

"Chicago deep-dish pizzas," Vic informed him. "I thought you were a genius of some kind."

" _Chicago_ deep-dish? Blasphemy!" he bellowed, but Bucky could see him inhaling their scent intensely.

"Well then, _you_ don't get any," she snidely stated as she started to cut into the first one. Lifting up the extremely thick slice, he was surprised by the enormity of the item. To the rest of the group, she said pointing to each pizza individually, "There's a pepperoni, a sausage, and a supreme."

Tony's bulging eyes never left the wonderfully scented slices.

"Let's not be _too_ hasty here," Tony then said, moving over to the counter as she continued to put more thick slices on plates.

Bruce pulled out bowls for the salad, putting everything on the edge of the island to serve themselves from. Everyone then began to grab their choice of slice, along with a fork and knife, heading out to the large table to sit, Tony included without any more complaining. He had never had to eat pizza with utensils before so this should be something different. As he let everyone else go ahead of him, including Steve, Vic rounded the island to come over to him.

She stopped before him, eyeing him then asking, "What's wrong?"

He glanced around the limited room, spying the walk-in pantry as the only close space they could talk privately. Taking her hand, he led her into the small room, turning the light on and closing the door behind them.

"I need to ask you something, and we need the truth," speaking for Steve without him here.

"Alright," she answered not sounding worried at all.

"Steve told me that you mentioned to him that you don't like things on your wrists, like watches," he calmly said.

"I don't, not really. After a couple of hours they become very irritating," she answered but he still needed more. "I eventually gave up on them."

"What about other things?" he asked a bit embarrassed now that he was actually doing this.

"Like what?"

After taking a breath, he quietly said, "Hands."

He could see the understanding at where the conversation was going come to Vic. Glancing down, she reached out with both of her hands to take his in them.

Lifting them up some, she asked, "Like these hands?"

"Yes," he said as she entwined their fingers together.

"Not a problem," she said smiling at him, tightening her hold on his hands.

"Are you sure? We will not do something that makes you uncomfortable," he pushed the topic.

"I _know_ that it is not a problem, just like standing with ya'll next to a window," she said leaning into him, pressing his back against the door while giving him a deep kiss, and feeling better now that they had talked. "How did the mission go? Catch that guy yet?"

"The mission was a bust. They weren't there," Vic looking a bit disappointed at his statement, but she gave his neck a kiss. He smiled at her as he moved their hands behind her back, pressing her chest firmly against his, giving her one of his most suggestive looks.

Pressing him into the door, she asked, "Do you think that I'm going to get busy with you in a pantry?"

"In ours, probably. This one, probably not," he grinned at her. "Or at least not right now."

"Then let's go eat," she smiled, breaking the mood so they didn't start anything improper in the pantry.

Later that night, he and Steve lay in bed talking about what to do now that Rumlow's trail seemed to have grown cold as they waited for Vic to finish getting ready for bed. After dinner, they had come back to their place before giving Vic her birthday gifts. She had been thrilled at receiving them, even over a month and a half late. Vic then told them that the last time she had received a present for her birthday had been the backpack that she carried all of her stuff in on her motorcycle. He had noticed that it looked old and she told them that Wade had given it to her for her twenty-first birthday, explaining her attachment to it.

Now, they finally heard the door to her bathroom open.

Turning to look, they saw Vic standing in the doorway completely naked, except for her birthday gifts. She had braided her hair back on the sides so that the earrings showed without being hidden, the necklace resting very nicely between her breasts. His breath caught in his throat at the exquisite sight before him, knowing that Steve was probably having the same reaction.

"What is it with the two of ya'll being overdressed all of the time?" she asked turning the light behind her off and walking towards them.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just guessing that everyone reading is familiar with the Nano Mask. Nat used it in CA:WS and its been used in Agents of SHIELD.


	52. Wholesome

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ready for some sexy time? Definitely a mature chapter (and aren't those are the best)!  
> Well...I've had a couple of people ask as to the relationship between Steve and Bucky...which will not be a one-on-one sexually. They have a more of a V-relationship, sexually drawn to Victoria, not each other, but joining together for a threesome. I've read other stories where they are together sexually but I decided to go with the type of strong bond that the movies have portrayed them having.

Vic felt like hunting Tony down and giving him a wedgie once she finally discovered the reason for three of his car not working right.

After working on all of them for the past few days to try and find why they were giving engine warnings, she had found that Tony had removed and taken apart their catalytic converters to remove the platinum and palladium for one of his other projects. The man was a billionaire and could have had what he needed purchased and delivered in a matter of days...heck, maybe hours! But no! _He_ had decided that he couldn't wait, and since the cars in the garage had enough material between them, why not just take it from _them_?

She spent the rest of the morning finding a supplier that could get the replacement part that she would need, as well as resorting the tools that Tony had, at some time without her, messed up searching for a socket wrench of a certain size. Since Victoria knew that she had left them organized so that a child could have found the correct size, it told her that Tony must have been on one of his all-night working benders. Vic had heard a couple of tales from everyone in the Tower about them. That first morning after she had stayed at the Tower and she had met him in the elevator, he had just been coming off of one.

Now, it was getting close to being lunchtime, so she wondered if her warriors were back from the gym yet. She was basically stuck on working with those three cars without the parts, and it made her dread what she was going to eventually find with the other two that had knocking noises coming from them. She needed to get out of here for a breather before Tony found shaving cream in his shoes.

"FRIDAY, where are Bucky and Steve right now?" she asked wiping her hands down with a towel before tossing it onto the workbench.

" _They are just arriving back at your residence, Miss Victoria_ ," she was informed.

"Could you please open the comm?" she requested wanting to see if they wanted to head out somewhere for lunch after they all got cleaned up.

" _Open_."

"… _telling you that I don't think that Vic would have a problem doing it_ ," she heard Bucky's voice saying, which stopped her from speaking to let them know that she could hear them. Doing what, she wondered.

" _I am not just going to ask her to do that. That's what_ _ **you**_ _would do_ ," Steve then said.

" _Maybe_ ," she heard Bucky snicker before he said, " _Ow, stop that! Just ask her, Punk_."

" _No! In case you seem to have forgotten, Victoria's never done that before. She also hasn't even attempted to during our times together. She may not like the idea. I'm not going to pressure her into trying something she may not be comfortable with doing_."

" _You saw…hell, everyone on the street saw what she did to that ice cream cone. That was_ _ **not**_ _the act of someone of uncomfortable with the idea of fellatio, even if she hasn't done it_ ," Bucky stated firmly.

So _that's_ was what they were talking about. Vic then realized that there was a good chance that Steve may have never had someone go down on him. Granted, she had never done so, but that was not about to stop her from giving it a try. The only reason she hadn't already was because they were usually busy doing other things in bed. Then there was dealing with one of them feeling left out.

" _If it happens, it happens_ ," she heard Steve say to end their discussion. " _I'm going to take my shower. Now drop it!_ "

Whispering, she asked, "FRIDAY, close comms."

" _Closed_."

Now _she_ felt a bit like the stalker after hearing that. Bucky may listen to Steve, but _she_ was not about to 'drop it' at all. Instead, Vic got a devious grin on her face from her wicked thought. Starting a run through the garage towards the elevator, she hit the button and practically bounced as she waited for the doors to open. It seemed to take forever to get to the garage, but it was less than thirty seconds later.

"Living quarters, please," she instructed FRIDAY, before adding, "No stops."

In a short amount of time, Victoria was walking through the hallway aimed for Steve's closed bedroom door. Bucky's was also closed, and she guessed that he had gone to take a shower also. Putting her ear to the door, she could hear the distant sound of water running. Steve was already in the shower, unless he was still letting it warm up.

Opening up his bedroom door, she closed it behind her. He was not in his bedroom, but his gym clothes were tossed on the floor near the closet, where she knew his dirty laundry basket was located. He was already undressed. Not hesitating, she then slipped her own shirt and bra over her head, tossing them back towards the bedroom door. Her shorts, underwear, sneakers and socks soon followed, leaving a trail towards his location.

Steve had left his bathroom door partially cracked and she was able to sneak a peek inside, finding him standing under the warm shower water that was barely giving off any steam. His head was held downward, and his arms were crossed with his eyes closed. Steve seemed to still be troubled by the conversation that he and Bucky had just had. And she knew just how to get him out of this funk.

Stepping inside of the room, Vic quietly walked across the cold tile floor, making it all the way to the glass enclosure of the shower without being noticed. Reaching over towards the sink, she grabbed the hand towel from the hanging ring to use in a few minutes. She wrapped it around her neck to keep track of it. Smiling, knowing what was going to happen, she gave a couple of gentle knocks on the glass. Steve jumped at the close, startling sound.

"Care for some company?" she asked, opening the door without waiting for a response.

"Victoria," Steve said, glaring down at her naked body, "what are you doing in here?"

She closed the door behind her and tossed the towel towards the opposite side of the shower from where the water was cascading from. A single step was all that it took for her to be right up on Steve, enabling her to wrap her arms around his waist, tugging his naked form firmly against her. Pulling him in for a kiss, a couple of simple rubs of their bodies had him hardening from their touches.

"Does that answer your question?" she asked glancing around the small area, finding the shelf where the bar of soap rested. Taking it into her hands, she began to lather her hands up, as Steve could only stare at her, still seeming shocked by her presence. Vic then realized this was the first time showering with someone else for both of them.

Her soapy hands then began to glide over his firm, smooth chest before moving to the rest of his body, washing away the sweat that had built up from the past few hours in the gym. Sometimes, she wondered if he and Bucky went to the gym just to have something to do, as opposed to actually needing to. Once his entire chest was covered with the bubbles, she leaned back in for another kiss. She made sure to rub her bare breasts all over his chest, letting the action playfully wash him. She felt him growing hard even more, as he wrapped his arms around her waist, smiling at her, finally easing up a bit with the new experience.

As her soapy hand then lowered and made contact with his hard shaft, Steve practically jumped back, somehow not expecting the action. With a wily grin, she asked, "I really am going to break you one day, aren't I?"

"I think so," he managed to get out as she swept her soapy hand over his twig and berries. That when she got her next idea.

Vic stated as her hand stroked him, "You and Bucky have nicknames, but I just realized that ya'll's little soldiers have been missing out."

"What?" he asked trying to pay attention as he rode on the delightful feelings from below.

"You know...the family jewels. Mr. Winky. Gearshift. Pork sword," each funny name was followed with a firm tug. "Tallywacker. Gigglestick. I got it...from this point forward, yours'll be Spanky and that way Bucky's can be Alfalfa."

"Absolutely not," he answered, but from the look on his face, she was pretty sure she could call them anything and Steve would let her.

"Really? How about I _convince_ you to let me?"

Vic then pushed him back under the water spray, allowing it to run between the two of them so that all the soap was washed away. Kissing his freshly cleaned neck, she continued to let her hand slowly stroke him, getting him ready for the next step of her plan that he still seemed to have no idea about.

They kissed and ran their hands over each other, but when Steve went to reach down between her legs, she knew that she needed to get on with why she was actually there before she became distracted. Turning him around so that his back was up against the wall of the shower, the water barely touching his side, Vic reached over using her toes for the discarded hand towel she had brought in with her. Pulling it back so that it was at his feet, she gave Steve a final kiss before smirking at him, twisting the corner of her mouth up, as she began to bend at her knees.

* * *

When Steve saw Victoria beginning to kneel, he knew that his eyes were wide saucers. He saw her move the towel to his feet, intending on using it to cushion her knees from the hard tile floor of the shower. She had come in here prepared to do this for him, he realized. Had Bucky somehow told her about the conversation they had? He had only been in here for a minute before Victoria had appeared. It was not enough time for Bucky to have found her, talked with her, _and_ convinced her to do this.

"Victoria…," he began, wanting to tell her that she didn't have to do this, but he was silenced at the feeling of her lips surrounding his hard member. Never had any female done this for him, even back years ago. They had barely been accommodating when it came to sex, so this experience was a wonderful new sensation for him.

Her hand began to stoke him as she made him even harder, which he thought was impossible. Between the feel of her lips sucking on him and her hand starting to give a stroking motion, he grunted out with carnal sonance at her actions. He was not sure exactly how long she continued to do that as he had closed his eyes, not wanting anything to distract him from the pleasurable moment. Eventually, he felt her hands move from his cock and begin to rub across his legs as her mouth began to take him as deeply as she could.

Her fingers then slid up his thighs, not stopping until they found a firm grip on his butt cheeks. Slightly digging her nails into his skin, she held him in place as she continued to pull him further and deeper into her mouth with each stroke. Reaching out, he wish that there was some kind of bar mounted on the wall for him to grab onto. He felt like he needed something to keep him from collapsing.

Victoria's hands then left their grip on his cheeks, but her mouth never once left him. Holding her hands slightly above her head, he understood that she wanted his own hands in hers. Taking a hold of them, she then guided his hands towards the back of her head. Steve was slightly mortified at the thought of doing so. But Victoria then covered his hands with her own, as she then used them to help push her head towards him. After only a few thrusts, she released her own grip on him, letting him take over as her hands went back to his cheeks.

"Are you sure?" he tried to calmly ask, his voice wavering with the need for more.

Victoria pulled off of him so that she could answer, making him instantly regret the loss of her mouth on him. "Yes, show me what you like."

The moment that her lips had once again sucked him into her warm mouth, he began to stroke her head back and forth. Her tongue began a swiping motion over the tip of his cock when he allowed her head to get that far away from him, probably the same motion he had seen her doing with the ice cream cone. He let the feeling of her tongue on him last as long as he could stand it before he wanted to feel her take all of him.

Giving a bit more forceful pull towards him, her mouth found its way down the entire length of him. He heard the sounds of her slightly gagging on him, so he quickly removed his hands, worried that Victoria was somehow injured by his action. Instead, she reached up and took a hold of his hands, returning them to her head. Guiding him again, she bobbed her head a few times holding him in place before letting him once again take over. She had been fine with the action, it seemed. He needed to take a moment to figure this out.

"Stop me if you need to," he growled out now, getting a bit of confidence as he considered his next actions.

Once again he pulled her over him, not stopping this time when he heard the same sounds again, but all Victoria did was grab a hold of his cheeks with her hands, kneading him as he released her just a bit. With each thrust, he would pull her as well as push his own hips forward, not stopping until she had taken all of him in her eager mouth. He could feel her nose pressing into his flesh with each full deep thrust he made her do. But not once did Victoria show any signs of needing to stop him.

Letting the sensations last for as long as he could, he finally gave up fighting the urge for more of her. Releasing Victoria, he moved back so that she was free of him, her eyes now focused directly onto his with a smile on her face.

Holding out his hand, she accepted it so that he could then lift her to a standing position. Hungrily he latched onto her lips as he turned her to be the one against the wall. With little effort on his part, he grabbed a hold of her butt cheeks, using them as a grip so that he could lift her off of the floor, her legs locking ankles behind him. Since he was holding her in place, Victoria then reached between them, taking him in her hand to guild him inside her warm slit as he slowly let her down onto him.

As he pressed Victoria up against the wall grinding into her, he recalled the last time they had been like this, on Thanksgiving, but fully dressed in the hallway. This time was so much better. Then another thought hit him, causing him to give a soft chortle.

"What?" Victoria managed to say between the moans caused by each of his thrusts.

"I just realized that I get you all to myself," he grinned before giving her a deep kiss, their tongues twisting together.

When he finally pulled away, she panted out, "It was bound to happen eventually. I'll compensate Bucky tomorrow."

"He'll definitely enjoy _that_ ," Steve continued to rock her body up the slick wall, as he bent over to suck on her ignored nipples. During moving between them, he asked, "Any chance on getting you to change those nicknames?"

"Nope, they're now set in stone," she responded as he began to thrust upwards while lowering her onto him.

The minutes seemed to slow down as he tried to take his time, but after the feeling of her mouth on him, he was too eager.

Steve could hear the sounds coming from her increasing knowing that Victoria was so close to release. Her own hands made their way back to his butt, helping to push with each thrust. When she threw her head back and blissfully cried out, her body clamped onto him, pulling his own release at the same time.

Holding her tightly to him, he carefully moved them over to the built-in bench at the back of the shower, just out of reach of the water. They sat there for a bit, heavily breathing and kissing, Victoria now straddling his lap, while her knees rested on the bench, surrounding him.

"Why would you do that for me? How did you know?" he dared to ask, still wondering if somehow Bucky had indeed put her up to this.

"You are a guy. _All_ men want _that_ ," she breathed into his ear as she then sucked on his lobe, earning a moan from him. "As for how I _knew_ , let's just say that _I_ accidentally became a _stalker_ for a bit."

Steve sat there as her tongue continued to give swishing motions over his skin before her lips moved down his neck. Suddenly he felt her lips latch onto the skin at the curve of his neck, sucking hard at the tender flesh. He grunted out from the firm but not altogether unpleasant feeling it gave him.

"There!" Victoria grinned at him when she was done, lifting her head to admire her work. "That's just in case you've never had a _hickey_ before!"

"I can't _believe_ you did that," he said, reaching up to see if he could feel the affected area but he was unable to be sore with her.

" _Really_? Name something that you think I _won't do_ ," she smirked at him with a challenge.

"I am not even going to start that right now," he said crushing his lips to hers. "That's a Bucky conversation. He'll come up with stuff I've never dreamed of."

"I can believe that, but remember, when you're ready to experiment, I've watched a _lot_ of videos," she kissed him as she began to stand up.

As Victoria rinsed her wonderful, naked body off under the warm water, he couldn't help but stare at her. He remembered his mother always telling him how kind and wholesome he was. If she had any inking of the dirty thoughts and playful boyhood fantasies that were going through his mind right now as he stared at his naked soulmate, especially after what they had just done, his mother would never call him wholesome again.

* * *

Bucky was sitting on the edge of his bed, facing through the open door of his bedroom at Steve's closed door. When he had emerged from the shower, he had asked FRIDAY as to Vic's whereabouts. Hearing that she was already in their apartment, he went to her bedroom, but found it empty. A few moments later, there was no mistaking the sound of Vic cries of pleasure coming from Steve's room. There was only a second's worth of jealousy at them being together, but after the times they had spent together, he no longer doubted Vic's feelings towards him.

Instead of paging them so that they would hurry up so they all could go get some lunch, he sat down on his bed and began to fiddle around with one of the stupid games that Tony had installed on everyone's phones. There were a few things about this modern age that he didn't think that he would ever really care for. Lining up candy to make them disappear was definitely one of them.

Hearing the bedroom door across the hallway finally open up, he closed the app and lifted his head. Vic was emerging from Steve's bedroom damp and fully naked with a pile of clothes in her hand. Seeing him sitting there, Vic tossed the handful of items towards her bedroom before striding right over to him. He sat up a bit straighter as he watched her hips sway with every step.

When she finally reached him, Vic bent over to give him a deep kiss, her warm fingers caressing his cheeks.

Breaking apart after a very long time, she bent over and whispered into his ear, "You'll be compensated tomorrow. Page me when you're done in the gym."

He could only glare with a nod at her as she walked away, towards her bedroom. That was when he saw Steve, a towel wrapped around his waist, leaning against the hallway wall, a very satisfied grin on his face.

"What did she mean by 'compensated'?"

"Let's just say that we no longer need to have _that_ _talk_ with her!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you've previously seen, they will both be with Vic and then just like in this chapter, they'll have separate private times also. There will be only a couple of fully Mature chapters like this, since I'm actually just trying to build up their relationship to go with the overall Rumlow plot storytelling. There will be plenty of sexy times, as well as another Mature Kinky chapter.


	53. Tony's (Wonderfully, Fabulous, Annual Stark Industries) Christmas Gala (That Victoria's Never Heard Of)

For the next week, Vic continued to work on straightening up the mess of a garage that Tony had downstairs. Every day she would find something new to irritate her, all thanks to Tony. There were missing pieces from different cars that were taken for repairs to either his suits or the Quinjet. At dinner one night, Pepper had asked how she was doing working in the garage. That opened up a long rant focused on the frightened looking man sitting at the head of the table and ending with him being banned entirely from the garage for five days, one of each car that was not currently able to run thanks to him.

Steve and Bucky's affections had taken an even larger turn since the big date. Whereas before they would give her simple kisses while they had watched movies at night, they had begun to have fully make-out sessions on the couch. They would eventually end up in the bedroom and had not finished a single movie all week. She found it funny that Steve seemed to be the instigator more often than Bucky was.

After the shower with Steve, and then the next day Bucky, if they were in the mood, they would not automatically wait for the third to be there. There had been times when Steve had to deal with PR, so she had been with Bucky. Then there had been times when Bucky practiced at the shooting range, so she had been with Steve. At first, the two of them seemed to be more concerned with not monopolizing her, but they had finally relaxed.

As she had guessed it would be, Bucky had finally been the first one to press the topic of being a bit more _bossy_. Between the comment at the club, as well as the ones during the week, not to mention how they acted at dinner on their date, she knew it would be only a matter of time. Last night they had begun to kiss, but then Bucky had commanded her on how to slowly remove her clothes as he watched the show, similar to how he had in the hall after their date, his voice husky with desire.

Obeying him with a smile, he had ordered her to lie on the bed, telling her to place her arms over her head and not to move them at all until he gave her permission. Over the next long couple of minutes, he had begun slowly exploring her entire body with his hands and mouth, as if it had been forever since he'd done anything like that. There had been many times that she wanted to grab a hold his hair, pulling him into a kiss, but she laid there and enjoyed the moment just as much as he seemed to be.

When he had finally held off as long as he could, Bucky moved her arms down to her sides before sliding them into the small of her back, hands to elbows. With the weight of his body pressing down on to her, it was just enough pressure to prevent her from being able to free them. He had trapped her under his warm body in such an easy way, as he then began to claim her with each wonderful, hard thrust. Bucky had _no idea_ how he had prevented himself from having his back all scratched up after teasing her for so long.

Afterwards, they had talked for almost an hour about as she tried to figure out what he liked and wanted eventually to get around to trying. She had even mentioned a couple of things she wanted to try that had gotten his attention with a knowing leer. Vic learned that neither Bucky or Steve had ever done anything like that years ago, as dames were not as open back then. But as they talked, she began to wonder if it also helped to give him back a bit of power that had been denied to him for so long. Vic had assured him that when he was ready, that they could try whatever he wanted, including Steve in the _playtime,_ if he wanted to she told him, to which Bucky only gave another knowing smile.

After pointing out how Steve had followed his lead before, she had joked about Steve and damsels in distress, and how he was supposed to _save_ them, not be the one _tying them up_. But Bucky had just hinted again that he thought that Steve would be willing to participate, but he didn't elaborate. If he wanted to be secretive, she'd go along with it. He then asked if she would be nervous about them having such control over her, probably thinking more to his own time as a captive. She pointed out that she totally trusted the two of them, and that she knew they would never hurt her.

Now, she _was_ nervous, but only because they would all be going out into the public spotlight once again, to attend the Gala that Tony would not shut up about for the past week. It had really better be something with all the bragging he was doing, she thought.

"Are you ready yet?" Steve's voice called out from the bedroom again through the closed bathroom door at her.

"Not yet, go away, Ennuyeux," she yelled back as she moved the pencil back under her eye to finish the dark line. She was trying her hardest to duplicate the look that Natasha had done for their date. She had paid attention, but it was still nerve-wracking to actually do it for the first time.

"I'd stop being _annoying_ you if you would just get out here," he retorted as she finally finished.

Standing back from the mirror she looked herself over. She was finally satisfied with the overall look. Giving herself a final double check in the mirror and satisfied with her appearance, she wrapped the waiting coat around her and buttoned it up. Opening the door, she found Steve standing by the window, looking out over the darkening city.

Turning around, she knew that her jaw had probably dropped at the sight of him in the tuxedo. How she suddenly wanted to stay home…

"They sent over the wrong one, but it is the right size," he said straitening up the lapel.

"They didn't send over the wrong one," Vic could barely choke out with her throat tightened, before walking over to him to straighten up the bow tie that was just slightly crooked. "I changed it for this one the day I took Bucky for his fitting."

"You did?"

"Of course. The one you had selected was horribly out of style. I'm surprised that Pepper and Nat let you leave here in it."

"They did seem a bit unhappy seeing me in it. Tony actually laughed, but I just marked that up to Tony being his usual self," Steve told her as he looked down at the coat she had used to cover her dress. She wanted to wait until they arrived at the hotel's ballroom to reveal it to them. "How do I look?"

"Is that a trick question?" she asked pulling him into a hard kiss.

As they were standing there, they heard Bucky's voice from the doorway, humor in it as he stated, "I thought we were leaving but if we're staying home, great! Steve, you get her coat, I'll grab her panties!"

Vic flipped an English bird his direction then broke the kiss long enough for her to see Bucky starting to remove his jacket, so she pointed her finger right at him declaring, "Don't you dare!"

"Are you saying you don't want to stay?" he asked with a smirk.

She knew her cheeks were flushed red as she answered, "That's not the point. We are going to this fracking Gala because we'll never hear the end of it from Tony if we don't."

"That a pretty good point," Steve agreed, standing behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist. "Besides, we'll be coming home tonight."

Starting to walk forward, Steve never let go, so she dragged him with her as she made her way to Bucky. He looked even better in the tuxedo now than he had that day at the store.

"Now aren't you glad that I made you change your mind about going?" she asked him picking a single piece of long loose hair from his shoulder. He had slicked it mostly back like he had for their date, but not all the way. It looked a lot more modern now.

"Yes," he said batting Steve's arms away so that he could wrap his own around her before getting his own kiss, which earned him a flick on his ear from Steve.

"Alright you two, don't make me have to separate ya'll," she scolded.

"But that's just what we want," Bucky then grinned.

"But up close _and_ without clothes," Steve chimed in, finishing the comment unlike they had at breakfast one morning. She groaned at his remark but grinned knowing that in a few hours that is exactly what was going to happen.

"Here," Bucky said handing her a small velvet bag. "Pepper dropped this off on her way down to the garage, saying it was for you to wear tonight."

Walking over to the bed, she untied the ribbon holding it closed and then let the items inside slip onto the blanket. They all stared at the diamond and silver necklace and earrings that lay sparking in the light.

It had to be an antique, judging by the Art Deco style. The clusters of rectangle diamonds were designed to form flowers gradually increasing in size toward the center, which had a large teardrop diamond. The sides looked like the stems of the flowers with bit of detail wrapping them. Even the clasp was covered with another flower design, making it look seamless. The earrings matched the design of hanging flowers, also with a large center diamond.

"Holy flying fish," she murmured as Steve and Bucky chuckled beside her. Bucky reached down, picked up the necklace and started to place it around her neck before she had a chance to protest. "I can't wear these. Do you realize how much they probably cost?"

"Tony must have gotten into some _real_ trouble with Pepper to get her these," Steve smiled at her as she tried to duck to prevent it from going around her neck. Reaching over, he took a hold of her shoulders to keep her in place.

"You _will_ wear these tonight," Bucky told her as he fiddled with the clasp. It took him a few moments longer than she would have expected but then guessed he was not used to working with such a delicate item with his metal hand.

After the (financially and spiritually) heavy necklace was on, Steve picked up the earrings, took her hand in his and then placed them into it.

"If anything happens to them, we'll owe Tony our first born, you realize that?" she jokingly asked, which actually caused both of them to hesitate with what they were doing. So far, they had not even spoken of children, but they both had grins on their faces at just the thought, giving her a peek at a future conversation.

"Nothing is going to happen," Steve informed her, bringing them back to the now.

Vic went ahead and put the earrings on, still hesitant but knowing she was not getting out of this.

"Come one, everyone is already heading downstairs," Bucky instructed as they wrapped their arms around hers, heading to the elevator. The night was hopefully going to memorable, if not at the Gala, it would be once they got back home.

Twenty minutes later, Tony beamed as their limo pulled to a stop in front of The Plaza Hotel, saying, "If anyone says anything negative to you, just let me know and I'll have them tarred and feathered then fired and kicked out."

Of course, he had rented the Grand Ballroom for his Christmas Gala, as it was one of the most extravagant sites in the city. They had all climbed inside of the limo for the short ride, with Bruce and Nat sitting next to each other across from them. It seemed that Bruce had indeed listened to her and asked Natasha if he could escort her to the Gala.

"That won't be necessary, Tony," Steve told him as they prepared to make their first official public appearance. Reporters had been hounding the PR department for the past week trying to confirm that the three of them would attend.

Looking out of the window, guards were lining the red carpet that led to the front doors to clear the area for them.

Tony and Pepper led the way, reporters yelling out so many questions she couldn't keep track of even one of them. They let Nat and Bruce go next.

When they finally emerged, there were so many flashes from camera's that she just let Steve and Bucky lead her, ignoring all of the questions she heard. Pepper had requested that they at least stand for a few seconds, altogether with happy faces and let the reporters get the best possible shots they could. A bit of good publicity never hurt, she had told them. They stood with their arms around her waist while ignoring the actual questions wanting to know about the usual: living arrangements, her background, their sex life.

Turning to the entrance, they all sighed in relief as they left the mass of bright lights.

"That wasn't so bad," Bucky said as they made their way through the hotel to the Gala.

The entire place was decorated to the hilt for Christmas, which made her realize that they didn't have a single item in the apartment indicating that it was getting close. Steve probably didn't own any decorations from his previous Christmas', and there was no way that Bucky did. She never bothered to do anything since it was pointless. Wade would usually send her something small and disposable, like fancy bath products, while she would mail him whatever unique or practical thing she had found for him.

Unfortunately, there was also the anniversary of _something_ coming up. That was _not_ going to be fun. She needed to talk with Pepper to find out how it had been handled in the past. Her mind started to formulate a plan in the background, but she quickly pushed it away so that she could enjoy tonight. She'd start working on December 16th tomorrow.

Making their way up the staircase to the Grand Ballroom's foyer, they waited in the line at the coat-check for a few moments. Unbuttoning the coat, she heard the gasps she had been expecting once handed the coat over to the person. Turning around to face them, their expressions showed the shocked looked she had wanted to get.

The red shimmering dress was extremely form fitting to her body. The first thing that they had seen was that the shoulder straps went straight down her backsides, leaving the entire center back of the dress open, revealing her smooth bare skin. The curve of the dress was at the lower small of her back, while the train of it glided barely on the floor. The dress was covered in a crystal and sequined pattern that accentuated the Art Deco style of the dress.

Turning around they saw that it had a plunging soft neckline, exposing her soulmark proudly, between the necklace and dress. The jewelry she was wearing matched the style perfectly, which was why Pepper had probably chosen it, since she and Nat had helped her find it.

"So, are ya'll just going to stand there all night?" she smiled at them as they continued to stare, practically drooling. They quickly moved as she started to head towards the opening to the Ballroom without them.

"Do you know that the back of your dress is missing?" Bucky asked as his warm hand slid over her exposed skin. She gave him a simple elbow to the side for the jest as Steve's hand then matched Bucky's.

"Yes, but I wouldn't exactly say that I'm _missing_ it," she told them with a smile.

"I don't mind," Steve then smiled as they stood in the doorway admiring the decorated room. There was a live band playing Christmas music and the entire place was red, white, and gold. Tables lined the large dance floor while waiters made their rounds with champagne flutes.

Still feeling uncomfortable in the overly done up ballroom, she never strayed from her warriors. The only time they even split up was when they moved onto the dance floor for a while. Pepper introduced them to some of the Stark Industries board members and department heads, who all could not help but look at her soulmark, but they were all very friendly. After the first few times, the jitters of meeting so many new people became much easier to deal with. Maybe Tony had threatened them already, or possibly not everyone here was as judgmental, or they hid it really well.

By close to the ten o'clock hour, the party was in full swing. The band was playing a mixture of songs and everyone was enjoying themselves. She had seen Bruce and Nat dancing a couple of times during the night, but she would guess that Bruce was still hesitant about even being in such a public setting. She had seen him fidgeting a bit too much at times when small crowds were too close to him.

At one point, the band had played an orchestral version of _Iron Man_ , of course, because it's Tony. He dragged Pepper out onto the floor for the dance, but it was the next song that amused her the most. When his and Pepper's song ended, Tony came around the table to her, leading her out onto the dance floor. That was when the band played their instrumental version of _Big Balls_ as the two of them laughed and sung the lyrics between them. Other guest looked at them like they were crazy, so she figured they were not AC/DC fans, but when you are with Tony Stark _and_ it's his party, you can do whatever you want and get away with it.

Later on, as the group was sitting around the massive head table Tony dictated had to fit all of them, a lone figure walking towards them caught Vic's attention. She felt Bucky slightly stiffen at his presence, but if he was a danger she knew that Bucky would have done something more. The man's attire did not exactly fit in with the rest of the tuxedos, but he was dressed in a very nice black suit, even with the eye patch. He continued to walk right up to the table without hesitation.

"Enjoying your evening off I see," he told the group, as he stopped next to Natasha, who also didn't seem bothered by him being there, or being that close to her.

Tony looked over his shoulder at the man, then picked up his glass before calling out, "Party crasher," pointing at the new guest.

"And here I was thinking that you just didn't know how to get my invitation to me," he smartly replied as he looked around the table, stopping on her for only a moment.

"You know not to listen to Tony. You are always welcome, Nick," Pepper informed him with a smile. "But a mailing address would be nice."

"I'll get _right_ on that," he sarcastically informed her with a small grin, reminding her of when she had used that phrase on Bucky while criticizing how he had been chopping vegetables one morning.

"Business or pleasure, Boss?" Nat then asked, making her really wonder who this guy was. Why would Nat call him boss?

"I've actually come to deliver a long overdue present. It's something for the entire group," he told them.

"This ought to be good and I will _never_ turn down a present," Tony put down his drink and turned slightly in his chair to face the man. "But if it's a spare Helicarrier, the parking fees in New York are going to be outrageous."

"No, it's not a Helicarrier, Stark. But if you want, consider him my plus one," Fury replied, nodding his head towards the side of the room.

"I would _never_ have thought you rolled that way," Tony smirked, earning him a shoulder punch from Pepper.

Vic looked towards the direction Nick had nodded, noticing a sharp dressed man emerging from a small standing crowd that was talking among themselves, making his way to their table.

Now it was Steve's turn to stiffen.

"Phil!" Pepper gasped in shock as she stood up and wrapped her arms around the adorable gentleman that Steve was now standing up to greet. He didn't seem to believe the man in front of him was actually there, as Steve reached out hesitantly to touch his shoulder. Finding it solid, Steve actually gave the man a tight hug, earning him a matching one from Phil.

"Well, there's one thing checked off of my bucket list," Phil smiled and then waved at the table once Steve released him, saying, "Hi, everybody!"

"What did you do?" Bruce then asked Nick as he stood and shook the man's hand.

"Let's just say I had a project that is no longer viable to use, but Phil deserved it," Fury told them as the rest of the table began to talk with Phil. Pepper had grabbed him a chair from another table and he sat down to answer a couple of questions. She didn't understand what was going on so she would just find out later.

Bucky was still sitting next to her, a bit on edge, so she took her hand and nudged him.

"Want to dance?" she asked.

"Yes," he quickly answered as he stood, seeming to want to get away from Nick.

Standing out on the dance floor, she asked, "Care to tell me about why you looked panicked because of Nick?"

"I kind of blew up his car, then shot him three times, and killed him," he explained as they glided around, keeping their voices low due to the topic of conversation.

"He looks pretty good for a dead man," she smiled at him.

"No, he actually tricked HYDRA into thinking he was dead, so that my mission was complete," he told her, then it dawned on her.

"The final file…that's Nick Fury?" Vic asked turning them so that she could see the man once again. He stood at the table as the rest of the Avengers talked with Phil, but she noticed him glancing at the two of them every so often. "You know, now that I think about it, that's the _third_ person I've met that you've shot and _not_ killed. I thought you were supposed to be a _good_ assassin? Do I need to send you to the shooting range to practice more?"

"Really?" he grumbled at her, as she laughed and gave him a kiss, getting rid of any anger he had from her teasing. "I try to avoid him when we go on mission with SHIELD."

"Mind if I cut in?" they heard a familiar deep voice ask.

Turning to look at Fury, she felt Bucky once again stiffen, but she gave him a gentle squeeze of assurance.

"Not at all," she told him while letting go of Bucky. He seemed a bit hesitant, but he stepped towards their table without a word. After Nick had taken her into his arms, she said, "That was the bravest thing I've seen someone do in a long time, Nick."

"What?" Fury asked.

"Separate the Winter Soldier from his soulmate. Do you have a death wish? Are you trying to make him finish the job?" she teasingly asked with a grin as they began to move across the floor.

"Definitely not. I just wanted a chance to meet you, Victoria. I was one of the few people in SHIELD that knew about Rogers' soulmark once he was found. Sometimes I still have a hard time understanding how the Winter Soldier was one of his matches," Fury told her as he glanced down at her own exposed one. "Amazing."

"Thanks. So, if you were head of SHIELD, were you there when Steve was found?" she asked.

"Yes, Phil and I both went when to the Arctic base when we got the word he had been found. I was the one who ordered the search to resume once I became director of SHIELD. Even with all the advance equipment used, the project ran for two years. It had been called off decades prior, and there were many people who wanted to keep it that way. I'm glad I didn't listen to my critics and give up," he told her.

"You and me both," she smiled at him before looking over at the table. Steve and Bucky were next to each other, Phil being introduced to Bucky it seemed, as they then shook hands. "So who exactly is Phil and why is everyone so surprised to see him?"

Fury then gave her a sudden spin, so she was no longer looking at the table, as loud pops occurred.

That was when she felt Fury's body lurch hard into hers as he wrapped his hands around her head before collapsing to the ground, taking her down with him, his body covering hers. Victoria heard screaming from everywhere as she was then grabbed around her waist from behind, pulled out from under the weight of Nick's body, and dragged across the dance floor away from his prone form.

Coming to a stop, she found herself at the edge of the dance floor, a covered table to her side, partially hiding her. People were running screaming in every direction as the orchestra had stopped playing and were also scattering.

"Victoria, are you all right?" Steve was asking her as he knelt on the ground next to her, his hands running over her chest and stomach area, looking for something.

"What happened?" she asked looking back out onto the floor where Bruce, Nat, and Phil were surrounding Fury, who was lying still on the ground. Bucky was standing only a few feet away from them, his eyes darting around the large room before locking on something. He then took off with a definite target in mind. Seeing him run from them towards the raised balcony area that surround the main floor, she sat up to watch, before she almost lost sight of him.

"Victoria, listen to me! Are you _hurt_?" Steve firmly asked as she watched Bucky make an amazing leap over the railing of the balcony about ten feet straight up, before disappearing onto the upper level.

"Why _would_ I be?" she then turned to ask Steve.

"Because Fury just got _shot_!" he informed her.

"He _what_!?"

* * *

Up in the balcony area, Bucky saw the male target trying to make his way through the frightened crowd of people. He was dress in one of the waiter outfits, so he stood out among the tuxedos and dresses. Turning back to see if he was being followed, Bucky saw the moment he understood who was chasing him down for taking the shots at Fury...and more importantly, Vic.

Pointing his gun at Bucky, the shots he fired made contact with his arm as they then ricocheted away, ruining the sleeve with multiple bullet holes. Emptying the gun, his flight then became even more exuberant and crazed, pushing people to the ground, trying to get to the stairs at the far end of the balcony area. There was no way he was letting him get out of here, Bucky thought.

Glancing at one of the buffet tables he was about to pass, Bucky spotted a carving knife resting on the abandoned station's cutting block. Grabbing it up, he took a couple of more steps before pausing a second to aim and throwing the knife at the hit man. It lodged in his back just as he reached the first step downwards, collapsing onto the backside of a male guest, both of them starting to tumble down the stairs.

Reaching the target, Bucky grabbed him by his ankle, pulling him back up off the stairs onto the flat floor as the guest righted himself and continued his own downward escape. The man turned to lay on his side due to the knife protruding from his back, and Bucky saw that he still had possession of his empty gun, which was now turning in his direction as an automatic response.

With a hard backwards swat of his left hand, the force of the blow to the target's hand dislodged the gun as he screamed. Bucky knew that he had used enough force to break at least a finger or two as well.

Seconds later, he heard the familiar steps of his group approaching him and the downed man who was whining in pain at his feet. The moment he confirmed Tony and Nat had the man under control, he turned back towards where he had come from, finding Steve and Vic walking towards him.

With Steve giving him a nod and their old team hand sign for 'uninjured', Bucky let out the breath he had not realized he had been holding since first seeing Vic heading for him. Steve had instantly ordered him to find the shooter while he got to Vic and he knew Steve would take care of her. He had known the directions the shots had come from and tried to put his body between the shooter and Vic as Steve checked her for injuries away from where Fury was prone on the floor.

He heard Nat and the shooter conversing, but even with Steve's assurance, he was too focused on his own visual inspection of Vic to pay attention to them. As Vic then stopped before him, she seemed to be checking _him_ over. She had heard the shots and was looking to see if he had been hit. Vic did not look happy as she poked one of her fingers into one of the bullet holes in his jacket's arm's sleeve.

"Then it looks like you failed," he heard Natasha say to the man's comments.

"Hail HYDRA!"

Bucky turned at hearing those words spoken, a chill running down his spine as he watched the man's mouth began to foam a white substance. He had a suicide capsule in his tooth. A last defense before being taken in for questioning that HYDRA liked to employ to prevent information from getting out about their plots. He had never had such a device, as he had been far too valuable to loose. Luckily, he had also never been caught.

"Nat, what did he say?" Steve asked as they stared at the dead man.

"Fury was his target. I guessed he used him being out on the open floor with Victoria as the perfect time to try and take him out," Nat commented, turning to the three of them standing together.

"Great, _another_ party crasher," Tony dryly joked, tapping his foot on the man's leg, as if testing that he was really dead.

"Well, what do you expect? Even HYDRA wants to come to your big balls," Vic then flatly stated,

Tony slowly turned his head towards her, a surprised giddy look on his face at her comment. Vic then slowly allowed a smile to creep over her own face as she looked down at the dead HYDRA agent.

Taking her arm, Bucky turned her away from the body, leading her to the stairs they had come up, not wanting her to look at what he had done.

Vic called out, "What? That was funny! Right, Tony?"

"You don't need to see what…" he then hesitated with his response.

Bucky then felt a hard pull on his entire body in the form of Vic planting her feet, stopping all movement, jerking him into almost falling backwards with the action.

"Do you think I'll be mad, or upset at you?" she then asked him.

"I don't want you to have to deal with what we do. Neither of us do," he said including Steve in the comment now that he had caught up with them.

"Well, _that_ doesn't seem to be going to happen!" she told him, jerking her finger back in the direction from which they had come.

As something caught her eye over his shoulder, he turned to see Fury walking up the steps with Phil next to him. Seeing the man, he got so angry at the thought that it was his fault that Vic could have been hurt.

Taking a few deliberate steps towards his failed mission, he saw the lovely expression of fear appear on the man's face as he approached.

Suddenly, there was a blond barrier in red between him and his new target.

Vic.

"Stop right there, Gradina!" she harshly inform him, a finger poking him hard in his chest, but his eyes not leaving Fury. "Stand down, or you'll be sleeping in your own bed alone for a month!"

Bucky then met her eyes, and he started to say something, to reprimand Fury for even coming here tonight, but he then felt Vic's hand cover his mouth.

"Fury _turned me_ when he saw the shooter. He put _himself_ in the path of the _bullets_ ," she informed him, dropping her hand back down so he could again speak.

He looked at her, glancing to Steve for confirmation.

"He did."

"I saw the agent up on the balcony. When he realized he had been made, he lifted his weapon as I turned to cover Victoria," he said opening up his unbuttoned jacket to reveal the bullet-proof vest underneath. "After the presents you gave me, I _never_ leave home without it."

Bucky stood there stiff for a few moments, trying to let the anger he felt drain away. Feeling Vic wrap her fingers around his, her other hand began to push the stray hairs that had fallen during his pursuit away from his face.

"Take a guess as to what I want to hear you say," she then told him, resting her hand on his cheek.

With a final deep breath, he let the last of the anger go, saying, "Thank you for protecting Vic."

"I'm sorry I had to," Fury told him as they stood there awkwardly for a few moments.

Suddenly, he felt Vic smack his shoulder, gesturing towards Fury with a nod of her head. He knew what she was _now_ expecting from him. In all the months he had been working with SHIELD, he had avoided it.

"Also, I'm sorry for trying to kill you. Twice."

"They say that the third time is the charm, but let's not test that theory, shall we?" Fury jokingly asked with a grin and nod to him, easing some of his tension at knowing that Fury did not seem to be holding a grudge. "You have no idea how glad _I am_ that you are back on our side."

Then nodding to Steve, and giving Vic a smile, Fury and Phil walked over to where the dead man lay. Nat was in the process of searching the body while Tony and Bruce backed people down the stairs trying to keep them from taking pictures while party security helped them.

"This is the most memorable Christmas party I've ever been to," Vic informed them as she moved between him and Steve, taking their hands to lead them down the other set of stairs away from the body. "Granted, it's also my first, so Tony has _a lot_ to live up to at next year's Gala."

* * *

"Sir, this just came across a secure channel," the HYDRA agent handed him a printout he recognized as a mission report. At first, Rumlow had only been slightly disappointed at reading the 'failed' status on the standing order to kill his old boss, Nick Fury.

Then as he read over the details of the event, he became furious.

The damn agent had made his assassination attempt while the Asset's soulmate had been dancing with Fury. If she had been injured, or worse – killed, then all of the plans he was making would be useless. He would never get his Asset back, with Rogers in tow!

"I want a message to be sent out, the highest level encryption possible, to all remaining bases and agents! _Nobody_ is to go anywhere near the _fucking_ Avengers _at all_ from this point forward!" he yelled at the cowering agent. "I don't _care_ if another target is in the vicinity or not!"

"Yes, Sir. Do you want an explanation as to why?" the man asked.

" _Hell, no_! My orders are to be obeyed without question! _Nobody_ outside of my own team needs to know my plans for the Asset and Rogers. If that damn agent hadn't taken his own life, I would have _killed him_ for almost fucking up _my plans_!"

"I'll send the message out right now," the agent slinked away as Rumlow continued to stew at the idea that his plans could have ruined if Victoria had been killed.

They were still a long ways away from having the Chair's new base of operation set up, at least a matter of months. Then they still had to get to the location of the instruction book that was locked away so the scientists he was trying to recruit could start learning how to operate the Chair.

Hopefully, by the time they were ready, today's incident would have been forgotten, and any protection the Asset or Rogers had on their lovely soulmate would be gone, and without any further incidents to worry them more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked this little bit of action our group had to deal with. Rumlow is quietly plotting in the wings but he will soon make his dramatic entrance.


	54. December 16

Steve had been dreading this day since January, when Bucky finally came to live at the Tower with him. Somehow it had snuck up on him, even though up until a week ago he had been counting down the days to it. After the attempt on Fury's life, Steve and Nat had tried focusing on the HYDRA agent that had died, tracking his movements, his connections...anything that may help them to get to HYDRA. They had lost their most recent lead when the base in Austria had been cleared, so Steve had been hoping that by tracing the agent, that he could somehow get a new lead on Rumlow.

Sequestering himself away for the past few days, Steve had not paid attention as the anniversary of Howard and Maria being killed crept slowly closer. It had finally taken for Bucky to flat out refusing last night to go to the common floor for movie night for Steve to realize that it had practically arrived. Over the past few days, he had noticed Bucky making excuses for not going to gym, somewhere Tony would often go too. So Bucky would go to the firing range instead, or head outside to run a couple of laps around the park in the snow.

He had asked Victoria this if she had noticed his change in behavior but she just nodded, told him that Bucky would be fine, then changed the topic. So Victoria had noticed the change in him also, but she never asked him or Bucky what was wrong. Then he remembered that she had read the mission report, she knew every detail as well as Bucky did probably. When she noticed him acting differently, she had probably just put it together that today was approaching. But why did Victoria not seem concerned?

This morning Bucky had not been his usual happy morning self, even waking up with Victoria latched onto him. He had not said anything as he _poked_ at his breakfast...a true sign of something bothering him. When Steve had asked if he wanted to go to the gym, Bucky had only grunted a negative reply as he sat down on the couch and picked up the remote.

Fifteen minutes ago, Victoria had come from the bedroom dressed and ready to leave the apartment, like she had every morning for the past few weeks, giving each of them goodbye kisses. He had been on the verge of requesting Victoria to stay in today with them, to see if she could help get Bucky out of the funk he was now in, but she had seemed so happy about something when she left. He could only guess that she really knew of today's significance.

Now, he was sitting at the kitchen counter with a sketch pad while Bucky was still flipping channels. Steve looked down at the drawing he had done, a sketch of the Stark Expo exhibit with the flying car that Howard had put on, before they had even met him. Bucky had been so happy that night. The last time the two of them were together before Azzano, where Bucky had been captured the first time.

Steve had also noticed Tony being a bit more distant to everyone the past few days too, so it was not just Bucky that the anniversary affected. He had asked Pepper about it the first year he had lived here and had found out that Tony got this way every year around this time. Except for the Gala that he put on mostly for the board and employees, Tony did not normally celebrate Christmas. He still gave and expected presents, but he would only allow Pepper a small plastic tree to be put up on their floor.

" _Sergeant and Captain, Miss Victoria would like for the two of you to go downstairs. Level Yellow, room 29_ ," FRIDAY chimed to inform them, getting Bucky to finally turn and acknowledge that Steve was also in the room.

"Let her know that we are on the way," Steve replied, standing up while wondering if something was wrong. That was not a floor that he would guess that Victoria would ever go to. They had a couple of secured rooms on that floor, as well as storage for paperwork and less dangerous items found on HYDRA raids. Had she been going through one of the storage rooms and found something? He had figured that she had gone to the garage, and thanks to his foul mood, Bucky had not checked security camera like he would sometimes over-protectively do...all day, numerous times.

"Any idea?" Bucky asked as they reached the open elevator, stepping inside.

"Not a clue," he answered shaking his head as the door closed.

Reaching the floor, they first noticed that the hallway was a bit darker than he would normally expect it to be. It seemed that someone had only turned on every other ceiling light. There were no real offices on this floor, so as they walked it only confirmed that nobody else seemed to be on the floor with them. They followed the signs on the walls directing them to the room FRIDAY had indicated.

Opening the door to the room, he saw that the inside of it was a very comfortable looking den-like room. There were three oversized accent chairs sitting around a small round cocktail table. Off to the side was a small kitchen area with a round dining table, and again, three chairs. He and Bucky stepped inside, but quickly found that Victoria was not there.

"FRIDAY, where is Vic?" Bucky then asked. Nothing.

"FRIDAY, can you respond?" Steve then asked.

Seconds later, they heard the sound of heavy footsteps coming down the hallway from where they had just been. Turning around, Steve was quickly put on edge as they saw the Iron Man suit fill the entire doorway, trapping them inside the room. Taking matching steps backwards away from it, Steve put his arm out to cover Bucky's chest, suddenly wishing he had brought his shield. Pushing Bucky fully behind him as the suit entered the room, Steve tried to cover him using his own body for protection. So far, Tony had made no threatening moves, but Steve was not taking a chance as they continued backing up across the room.

After the metal suit took a few more steps inside of the room, the two of them, now with the chairs between them, watched as the suit then opened up entirely on the front. Tony was already in the middle of yelling at FRIDAY, wanting to know what was going on.

"Tony?" Steve asked, getting his friend's attention.

The second Tony eyes darted past Steve to Bucky, his entire demeanor changed. Tony became livid.

"FRIDAY, what the _hell_ going on?" Tony yelled.

Instead of receiving an answer, his suit then lurched forward, knocking Tony from being inside of it. He stumbled forward, grabbing onto the back of the closest chair to stay upright. The suit then closed up, turned around, walked into the hallway, and closed the door behind it.

"Tony? What _is_ going on?" Steve tried asking again, but having a sinking feeling that he didn't know any more than they did.

"I have no _damn_ idea. I was in my lab, when FRIDAY said that Pepper wanted me downstairs somewhere. I refused, since I already told her to leave me alone today, and then _suddenly_ , my own damn suit _kidnaps_ me and bring me _here_!"

The entire time Tony was speaking, Steve saw that his eyes never left Bucky, who seemed to be trying to be as small as possible behind him.

"When we saw the suit, we assumed that you were going to attack us," Steve told him, easing his stance up a bit.

Tony then finally broke eye contact with Bucky as he turned and went for the door. Being on Level Yellow, it was a sturdier metal door than the normal office ones found on the lower levels. But it was locked from the outside and would not open. He then banged on the door a couple of times, trying the handle over and over.

Suddenly, Tony yelped and drew his hand back.

"It _shocked_ me!" Tony loudly informed them, shaking his hand as if it were numb. Whirling to face him, he demanded, "What the _hell_ is going on, Rogers?"

"We have no idea. FRIDAY told us that Victoria wanted us to come here to this room," he informed him, hands raised to placate him.

"FRIDAY?" Tony asked, but he received no reply. "FRIDAY, respond!"

Both he and Bucky then tried to get the AI's attention, but none of them received a response of any kind. Steve walked over to the door, trying it also, and receiving a small shock for his effort, just as Tony had.

Turning around, he looked over at Bucky.

"You think _I'll_ have better luck?" Bucky sarcastically asked, lifting up his metal hand and wiggling his fingers in the air.

"Alright, let's think this through a bit. Obviously we were set up, either by Victoria, Pepper, FRIDAY, or some combination of all three," Steve pointed out, walking around the small room, seeing if there was anything else in here. Besides a bathroom, bottles of water and soda in the mini-fridge was the biggest discovery.

"Why would they do that?" Bucky asked trying to put Steve between him and Tony, who was once again glaring daggers in his general direction.

"Because of what day it is," Steve heavily answered, bringing up the elephant in the room. Both of the other captives stared at him like he had grown a second head, but they knew he was right. "They want us to deal with…what happened. To Howard and Maria."

"Nope! No way! Not happening! N to the O! Nada! Nyet!" Tony yelled. "Pepper! Vic! Get me the _hell_ out of here! _Now_!"

Silence.

* * *

About an hour later, Bucky was sitting at the small dining table picking at a cut in the laminate while Steve and Tony had taken up two of the comfortable looking chairs. This was about as far away from Tony as he was able to get in the room, besides going into the small bathroom, which only had a toilet and sink. He had heard of the phrase 'loud silence' and he would guess that it would perfectly fit right now.

After they realized that no matter what Tony yelled or threatened, that the door was staying locked, they _all_ had actually agreed that Steve should just grab onto the handle and pull it off of its hinges. But as he got close to it, the sound of the Iron Man suit powering up its hand's energy blaster, came from the other side. They had a guard dog, it seemed.

So now, they had been sitting in silence, not sure if any of them really wanted to talk. Bucky kept replaying that mission in his head, over and over, remembering Howard as he had spoken to him, saying his own unfamiliar name. He had never met Maria, but yet he was responsible for the last day of her life. He could still recall the feel her neck in his palm. How could Vic put the three of them in here? How could she do this to him? Vic had gone through this file, as well as watching the video, and she knew exactly what had happened.

And how could Pepper do this to Tony? How could she make him a prisoner with the murderer of his parents on the anniversary of their deaths? What did they want from all of them? Then he wondered if it was possible Pepper didn't know. If Tony would hold up all day alone usually, would she notice him missing?

Hearing something, he turned his head to see that Steve had a smile on his face, a low laugh coming from him.

"Something funny about this, Rogers?" Tony questioned, getting angry pretty quick, standing up to pace behind the chair, Steve between the two of them.

"I was just thinking about how Howard would find our current predicament funny," Steve told him. Bucky thought about it for a bit, starting to remember all of the _other_ _times_ he had been with Howard, not just the final one. "If anything, this reminds me of some of the practical jokes that he used to pull on us."

Tony was now staring at Steve like he was crazy, but thinking back, Bucky realized that Steve was right.

"My father did not _do_ practical jokes," Tony snidely remarked. Steve glanced over his shoulder at Bucky and then the two of them lost it. Bucky couldn't help it. "What are you two laughing at?"

"Howard pulled more jokes on all of the Howling Commandos than we were _ever_ able to pull on him, combined," Steve informed him, finally calming down from the laugh.

"What are you talking about? My father could barely crack a smile, let alone pull a practical joke," Tony told them, but he did sound a bit calmer.

"Not when he was with us during the war," Steve said. "His favorite pastime was figuring out how to annoy the Commandos during our downtime, giving everyone a good laugh usually to help keep up morale."

"Remember when he set all the clocks in Crocker's Folly ahead three hours?" Bucky chuckled remembering one of his favorite incidents.

Steve began to laugh hard, recalling the incident.

Looking at Tony, Bucky explained, "The Commandos were scheduled for a eight a.m. meeting with Howard to get new equipment checked out. _We_ were all out drinking and having a good time while _he_ worked through the night, trying to get everything ready. To make sure we showed up in the morning, Howard somehow changed all the clocks in the tavern to be ahead three hours, to make sure that we went to bed and didn't miss his meeting."

They could tell by the look on Tony's face that he had never heard that story before. How much could Howard have changed after the war? He always had been such fun to hang out with.

Steve continued the story with a chuckle, "Dugan was so _mad_ when he figured out what Howard had done, _specifically_ cutting in on his _drinking_ time, that he nailed shut every wooden cabinet door in Howard's laboratory, while also running lengths of chain around the glass cabinets and padlocking them."

"Which got _Howard_ so mad, that he took Dum Dum's bowler hat, tied it to an experimental weather balloon he had, and released it. You should have seen Dum Dum running across the compound, chasing Howard while his hat flew away," Bucky sat back in the chair, remembering all the Commandos laughing while watching the spectacle.

"My father? Are you sure you got the right Howard Stark?" Tony asked while calmly walking around the chair and sitting back down in it.

"Yeah, we do," Bucky replied. "Howard would love it when we came back from a HYDRA base raid. Whoever brought him the most unique item to study would get a night's room rental in a local hotel for a bit of…'private time' with whatever dame they could find willing to say yes."

"My father paid for a room, so one of the Commandos could have sex with a woman?" Tony asked, still not sounding convinced.

"Yep. Steve there was the only one who never participated," Bucky smiled, pointing over at him, seeing Steve a redder shade of embarrassed.

"Howard was a good friend. If it wasn't for him, I never would have been able to rescue Bucky from that Austrian HYDRA factory after he was captured in Azzano."

"Azzano? Where the Howling Commandos were all captured together?" Tony asked. He and Steve looked at each other. Had Howard never really talked with his son, telling him about all the crazy things he used to do? "I didn't know my father had anything to do with that."

For the next two hours, the three of the sat in the chairs, chatting and reminiscing about Howard's inventions he experimented with, the weapons that he made for the Commandos, the backfire of the Tesseract power source that Steve had brought him. Tony had never even heard the story of how Peggy had shot at Steve while he had been holding his shield for the first time.

"Aunt Peggy?" Tony said, catching both of their attention.

"Aunt?"

"That's what I called her when I was very young. Whenever she was in town, Aunt Peggy would always come by for dinner and she always made sure to bring me a Captain America toy of some kind," Tony told them.

"I never thought about the fact that you would have known Peggy as a kid," Steve then said, probably now thinking about her.

"Howard found out early on that Peggy was the only one he should _never_ pull a joke on," Bucky had to force himself to not start laughing, getting Tony's attention. "He only did it the _one_ time. Howard made some kind of chemically altered fake lipstick and swapped it for hers. After a few minutes of her wearing it, her body heat turned the red shade bright blue, a perfect match to the color of Steve's uniform. Peggy had been all over the base, working files and attending meetings, before someone finally told her what she looked like. To say she did not appreciate it would be an _understatement_."

"What did Aunt Peggy do, Barnes?" Tony asked.

"She made sure that for the next _three months_ , that Howard slept _alone_ every single night," Bucky told him. "We never could find out how she did it, but every single dame, _wherever_ we were stationed at the time, would turn Howard down. He was _devastated_."

"With a few dames even throwing _drinks_ in his face with him only having introduced himself. As far as I know, Peggy never did tell anyone the secret of how she accomplished that task," Steve finished. Tony had a smile on his face, probably trying to picture the playful Howard they knew, and not the stern father that he had known. "Between Howard and Bucky, there were _always_ a couple of dames around."

They were all startled by a knocking on the door. Steve decided to be the brave one, standing and walking over to it. Carefully testing the knob, he found that it was not set to shock at the moment, so he opened the door. They saw Tony's suit standing there with a tray for him to take, which he did.

Taking a step back, the suit then closed the door behind Steve.

Bringing the tray over to the coffee table, he put it down, while Bucky tried to figure out how the items, obviously to be a snack, were meant to be used, looking at the warming pot with melted cheese, skewers, chopped vegetable and cubed bread selection before them.

"What is it?" Steve finally asked for the both of them.

"A fondue pot. How do you not know this, Rogers?" Tony asked.

Hearing that, Bucky couldn't help it as he finally lost it, laughing at Steve now sitting in his chair, his red face covering his hands while Tony just sat there, not getting the joke. Looking over at him, Tony asked, "What the hell am I missing, Barnes?"

"Very funny, Victoria!" Steve yelled into the air as he continued to laugh.

* * *

Tony sat at the table with Steve and Barnes eating the lunch that had been delivered a couple of minutes ago. He couldn't believe that he was trapped inside of his own Tower, with the man who had killed his parents, and that he was actually _enjoying_ himself. This was _not_ how he had been expecting to spend today. Everyone, especially Pepper, knew that he always wanted to be alone, to hole up in his lab or somewhere else, and not talk or do anything today.

But instead, he had been kidnapped by at least two different soulmates, who it seemed were determined to force the three of them to deal with the significance of today, whether they wanted to or not. But the man he had been hearing about all day was _not_ the one that he had grown up with. His dad had seemed to have been a more carefree, fun, and outgoing than he had thought possible.

Steve and Barnes were the only ones that the Commandos had lost. Had losing the friendship of the two men sitting in front of him now really changed his father that much? They had to have meant a lot to him to turn Howard into the humorless man he had been later in life. Never joking, always so serious. He would have liked to have met his dad from back then. From the many great stories he was hearing, Tony knew that he took after his father a lot more than he ever suspected.

"So, do you think they'll let us out for good behavior?" Tony asked taking another bite of the chicken and pasta dish that he would guess Victoria had cooked. None of the chefs he had ever used made a dish similar to it in any way. It was great. He would have to start requesting it after missions, along with that delicious, blasphemous deep-dish pizza.

"I have a feeling they will let us out when _they_ feel like it," Steve told him.

"What are we going to do to get _payback_ for this confinement?" Barnes then asked with a devious smile towards Steve.

"Oh, I'm sure I can think of a few things for Pepper to do," he told them with his own smile. "I wonder who came up with this idea."

"Vic." "Victoria." They both answered at the same time.

"So sure of yourselves?" he asked looking between them.

"Yes." "Definitely." They then answered.

"Bucky, could you pass the pepper?" Tony asked seeing the item closet to him.

As he handed the item over, it was then that Tony realized what name he had used. Not Barnes. He had been listening to Steve call him Bucky for hours, and now, it seemed to fit the man sitting in front of him a lot more.

* * *

Another two hours later, they were finally running out of stories to tell Tony. Steve could not believe how this day had turned out. A few minutes ago a new snack had been delivered, the same brownies with chocolate icing that Victoria had made for them and the hockey team. A large pitcher of very cold milk was also on the tray.

"We have got to be the most well fed prisoners ever," Steve said taking a large bite of his brownie, licking the icing off his fingers.

"Definitely an improvement over what I was fed," Bucky's voice was suddenly not as chipper as it had been previously. Steve had not even thought about the idea behind his comment when he said it.

After a few moments, Tony spoke up, albeit hesitantly, "Bucky...did they put the arm on you right away?"

Steve held his breath, wondering what Bucky was going to do. He never seemed to want to talk about his time with HYDRA, and practically refused to speak with Steve about the second time he was captured. He wondered how the two of them would handle this topic.

"No. It was a long time before Zola arrived at the base to even see what had happened to me. He had already been working for a while inside the S.S.R. or SHIELD...I'm not sure which name they went by at that time. He was able to hide my project with some help. It then took a couple of more months for him and his team to develop it," Bucky explained, rotating the arm and moving his fingers, showing the amazing range of motion, just like a real arm. "At the same time, Zola knew that he couldn't always be there to work on it, so they brought in the cryostasis chamber to keep me in. It was easier than trying to contain me since I could then use the arm to free myself."

"Then it was even later when they came up with the Chair?" Tony cautiously asked.

"Yeah, but I'm not sure how long I was under before they finally had it up and running. They would bring me out to keep trying other brainwashing techniques, trying to break me while the Chair was being built but…they didn't work. And even once it was finished it took the Chair a while before…they finally got it to work."

Steve was surprised at how open Bucky was talking with Tony about this, when he had always been so hesitant. Maybe spending the day reminiscing about such good times was helping make it easier for him.

"Victoria found a note in one of the HYDRA files that stated that maybe one of the reasons the Chair started to work was because they showed Bucky the newspaper article about me going down in the Arctic."

Tony seemed to consider this new piece of information for a moment, before saying, "They used it to mentally break you just enough to get you to the onset of clinical depression. The mind would be much more willing to bend at that point. I went through most of those files and never saw that one. How did Vic find it?" Tony asked.

"Nat didn't tell you?" Steve asked to which Tony just shook his head. "Victoria spent an entire day and went through them, every single one of them, reading the files _and_ watching the videos."

They could both see Tony slightly pale at hearing that. He had watched a lot of the videos, explaining to Steve that he was trying to convince himself that it had been HYDRA who had killed his parents, while just using Bucky as the weapon.

"Vic probably knows more about what they did to me than I do," Bucky said with a huffy smile.

"You let her do that?" he then asked, looking right at Bucky.

"I wasn't going to hide anything about my past from her. We just didn't think that she would be _able_ to do that. Even Steve here gave up trying," Bucky told him. They could see that Tony was working on something in his head, so they just continued to snack on the brownies.

"There is definitely something about her," Tony said finishing off his own brownie, washing it down with a large swig of milk. "I'm glad the two of you finally found Vic…with my help, of course."

"Of course," Bucky smiled at him.

* * *

Less than an hour later, they had moved back over to the chairs, discussing anything that came to mind. The three of them had never just sat down and talked for fun before. Bucky had to admit that considering how today _started_ , there was no way any of them would have guessed they would have _ended up_ here.

As they were talking, the door opened, and Tony's suit then walked in with another tray, this one carrying three glasses with a liquor already poured in them. It put the tray on the coffee table and then walked to the corner of the room, shutting down. They all stared at the open door, guessing that their confinement was over.

Tony picked up a glass first, he and Steve then following suit. Taking a sniff, Tony said, "Single malt Scotch," as Steve then held his glass out for a toast. They both followed suit.

"To Howard and Maria. May they never be forgotten, and to the final downfall of HYDRA for being the wretched assholes that they are, and bringing such misery to people," Steve firmly stated.

"Language," he and Tony said at the same time as the three of them saluted, clinked glasses then downed their drinks with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a strange and easy chapter to write. I knew from the beginning that I wanted Tony and Bucky to work through their problem. Remember that Steve informed Tony about his parents right after the events of CA:WS in my story. This has given Tony just under three years to process the information (including 1 year of living and working with Bucky).  
> So, yes...as the author, in my world, this is a gigantic leap forward in their friendship.
> 
> Also, for those sharp-eyed people who noticed the fondue pot in A:AofU, let's just pretend Steve never saw it, even though Tony weaponized it, and Bucky doesn't strike me as a 'fondue' person. But he would have heard the term and the story from Howard later on.
> 
> And...if you are curious to try the Chicken Tortellini dish that they were served for lunch, this is an actual recipe that I have. It's easy to make and very delicious. Just email me at Unajet@yahoo.com and I will forward you a copy of the recipe.


	55. Payback

"So, should we at least _pretend_ to be mad?" Bucky asked smiling. He and Steve were in the elevator heading to their floor after having just dropped Tony off in his suit at his workroom before he began his search for Pepper...and his own payback.

"I guess, but I don't know how easy that would be to do," Steve told him with his own smile as the doors started to open.

They got only a single step out of the elevator before they were both frozen in place. This was definitely their apartment, but it was not the same as it had been this morning, before their sudden imprisonment. It seemed that Vic had been busy while they had been out of the way.

The shelves that surround the TV, which they had always left bare, now had books and picture frames covering them. They could see that there were new colorful pillows on their plain gray couch as well as a couple of different fluffy-looking throw blankets folded over the back. On the floor were a couple of soft rugs, covering the cold concrete that made up the entire level's floor. The kitchen table had a couple of milk-glass candlesticks on it, ready for an evening meal so they could be used, as well as a cut crystal vase of fresh flowers. There was a wooden coat rack right off to the left side of the elevator, with all three of their most used jackets hanging together. On the floor next to it was a small woven basket filled with their gloves, hats, and scarves.

The one addition which drew his eye was on the island: the white milk-glass jar from Victoria's closet, Steve's mom's jar. They had eventually told Vic about its history, a bit worried at how she would take the information, but Vic only smiled while scoring it up to the soulmark. He watched as Steve stared at it for a moment, before walking over to it. Lifting the lid, he reached inside, pulling out a small wrapped piece of hard candy. Tossing it to him, Steve then got another piece out for himself.

"Hard caramel," Bucky said after placing the sweet treat in his mouth. It had been decades since he'd had anything like it.

However, the most dramatic change was the bare live Christmas tree that was standing over by the window in the den. There were a couple of small boxes near it, not presents but something else. If he had to guess, they were probably some form of decorations for the tree.

"It looks like a home," he then heard Steve say with a smile then appearing on both of their faces.

"It smells like Christmas," Bucky then added, sniffing the air again at the fresh pine and citrus-spice scent that was filling it as he walked around the couch towards the tree. Looking over he spotted a bowl on the coffee table, filled with oranges with dark marking on them. Picking one of those up, he saw that hard small pieces of a spice, whole cloves if he remembered his mom's grocery list right, had been embedded into the orange's skin. There were three of them that were unique and each had a different pattern initial: B, S, and a V. "Hey…"

When Steve had turned towards him, he tossed the item to him, which Steve then breathed in heavily from.

"This is what we smell," he said examining the tattooed fruit before tossing it back.

They then both began walking over towards the filled shelves. On one of them, Steve's record player had been brought out from his room, where it barely got used, and set up with his records lined up on the shelf above. Next to it were the books that he'd bought since moving to the Tower, which were normally scattered around his room, mixed with the ones Steve previously owned, all of them being held up by bookends in the shape of the Avengers 'A' symbol.

All of the other shelves were filled with frames, which contained pictures of…everyone.

There were group pictures of the Avengers from Tony's parties, some in their outfits from before and after missions. He saw the one Vic had taken at Thanksgiving of Bruce, Tony, and Sam napping together on Clint's couch with their feet resting together on the coffee table. There were some of the Howling Commandos, candid ones taken out in the field, as well as publicity ones they had been wrangled into doing. But the most shocking were the pair of family photos of both his and Steve's.

"Where did she get these?" Bucky asked picking up a portrait of his mom and dad. He could still remember the last time he had seen them. It had been the morning of the day that he had shipped out for the war. He had stayed with them since he no longer had lived with Steve who'd moved to a single room apartment after he had been sent for training at Camp McCoy in Wisconsin. They had eventually died believing they had outlived their son.

Glancing at the shelves, there were almost two dozen pictures now, happy reminders of the good times in their lives. He saw Steve holding a picture of his own parents, dressed in their best clothes. Holding the picture out for him to see, Steve looked too surprised to repeat the same question he had just asked.

"It's amazing what you can track down with the internet these days," they heard from the hallway's entrance. Vic was leaning on it, watching them with a smile on her face. "You know, maybe from family members that live close by in Brooklyn…"

"How…" Steve started but then swept his arm around the den, indicating everything.

"Well, _I_ had a bit of _free_ time today," she gave a devious smile as she answered with the innuendo.

Putting the picture of his parents down, he took the necessary steps to get to Vic, needing to just touch her, to make sure that she was in fact real. Crushing her into a hug, he turned her around so that her back was to Steve, who was already moving towards them. The two of them held on to her for a few moments before she spoke.

"Does this mean that ya'll're not mad about me redecorating a bit?"

"Absolutely not," Steve answered for both of them.

"It just felt like this place was a plainly decorated hotel room. Ya've been here at least a year?" she asked them.

"I've been here almost three now," Steve told her. "I left D.C. after a bit once SHIELD fell."

"It looked like the same room Wade stayed in. Nothing personal," she commented, as he started to feel calmer just holding her after the strange day they had.

Giving her a deep kiss, he heard her moan as he felt Steve's hands start to glide over her body, which was pressed firmly to him.

Pulling away from the kiss, Vic grinned, "I see ya found the candy."

Steve then turned her head, giving her his own kiss. He loosened his grip enough so that she could turn to face Steve, his hands then pulling her hips back into his own.

"Yep, both of ya found the candy."

"There is _no way_ that we are not mad at the redecorating…" he whispered in her ear, "but you seem to have forgotten about us being locked away in _confinement_."

The second he felt her body flinch as she then tried to squeeze from between the two of them to make a run for it, he tightened his hold, as did Steve.

"Oh, come on! The two of ya needed a time-out. Both of ya were acting like Oscar the Grouch," Vic whined as she wiggled nicely against him, making him already firmer than he was a moment ago at just seeing her. "At least I gave ya Steve as a buffer zone and referee."

"That _could_ _have_ _been_ a dangerous stunt," Steve told her.

"Only for Tony. I know the two of ya could take him in a fight," she grinned as Bucky started to tickle her sides. "Stop that!"

"Oh, no. I think that after _that_ stunt today, that you have _definitely_ earned a _spanking_ ," he growled against the side of her neck. Steve's eyes instantly focused on him, curious as to where this was going. "Vic and I had some very _interesting_ pillow talk one day."

Vic then began to squirm again, so he said, "Steve, feel like carrying Vic to my room?"

Without needing any further urging, Steve swept her up into his arms bridal style with a wide grin on his face. Vic never complained in the least as they made their way down the hall. Stepping inside of his room, Bucky closed and locked the door behind them...just to be on the safe side. With what he was planning, there was no way that Vic would be in any position to get away. Heading over to a dresser, he opened one of the lower drawers and pulled out the two long lengths of soft black rope he place there not too long back…maybe even the day after their chat.

"You just _happen_ to have _that_ in your room?" Steve asked as he continued to hold Vic in his arms, whose eyes were wide, but he saw the smile on her face.

"Of course," he grinned, tossing the ropes onto his bed. Coming to stand before the two of them, he ran the back of his metal hand over cheek and asked her, "So, are you going to get undressed willingly, or do I have to hold you in place while Steve strips you naked?"

"I vote for stripping her," Steve heavily breathed into her ear as Vic now wiggled in his arms at hearing that, biting down on the edge of her lip as she looked between them. Waiting a few moments without receiving an answer, Steve made the choice for her, "Stripping it is."

Steve then released Vic enough so that her feet touched the floor, her back to Steve's chest, while his arms wrapped around her torso pinning her arms to her sides. Vic's hair was braided up out the way while she was wearing simple shorts and a shirt with red flowered socks, easy clothing to come off. Taking a hold of her wrists, he stepped in for a firm kiss before they got started.

"Are you fine with this?" he whispered in her ear, but loud enough so Steve knew that Vic wanted this too.

"Yes," she breathed out, as she gave his own ear a gentle bite.

"Yes, what?" he growled wanting to hear her say it for both of them.

"Yes, Sirs," Victoria answered correctly.

Looking over her shoulder, he saw the grin on Steve's face. He remembered how Steve used to hide the pulp detective novels under his mattress where his mother would not find them. The common link in all of them was the 'damsel in distress', where the heroine was facing some danger while tied up. And now, they would both have the opportunity to live out that boyhood fantasy.

"If you want us to stop at any time, snap your fingers. Do you understand?" Bucky informed her.

"Yes, Sirs."

Turning Vic around so that she was facing Steve, Bucky lifted and held her arms over her head by her wrists. Steve took a few moments before slowly beginning to lift the hem of her shirt higher, his fingertips running up her bare sides, making sure to give her a slight tickle. When he finally got it over her breasts, they saw that she had not been wearing anything underneath. Lifting the shirt up her arms, he slacked his grip for only the moment necessary to pull it all the way off.

Steve then leaned in for his own kiss while he began to move her arms downwards and behind her back. Kneeling down onto one knee, Steve then took a hold of the waistline of the shorts, slowly pulling them down also. They both quickly noticed that something else was missing.

"Did you just _happen_ to forget your _panties_ this morning?" Steve asked her as she stepped free of the shorts before he slipped her socks off.

"Nope," she smirked as Steve then ran his hands up her legs. When he reached her sides, Bucky then moved her arms around to her front.

"Hold her," he instructed as he passed her wrists off to Steve. As Steve held her hands out in front of her, he took one of the strands of rope, stepped to her side, and began to wrap it around her wrists numerous times before knotting it and leaving a long tail to secure it later.

"I'm guessing that you've thought this through and have a plan?" Steve asked him as he grabbed the other strand of rope.

"Of course. You're not the only one who can come up with them," he told him as he moved to the foot of the bed frame. From the corner of his eye, he saw Steve turn Vic back around and wrap his arms around her again, again pinning her arms at her sides, to hold her in place against him as they both watched him work.

Bucky took one end of the rope and looped it around the left foot board's leg. Running it underneath the bed, he looped the other end around the right leg. Reaching out, he pulled the two ends towards the center, where he intended to have Vic standing secured.

"Bring her over here," he told him, pointing to between the rope ends. Steve then started walking forward without letting go, pushing her gently forward towards the foot of his bed. Stopping as her legs made contact with the mattress, Bucky knelt down beside Vic as Steve looked over to watch.

Taking the first end, he carefully wrapped it around her left ankle, tying it off before pushing her leg outward just enough for his plan. Reaching across them and picking up the other end of the rope, he gave it a gentle pull, tightening up the slack. Walking around them to move to her right leg, he moved it outward a bit more, making sure that her legs were spread open, but that Vic would still be comfortable. He then tied the other end to her right ankle.

"Interesting," Steve commented moving, observing from off to the side. "But what about her arms?"

Bucky smiled at him as he knelt behind Vic and took a hold of that rope, which had fallen to dangle between her legs. Tugging on the wrist's rope, he looped it around her leg's rope as it passed under the bed. As he pulled the slack out of it, Vic's upper body was forced to come to rest onto his bed, as her arms were pulled underneath her. Once her hands were down and away from her body, Bucky tied the rope to the other one, keeping Vic in that position, lying naked and bent at an angle over his bed.

"Vic, we want to see you try to get out of that," he said as he stood, running his hands up the insides of her thighs. She began to struggle, lifting her feet barely off the floor. However, when she pulled at her arms, it pulled on the ankle ropes, making her legs spread a bit further apart, so she stopped. "Are you still fine?"

"Yes, Sirs," she answered while sounding a bit needy, as if wanting more.

"Now," he said standing back next to Steve, looking at the delicious view, "we have to decide how many spanks she deserves for that stunt today."

They both watched as Vic fidgeted on his bed, making him hard at seeing her exposed cheeks just waiting for the two of them.

"Well, she did finally manage to get you and Tony talking like friends would do," Steve pointed out with a smile, but probably more from the boyhood fantasy image in front of him currently.

" _But_ …she also made us think that Tony was about to attack us," he pointed out.

"That was Tony's fault," Vic defended herself. "If he would have just gone to the room, I wouldn't have had to use the override that Pepper had access to."

"So you _did_ have Pepper's help?" he asked as they then took a few steps forward.

"Of course. You think I could make three Avengers disappear all day and not raise suspicion _without_ her help?"

"She has a point," Steve stated coming to stand on her right side, placing his hand on her right butt cheek. "I say that we should get at least three each since the day turned out well, one smack for each of us confined today."

"You hear that Vic?" he asked standing slightly to her left side, as he remembered doing something from a previous talk they'd had when she'd been reckless. Placing his right hand on her butt cheek, he began running his silver index finger from the base of her neck all the way down her spine. The motion of it was eliciting a shiver from her entire body. He liked the way that had looked and would _definitely_ remember it for the future.

"Yes, Sirs," Vic heavily breathed.

Using his other hand to run further down, he rubbed the folds of her skin, finding her already warm and wet for them. Nudging Steve's arm with his own, he indicated his hand's placement, so Steve brought his own hand down, smiling at the discovery. Vic then moaned as the two of them explored her for a bit, teasing her just enough to leave her wanting more.

"This is definitely going to be a very good day," Bucky said, angling himself a bit better so that he could take his swings, with Steve doing the same.

"You go first," Steve said, "since you could have been hurt by Tony."

With a smile, he gave Vic's cheek its first smack, pulling a moan from her. Steve then gave her his first swat. Her cheeks took on a lovely warm red shade as they rotated the remaining four spanks. With each one, Vic would wiggle and moan, in a good way, sounding so wanton, like music to his ears. By the time that they were finished, he was fully erect, eager for what could come next.

Leaning on the bed, he heard Vic heavily panting as she turned her head to face him. It was easy to read the lust on her face. Her body was slightly squirming, egging them on seductively.

"Is there anything that you want?" he asked her, rubbing the small of her back. He saw Vic bite her lower lip, a bit hesitant to answer at first, but then she nodded. "And what would that be?"

With her eyes closed, Vic answered, "One of you in front of me, while the other is behind," her cheeks slightly turning red. Hearing her say that, his own shaft hardened even more. He turned to Steve, wanting to make sure that he had heard what she said. Seeing the expression on Steve's face, he knew that he had.

"Are you alright with this position? Do you want us to leave you like this?" he asked as he saw Steve already starting to remove his clothes.

"Yes, Sirs, please," she begged, wiggling her ass definitely on purpose this time, trying to drive them crazy.

"Any preference?" he asked him with a grin.

"I'm already undressed, so I'll get into position on the bed while you get undressed," Steve suggested, to which he agreed with a nod.

As he began to remove his clothes, Steve crawled up the bed. By the time he was naked, Steve's legs were surrounding Vic, only needing to slide his body a bit downward as she lifted her head. Giving him a nod, Steve began moving forward while helping Vic position her head, her lips gliding down onto his hard shaft. With the position she was in, she would not be able to pull all the way off of him easily. Bucky then took the final step towards Vic that he needed to be able to plunge into the warm spot they had found earlier.

Grabbing a hold of Vic's hips, he began to thrust into her as she continued to suck on Steve. This was the first time that they ever been together in such a sexual way at the _same_ time. He could hear both Vic and Steve moaning from the pleasure that each of them were currently receiving from their new escapade. Giving a firmer ram, the motion pushed Vic deeper, making Steve moan even louder as her mouth entirely consumed him. Continuing the same gesture a few more times, they were rewarded with the lustful mewing of Vic as he embedded himself all the way in.

Only a few minutes later, he was barely able to contain himself thanks to the erotic sight before him, but Bucky wanted to make sure that Vic was satisfied. When he reached around with his hands, he easily found that sweet spot that made her scream every time. However, this time Bucky realized that Vic would have her lips nicely wrapped around Steve's cock as she did so.

"Ready to finish?" he asked him, to which Steve could only nod, as his eyes were closed while Vic was probably working her tongue over him greedily as she seemed to always do. It only took a couple of swirls of his fingers before he heard the sound of Vic trying to scream out during her orgasm, which was causing her body to shudder against him. As she tightened down, he was only able to give a few more hard pumps before finding his own release.

When he opened his eyes, he found that Steve had fallen backwards on his bed, supporting himself on his elbows, breathing heavily after his own release. He had also moved back enough to free himself from where Vic was lying, who was also breathing intensely with a grin on her face at the pleasure she had received.

It took a few moments before he was able to untie all of the ropes from around her ankles and wrists. Steve then reached down and pulled Vic up onto the bed next to him, wrapping his arms around her as she reached out, making sure that he was going to join them, which he did, wrapping his own arms around both of them. Lying in the messy pile for a while, they were just relishing the sensation left behind from the new experience that they all had enjoyed.

After a bit, Vic then said, "I _need_ to get in trouble _more_ _often_."

"I don't think that we need to wait for you to get _in trouble_ to do that again," Steve informed her, kissing Vic's forehead, while Bucky gripped them both just a bit tighter.

"I agree," he stated.

After a few minutes of them quietly lying there together, Bucky remembered something that he had thought about earlier in the day, when he had still been sitting at the table sulking in the room with Steve and Tony. "Vic, I thought of something today that I would like for you to do for us…"

"Could you give me a few more minutes at least?" she heavily sighed.

"Not that," he said poking her in the side, getting a lovely giggle from her. "If we ask you to _promise_ to do something, will you agree to _always_ do it?"

"Do you mean like the promise I made after the talk I had with Tony, about not telling anyone to hit me again?" she asked seeming to understand his reasoning some. Steve looked over at him, a bit curious as to why he was asking, but he knew that Steve would get this.

"Yes. In case of something serious going on, like what happened at the Gala, if we make you promise to do something, will you do it? No matter what it is, _or_ what _you_ would _like_ to do?" Bucky asked.

A few moments passed, as Vic seemed to consider his words, hopefully trying to understand how important this could be in the future to her safety. Steve then told her…

"As in, if we need you to vacate a location for safety reasons, we need you to do so _without_ arguing, or _without_ hesitation, because of what _we_ may be doing at that time," knowing what Bucky had been asking of her. "We _need_ to know that you are _safe,_ so that we can work."

"Yes, my warriors," she finally agreed. "If I promise either of you something, I will always follow through with it."

"Thank you," Bucky told her, getting a long kiss from her, as he pushed her backward so she was pinned firmly against Steve, who did not seem to mind at all, before using her bare chest as a pillow for a while.

Hopefully, the trouble at the Gala would be the last time that Vic would ever have to deal with something like that.


	56. Christmas

Vic woke up wrapped in a very warm cocoon made up of her two warriors' bodies, both of them lying against her sides, arms overlapping her and each other, their combined legs a messy tangled pile. Taking a deep breath, she could pick up their scent. Nothing that was distinct, almost as if they both formed into one. The essence reminded her of leather mixed with earthy spices. Of course, it was a very manly smell...no floral scent from either of them.

The room was quiet except for the very low Christmas music that they had left playing in the background when they had gone to bed the night before. They had stayed up late with the rest of the group in the decorated common room, snacking, drinking, and laughing at stories. It had been the best Christmas Eve she had ever had, and she knew today would be just as good.

After Vic had found out from Pepper about Tony's normal behavior this time of year, and combining it with Bucky being here this time, they both agreed that it would probably get worse. So after a full explanation of what she was planning, Pepper had conceded to let Vic go through with the drastic idea. Everyone had been hoping that the gamble she was taking would work out the way they hoped…and luckily it had.

During the day of 'confinement', she, Pepper, Nat, and Bruce had taken the time to decorate the Tower for Christmas. Tony had been shocked to find the common room, as well as his and Pepper's place, decorated with greens and reds, but he had not ordered them taken down and destroyed, which was the overall fear they had while putting the stuff up.

They knew that Vic had stuff to do in their place, as well as taking care of the guy's meals. So she had gathered the items she had been hiding in a spare office a few stories below, bringing them up and spending a few hours doing what she needed, between making snack and food runs to her prisoners. She had been planning the changes for over a week, plenty of time to order stuff and have it delivered. Everything had been ready by the time they were released. Instead of Christmas music, Vic had listened to the three of them eventually get around to talking as she had hoped they would.

The only thing left to do had been their Christmas tree. Not sure what to do about it, she had taken the boxes of spare ornaments that Pepper had left over and put them next to the bare tree. The next day they had gone through them, choosing the ones they liked and decorating it. She had made popcorn on the stove-top and spent almost two hours string it, along with fresh cranberries, with a needle and thread to make homemade garland. It had been her favorite thing to do at Christmas time when growing up, since she could later take it outside to string it up outside her bedroom window for the birds to eat. Maybe next week she could find some on sale to get as their own. They had left the job of putting the lights on to her since back in their day, some people would still use real candles to light a tree. She couldn't understand how more houses hadn't burned down doing that.

Over the next couple of days, wrapped packages slowly began to appear under the tree. They discussed not going crazy with gifts, but it seemed that none of them actually listened to that. She had gone out wearing one of her normal looking wigs to do shopping with Natasha, who decided to wear a blond wig of her own, hoping to avoid reporters also. They had in fact calmed down greatly when it came to hounding them through the PR department, for which they were all grateful. Nat had guessed they would calm down by now, and it seemed that she was right.

"Good morning," Bucky said as his arms around her tightened nicely, pulling her a bit closer to him, as he kissed her cheek. The movement of being taken away from him then caused Steve to stir on her other side, causing more tightening, pulling, and kisses.

"Let's wake up like this every day," she said giving kisses to both of them.

"No argument there," Steve said twining their fingers together. They just lay in bed for a few extra minutes, enjoying being there in a warm room on the soft mattress with the hard bodies.

Now, lying there remembering all of her previous Christmas', her mind finally reached back to her family. That was the day that she had originally tried to call them, for the first few years, receiving a hang-up when they found out that it was she on the other end of the line. She had given up years ago, and Vic began to wonder if she should at least _try_ this year. How would they now feel about her, being the soulmate to two Avengers? Would they talk to her? Would they even pick up the phone? It was such a change from her first Christmas after leaving home, causing a sniffle at remembering it.

"What's wrong?" Bucky asked rolling more onto his side to get a look at her.

"Just a bad memory," she told him.

"Want to share? We each have more than a couple of those," Steve told her. Victoria knew that they always wanted to hear any story about her past, even the bad ones.

"I was just remembering my first Christmas morning after leaving home and how different this one is," she decided to tell them. "I was somewhere in lower Florida, heading south to keep warm, and had found an overpass to sleep under the night before. There was a truck stop at the exit, so I figured that I could eat there in the morning. I hadn't realized what day it was at the time. So the next morning, already hungry, I made my way over to the diner and found the entire place closed down for Christmas."

The two of them were quiet and had stilled as she talked. "What did you do?" Bucky softly asked.

"There were a couple of fields off the interstate, growing different things. Since there was nobody around, I was able to get inside and picked a couple of the growing fruits. I had a breakfast of starfruit, guava, and raw corn. It was actually the best meal I had eaten in days."

"It doesn't sound that appealing," Steve told her, snuggling even closer somehow.

"Trust me, it was. Traffic was almost non-existent that day, making it fairly quiet, so I rolled my sleeping bag back out and lay in the sun between the rows of corn to block the wind, just resting. I headed back over to the truck stop around lunchtime, to see if they were open, but no luck. Then I spotted a payphone near the bathrooms. I had a bunch of change in my pocket…so I decided to call home."

She could feel them both stiffen at hearing that. She may not talk about her family often, and they didn't like it when she did. This time would be no different.

"I was going to beg them to let me come back. When my mom answered the phone, she sounded so happy. I could hear Christmas music in the background and lots of people talking. They were having the entire family over for the day. We had the homestead, so everyone would always come there for holidays. I listened to them for a few seconds before saying 'hey mom', wanting to make sure she knew who it was. She didn't say anything after that, but I didn't say anything either, waiting to see what she would say. I could hear them, all of them. Happy without me. Then the line died. She had hung up on me."

"Oh, Vic," she heard Bucky say before he started kissing down her neck. When he reached her shoulder, he buried his head in her hair.

"It may sound strange to say, but I'm glad that she did," Steve said as she turned her head towards him. "If she hadn't, then there is a chance that we never would have found you."

"It sure didn't feel like a good thing at the time," she smiled at him.

"Did you ever trying calling them again?" Bucky then asked.

"I only tried calling for the next _two_ Christmas' while I was living with Wade, receiving the same treatment from my dad. I kind of punched a hole in the wall next to the phone, which Wade made me learn how to fix a few days later. After talking with Wade about what had happened, I decided to give up after that. I'd been with Wade about three months by our first Christmas. It was the first time that I ever gave someone a Christmas present. I had some money saved up from working the door, and I got him a set of brass knuckles and an expanding metal baton."

Both of the guys then started laughing at her choice of gifts.

"What? They are very practical," she said poking both of them in their sides, getting dual squeals.

"So what did Wade get you?" Steve then asked after they had calmed down.

"A set of pajamas, made of long pants and a short sleeve shirt. He said I wore too skimpy of outfits around the house," she said remembering them fondly. She had worn them for years until she had ripped too many seams to keep sewing them back up.

"So, who wants to get _this_ Christmas started?" Bucky then asked sitting up in bed smiling.

They made their way to the den, seeing the tree flashing a couple of hundred colored lights. They had all agreed to leave it on overnight. Taking seats on the floor in front of the tree like kids, they then began to sort the many boxes into individual piles for the three of them. There were still a couple of boxes under the tree for friends that would get passed out later, probably at dinner, which she was looking forward to contributing to. Pepper said that wasn't necessary but there was at least one dish she had insisted on making. She hadn't had it in years and hoped it was as good as her memories.

Vic quickly noticed a pattern when it came to the gift Steve and Bucky gave each other. Clothes. After opening up numerous boxes of shirts, socks, and pants, she finally asked for an explanation.

"Growing up, we didn't have a lot of clothes to change into," Steve told her.

"And then this one," he said with a thumb jerk towards Steve, "would go out and get into fights, ruining his shirts with blood."

That also probably explained the assortment of clothes that she also received. Mostly shirts but there were two distinct items from each: funny fuzzy socks from Steve and sexy panties from Bucky. They had also gotten her many practical items, saying that they had been making a list of items she would ask them about having.

Opening the first one, she had found a waffle iron, which got her to laughing. She loved the gift and thought it was funny that they had never heard the old joke about never giving appliances to a female as a gift. There were a few more kitchen items, all things that she had wanted or needed to cook, telling her that they really had been paying attention for the past few weeks.

In a wrapped box that Nat had brought to her, she found her gift from Wade. He had contacted Nat to help him get it to her this year instead of just mailing it as he normally did. He had always gotten her the same gift since she had moved out, an assortment of bath products. Wade said that he may treat her like a son when it came to training her, but she needed to remember that she was a girl. So every year, she always received bath salts, bubble bath, fancy bars of soap, loofas – all disposable items and easy to pack. This year was no different, but there were a _lot_ more of them this time. Wade knew that she wouldn't have to pack them anymore.

After seeing the ones Wade was currently using were starting to fall apart, Vic had mailed him a new set of saddlebags for his bike. He was still using the same ones he had owned since they met, and time had taken its toll on them.

For her warriors, Vic had gone for a few items that they would eventually need as well as normal gifts. For Steve, he got a large set of art supplies as well as a pack of different sized sketchbooks. She had also gotten a small portable kit that he could take with him on missions. Then, so that he matched her and Bucky, she had gotten him a black leather riding jacket. He would need it once the snow outside cleared up and they could go riding together.

Bucky had been a bit harder, but after living here for a short while Vic had noticed that every so often, he would disappear for a while with a book. Steve had told her it was something that he had used to do before the war too. Even after gathering all the books in their place and putting them on the shelves, that had not been too many. Therefore, she ended up getting Bucky a large pile of newer popular books that she saw he did not have. She was waiting for him to figure out what the _Fifty Shades of Grey_ books were about. He also ended up with an electronic reader, that way he would always have any book accessible to him, and it was easier to take on missions.

Both of them also received a couple of joint presents. She had started to plan on them going on a camping trip as soon as she heard the passes on the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway were open after the snow melted. One of the things that she had found online would be perfect. As the two of them stared at the large item, she explained that it was a cold weather sleeping bag large enough for three people. The smiles that appeared on their faces was priceless. She had mentioned it at Thanksgiving, but she guessed the two of them didn't believe they really existed. The last large box was a portable tent for all of them to use on the trip. Anything else they would need, she would get later, but now, they knew she was serious about them taking a vacation together.

At the bottom of the pile was a box with just the letter V on it, but she could not tell whose handwriting it was thanks to the plain boxy letter. Holding the gift up, she asked which of them had given her this one. Neither one of them seemed to want to own up to it.

Opening it up, she moved the tissue to expose the items inside, slightly blushing and laughing.

"Alright, which one of you got me this?" she asked again, looking between them. The obvious choice was Bucky, but then Steve could use the anonymous gift to his own advantage.

"What is it?" Steve asked craning his neck to try to look inside. The curious look on his face told her that it wasn't him. Turning to Bucky, she saw the same expression.

"Neither one of you got me this?" she asked pushing the tissue over the items, hiding them until later. Both shook their heads no, so she told them that they would see what it was later, as she picked the box up to hide it in her bathroom for tonight. She was now _sure_ that Nat had been responsible. Who else could have snuck the gift under their tree?

* * *

Dinner would be held at 2:00, which turned out to work out well, as they had a late large breakfast after opening up all the gifts. Victoria had used the waffle iron and made a triple batch for them, actually having leftovers for the first time. Leftovers was not something that had happened so far. Natasha always seemed to know when Victoria made a bit too much and would happen to 'stop by' for a chat...and a snack.

After moving the coffee table out of the way, they had lay all morning together with their presents in a sea of wrapping paper, testing out their new sleeping bag while watching the movie _A Christmas Story_ being repeated over and over on the TV. They, of course, had never seen it, but the fact that it was set in the early 1940's, during the time they were together just before the war, made it an instant favorite of theirs. Bucky had taken to calling him by the new nickname of Ralphie for the rest of the day, due to his blond hair, getting picked on, _and_ getting into fights. Tony had especially liked the joke when they went up to eat, joining in with Bucky for the first time ever.

They had carried the remaining gifts upstairs to pass out. Victoria had gone up an hour earlier to start working on the dish she was making. When they asked why she didn't just make it in their place, she pointed out that they had a habit of sneaking bits of ingredients to eat. While it may have been true, they still tried to convince her to stay, but she just kissed them and left.

The common room smelled wonderful from everything being prepared in the kitchen, the different scents pouring down to the lower levels. They put the gifts under the tree with the others that had appeared since last night, from other team members. The exchange would happen after dinner.

Pepper had found a French chef to come in and prepare dinner, since most other chefs they used were American and at home with their own families. He had been given the menu of standard dishes to prepare, but he and Bucky were looking forward to trying whatever dish Victoria was making. He started to think they were a bit biased when it came to her cooking.

When they finally sat down to eat, they had large servings of her dish on their plates. She called it dressing, not stuffing, which Victoria pointed out was different. It was a flavorful bready, herb and seasoned recipe that they had immensely enjoyed. Everyone at the table agreed that it was great.

Passing out gifts, Victoria found out that everyone always grumbled about trying to find Tony a gift. She had told them to leave his present for her to get, which they had gladly done. What do you get for a billionaire who could buy whatever he wanted at any time?

"Tony was easy to buy for," Victoria had said as she passed Tony the box that contained his present.

"Really?" Nat asked if she couldn't believe what she had heard.

"Of course," Victoria said with a smile.

Tony took the box, ripping the wrapping paper into small shredded pieces. As he looked inside, everyone saw his expression change to one of sheer joy. Lifting out the item, they all looked at the knit sweater in his hands, wondering why he was so happy with it. Then he quickly put it on and they understood. It may look like a normal, ugly Christmas sweater, but the scheme of it included the words _Black Sabbath_ on it, with a pattern that he did not recognize but obviously, Tony did.

"This is great!" he said turning to let Pepper see the hideous thing that he was so proud of.

They all sat around for a few hours, watching a football game while Victoria was curled up on the couch between them reading a book that Nat had given her, her legs over his lap. It was an original first print of a Russian novel that he couldn't even pronounce. He noticed that Bucky would keep glancing at it every so often, but they both noticed how fast she was going through it. She may be finished with it today.

When they finally arrived back to their place, he and Bucky planned to give Victoria their final gift, one they had decided to hold off on until later. Just like with her belated birthday gift, they had gotten her a special gift. After searching a couple of stores, they had gotten her a diamond star necklace, something that she could wear anytime she wanted. They had agreed that the symbol was perfect for her. Of course, Victoria had been thrilled at the gift, putting it on right away before kissing both of them for it.

They had then glanced over at the den area, still covered in the wrapping paper remnants, as he and Bucky started debating on leaving it until morning. But then Victoria told them to make any decision about cleaning until she got back, and that she needed to change. They had thought it a strange request, but they were slowly learning to accept them.

"Now, who's ready to clean?" they heard from the hallway, turning to look at where Victoria was standing.

Both of their jaws were probably wide open at the sight. She was wearing the sexiest, strangest outfit he had ever seen. 

Victoria took a couple of steps into the room, letting them get a better look at the black and while maid's uniform. It was a tight fitting sleeveless black corset top with white trim details that ended at a puffy ruffled skirt mixed with both colors. Her breasts were barely contained at the top of the item, forming perfectly rounds mounds swelling to almost spilling out with each breath she took. Sheer black thin lace stockings covered her long legs, with black high heels which helped to accentuate her toned gams. Garter straps ran down the front and back of her legs to hold the stockings up. There was a ruffle neck collar and a lace headpiece to complete the ensemble.

"Where did that come from?" Bucky asked with a cracking voice as he stared at the same soulmate he was.

"This was the mystery box under the tree. I confirmed at dinner that Nat gave it to me. She said that maybe this would help to encourage the two of you to help clean up more," she said slinking into the room, gliding with a graceful swish of her hips that was not normally there. The fluffy skirt rode high with each step, exposing the bare skin high on her thighs. "So, one of you want get a trash bag from under the sink?"

"You expect us to _clean_ with _you_ wearing _that_ and looking the way you do?" he asked frozen to the spot and wanting to head to the bedroom instead of doing anything else.

"Why? Aren't you capable of focusing on a task?" Victoria then asked them as she turned and went to the kitchen since neither of them had moved, frozen in place by her erotic appearance.

Opening the lower cabinet under the sink, Victoria then dramatically bent over at the waist to get a new trash bag, the backside of her fluffy skirt lifting high, exposing black lace see-through ruffled panties underneath of the uniform.

"Vic!" Bucky then cried out at the sight. He dropped his head as he grabbed the back of the couch for support. "And here I was thinking that she was going to break _you_!"

Tossing the trash bag to him, Victoria's voice was seductively heavy while running her hands down the corset's sides, "So…there is _one_ _more thing_ that I can think of for the two of ya to _unwrap_ , but until this room is _clean_ , neither of ya are getting your _final_ Christmas present."

The entire den was clean and back to normal within three minutes, and Victoria never picked up a single item.


	57. The Day The World Went Away

**Very Late January**

* * *

Steve rolled over and tried to wrap his arm around Victoria but found that Bucky's arm was already there. Grumbling at his loss, he decided to just let his arm fall over the metal arm that was already warm to the touch. He cracked an eye open and saw that the sun was barely over the horizon by the glow in the room. Probably a quarter past seven. They'd had plenty of time over the past two months to get used to calculating the morning sun with what time it was. He was sure that would change due to the time change in a few months. Steve couldn't remember the last time he had actually slept in his own bed...and he didn't mind one bit.

As his arm continued to lay on the warm metal, it became slightly uncomfortable, something that had not happened before. Letting it slide downward, he was able to find Victoria's smooth skin where her nightshirt had ridden high. She was laying on her side facing him, her face looking peaceful as she slept. However, he then noticed that her skin was unusually warm. Had sleeping between the two of them really caused her body temperature to raise so dramatically?

He then felt the other side of bed move. Opening up his eyes, Steve saw, not heard, Bucky walking to the bathroom, closing the door silently behind him. Now that he was gone, he began to move his arm over Victoria's side, giving her a slight tickle that always made her wake with a lovely smile. Usually that would at least get her to stir and wake up, but not this morning. Leaning over, he brushed away a large lock of hair from across her cheek.

"Morning, Sleepyhead," he whispered before kissing her forehead, and then realized that it seemed a bit warmer also. Touching the back of his fingers to her head, he found that she seemed to be _very_ warm. "Victoria?"

Nothing. Reaching down, he took her hand into his, giving it a couple of firm squeezes as he noticed that, unlike the rest of her body, her hand was cold for some reason.

"Victoria?" he said in a normal voice, no longer trying to wake her up gently.

Sitting up on his arm, he then carefully rocked her shoulder to stir her. Again, nothing. Trying again, he managed to push her shoulder enough so that she went from her side onto her back, but she didn't open her eyes. His mind instantly pictured how a dead body reacted, and Victoria's was matching it perfectly. Reaching down, he placed his fingers on her wrist, checking for a pulse, but Steve didn't think that he felt anything.

"Buck!"

A second later, the bathroom door flew open due to his scream as he moved to sit upright in the bed.

"Somethings wrong! Victoria won't wake up," his voice heavy with panic as he put his hands on her face. "Her skin is too hot!"

Bucky hurriedly moved to the bedside, sitting down next to her, reaching out with his flesh hand, putting it to her forehead.

"She is hot, and if _we_ think she feels hot, then Vic must be burning up," he then picked up her wrist, checking just as he had.

"I couldn't find a pulse, but she can't be dead," he told him, starting to feel frightened. "Why won't she wake up?"

Bucky stared at him for a few moments, unsure himself of what to do. Then he saw something change on Bucky's face.

"Her coma day!"

Steve then remembered over two months ago when she and Wade had mentioned it, right after they had met her. He had forgotten all about it. Just thinking of it made him feel a bit better, but now he had a new set of worries.

"FRIDAY, I need you to do a full scan and put monitors on Victoria, all vitals that you possibly can until we can get her down to medical," Steve instructed the AI while running his hand across Victoria's face. Not even a flinch at the touch.

" _Yes, Captain. I have already had them running_ ," they heard the AI say.

"You've _had_ them running?" Bucky asked.

" _Yes, Sergeant. Since 12:08 a.m. when her vitals started to change, as per Miss Victoria's instructions_."

"What instructions?" Steve asked, getting up from the bed to put on his clothes from the floor which he had discarded there last night at bedtime.

" _Miss Victoria notified me that her vitals would change one night this month, falling into the parameters of my medical algorithm for needing attention. She informed me that this was a normal occurrence for her, listed the different symptoms to expect, and instructed me that as long as the parameters she set were met, to not send out an alert, allowing you and the Sergeant to sleep_."

Bucky quietly started to curse in Russian while Steve just shook his head at hearing that.

"She _made_ FRIDAY let us sleep," Bucky finally said.

"And that _surprises_ you?" he sarcastically asked, pulling the thin cover sheet they used off Victoria. She had fallen asleep in a small pajama set and a pair of socks with grinning devil faces, but at least she was wearing something, unlike some other nights. "Let's get her to medical."

" _Sirs, Miss Victoria did leave a message for the morning after the algorithm was activated. 'My warriors, don't worry. I will see you in the morning'_."

"I hope so," Bucky mumbled, sounding just as worried as he felt.

Bucky slipped his arms under her, as he then lifted Victoria up from the bed. There was not a trace of resistance from her in any way. Bucky looked like he was carrying a dead body, not a sleeping soulmate. Steve opened the bedroom door and called the elevator, after paging medical and informing them they were on the way down.

For the next hour, they stood in the hallway, staring inside the room as a doctor and two nurses ran new scans and tests on Victoria, as well as examining the scans from during the night. Tony, Pepper, and Nat were paged, and they came down to see what was going on. Bruce had left last week to head for a sabbatical after a bad mission days before. They doubted that even Bruce could do anything about this. From what Victoria had told them, it happened every year. They gave their friends a short briefing on what they could remember from two months ago.

"I'm going to go call Wade," Steve then said as Bucky just nodded. "My phone is upstairs."

"I'll come with you," Nat said joining him at the elevator doors. Once inside, she asked, "How are you doing?"

"I'm worried. This is not normal...no matter how Victoria feels about it," he said as they headed upstairs.

"Vic told you that this happens every year?" she asked.

"Yes, since birth apparently. Her parents…they took her to the doctor when she was very young, but from what she eluded to, they were not very nice when it happened. Wade was with her twice for this. I want to see what he can tell us."

"Well, get your phone and let's head back down to medical. Bucky will want to hear what he has to say, and Tony will probably have a few questions too," she said as they entered their place.

When he came back out from their shared bedroom, Nat was looking at all of the pictures on their shelves, a smile on her face.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing. Just admiring how the place looks now. It's nice," she said as they turned to the elevator. She had been here many times since Victoria decorated, but he knew that she was trying to cheer him up a bit.

"Victoria did all of it. She made it feel like a home," he said pausing in his steps, suddenly getting that panicked feeling again. "What happens if Victoria doesn't wake up this time?"

Nat then came over, taking his hand, saying, "You can't think like that. Victoria is going to be fine."

When they got back to medical, the five of them moved into another room where they would be able to put the phone on speaker and all talk with Wade.

" _Did it happen_?" Wade answered his phone as a greeting, sounding like they had just woke him up, which they probably had. He must have been expecting an early morning call from them at some point this month.

"Yes," Steve said. "I have everyone here with us. We have a doctor checking Victoria over right now, to make sure she's really fine. What can you tell us to expect?"

" _Vic'll run a high fever, but she will be shivering all day. I had a hard time finding a pulse, so I would keep checking her breathing. She won't respond to anything…talking, yelling, tickling, loud music, nothing_."

"What do you know about when she was with her parents? Vic said they would do something to get her to wake up," Bucky asked wanting to know a bit more about what she had been hesitant to tell them before.

They all heard Wade give a heavy sigh, " _Bastards_."

Nat, Tony, and Pepper seemed a bit shocked at his comment about her parents, but they had never shared anything about them with the group. Vic said that she didn't want them pitying her.

" _Tasha_?" Wade asked for her using what could only be a private nickname for her.

"Yes," she answered, looking curious.

" _You may have to help calm them down_ ," he gave them a bit of a warning. Just hearing that Bucky took a few steps away before Wade started. " _They didn't want her to sleep, so they would inject her with a drug called Dexedrine. I looked it up online. It's used on people with narcolepsy. It would work enough to stir her awake for a short time, so they kept injecting it into her all day_ ," he paused for a moment before saying, " _and they did it to her for years_."

Steve sat down on the edge of the bed, Bucky was in the corner of the room with his arm sounding off repeatedly as he balled his fist, and Tony was on his tablet, already looking up the drug Wade had mentioned.

"But, when she was with you, if Victoria just slept, she would wake up fine the next day?" he asked.

" _Yeah. She didn't even know that she had slept the day before, so you'll have to tell her. I would put a cold towel on her head to try and cool her down, but I don't know if that really helped_ ," Wade told them. They talked for a few more minutes, letting Wade know if the doctors found anything before hanging up with him.

"I looked up that drug, Dexedrine. A lot of side effect with, of course, the usual ability to become addicted to it," Tony informed them.

"What type of side effects? Anything we should worry about?" Bucky asked coming back over to stand at the bedside.

"I'd have to talk with the doc, but since Vic's not a regular user and it's been years since she took it…" Tony paused at saying that, before starting over, "since it was _forced_ on her, but I would think that Vic should be fine," Tony said as Pepper put her arm around him, as he was starting to seem that even he needed a bit of comforting. They had seen how he and Victoria had become good friends since moving in and working with him, not only in the garage, but around the Tower and Quinjet. Holding up the tablet, Tony began to read off side effects. "Headaches, seizures, dizziness, chest pains, hallucinations, aggression. I don't think that I've seen Vic show any signs of these side effects...aside from the anger at when I get caught sneaking into my own garage..."

"No, I can't even recall her having a headache the entire time she's been with us," Steve said feeling a bit better. "How could parents do that to a child? And for years, over and over?"

"Some people just can't handle certain topics," Nat said putting her hand on his shoulder. "But she's here with us now, and I'm sure that Vic will be fine."

Right then, the doctor who had been examining Victoria walked out of her room. He and Bucky were the first ones out of the door, the rest following.

"What did you find?" Tony asked for them. "Layman's terms please."

"Victoria is running a high fever, 103.5. I examined the records that FRIDAY started to run during the night and her temperature quickly elevated during the night and then leveled off there, less than an hour after it had started to rise. She started to shiver not long after she got here, and we've put on three blankets to try to get them to stop. Her pupils dilate, which is a good. If it were a real coma, not dilating could be a bad sign. Her pulse is very low, but at a steady 32 beats a minute. Overall, except for not waking up, she seems to be doing fine."

"Even with the high fever?" Pepper asked.

"Yes. So far we haven't found any negative effects from it," he told them. "All of the scans we've run so far indicate that her body is in very good health."

"Can we see her?" he asked.

"Can we stay with her?" Bucky asked.

"Yes, that would be fine, but just remember that she's not responsive to anything," he warned them.

They heard Nat, Pepper and Tony talking more with the doctor, getting into more technical medical terms, but he and Bucky headed on inside to her room. Victoria was just lying on the bed, looking peaceful as she slept the day away.

"Now I understand what Wade meant that day when he said that it scared him," Bucky said brushing some of her loose hairs to the side, out of her face like she liked them to be. They stayed in the room for half an hour just sitting and watching, as Victoria would continue to shiver, even with the blankets.

After a while, Bucky then said, "I don't recall Vic shivering the entire night when she was between us. Do you think that helped?"

"Maybe," he said wondering if he might be right considering their connections. "If she had, I think that it would have woken at least one of us up. _And_ she didn't start do it until we brought her down here, leaving her on this bed with the doctor. But, Wade did say that she did it when she was with him."

After some thought, Bucky suggested, "Why don't we take Vic back upstairs?"

"And just put Victoria back to bed?" he asked.

"Why not? It's not the way I would want to spend the day in bed with her," he managed to get out before receiving a punch to his metal shoulder, "but if our body heat or presence helps, we should at least try."

"I'll go talk with the doctor and others," Steve agreed, hoping that the suggestion might work. "If we don't see a change in her in fifteen minutes, we'll move her home."

Eighteen minutes later, Bucky was lying Victoria back down in their bed. Nat told them as they were walking out that she would come and check on them after a while so they removed the access restrictions for the place for today, in case they needed anyone to come in. Pepper and Tony said to page them if they needed anything while the doctor was going to keep FRIDAY running a constant scan on Victoria until she woke up. Steve told the group that if anything significantly changed, he would page them to let them know.

After lying her back down on the bed, he told Bucky to go ahead and lie next to Victoria while he got them a couple of bowls of cereal for breakfast. They had been awake for about two hours, more worried about Victoria than taking care of themselves. When he got back in the room, he passed Bucky a bowl and then crawled into bed, pressing his body up close to hers.

"She already started to calm down," Bucky said, taking a bite to eat. "I think being near us does help."

"Good," he said starting to eat. He noticed that soon after getting in bed, that all of her shakes seemed to go away. After they were both finished eating, he began to sit there and think. Something then nudged at his mind, so he glanced over to the right corner of the bedroom nearest him.

"Bucky, that pile of blankets," he said getting his attention. Bucky leaned forward to look at the pile that had appeared a few weeks ago, but had never been touched. "Victoria put those there. She knew about the shivering and wanted us to have them nearby."

"I asked her a while back why not just put them in the closet, and Vic just shrugged her shoulders and ignored my comment. Maybe she felt that by putting them in there that we may forget about them."

Reaching down, he ran his hand on top of her head, touching her forehead to see if she was still warm, which she was. She was so still. Even her breathing was so soft that they couldn't see her chest rising unless they stared at it.

"When I yelled for you this morning, I was so sure that she…" he started to say but he could not finish the sentence. "I _never_ want to feel that way again."

"You and me both," Bucky said taking her hand into his.

"Victoria said that she never knows when this is going to happen. She only has a general idea, just during January," he said wondering how to solve this problem.

"How about you call Wade back and see if he remembers what the dates were for the other two times? Vic may have also told him of other times also. FRIDAY can then run them and see if she can put together some kind of connection," Bucky suggested.

Picking up his phone from his nightstand, as it was dialing, Steve thought of something.

"Check on Victoria's phone's calendar and see if she has written down anything in the previous years," he suggested.

"You want _me_ to be the one to snoop on a woman's phone?" he sneered at him.

"Well, you _are_ her _stalker_ ," Steve pointed out with a smile as Wade answered.

As he talked with Wade and told him what they wanted to try and do, Bucky sat on his side of the bed, flipping through the calendar app that Victoria used. When they had both finished, they had four more days to use to try to figure out when this may happen again.

"FRIDAY, I need to you run these five days and find some kind of correlation between them," Steve said after calling out the previous years' coma days.

" _Yes, Captain_."

"Do you think she'll find something?" Bucky asked.

" _Yes, Sergeant, I will_ ," FRIDAY then informed them immediately. " _All of the dates given correspond with the lunar cycle for the first new moon of the new year."_

"The new moon?" Bucky asked looking as confused as he felt.

" _Yes, Sergeant. Each of the days, the 4_ _th_ _, the 23_ _rd_ _, the 20_ _th_ _, the 10_ _th_ _, and today, the 27_ _th_ _, all show the new moon occurring for the years of the event_."

"Well, maybe FRIDAY has found something," Steve said feeling a bit better. "If that's true, we'll be able to predict this for next year."

"I still think that it will scare us when it happens though," Bucky said sounding a bit more at ease.

For the next two hours, they sat in bed, only getting up to retrieve art supplies for Steve or Bucky's tablet so he could read. They played some music from growing up as well as some of Victoria's songs in the background. Just as his stomach started to growl at lunchtime, FRIDAY paged them.

" _Sirs, your lunch has arrived_ ," they were informed, giving each other curious looks.

"We didn't order anything," Steve said.

" _Miss Victoria did. One of the runners is bringing it up now_ ," the AI said.

"Vic ordered us lunch? How?" Bucky asked looking over at her sleeping form.

" _Miss Victoria left instructions that while she slept, to place an order with Aaron's Deli down the street with your usual choices, to be delivered at lunch time. She said that the two of you would probably not think about eating_."

"We didn't," Steve admitted aloud, getting up off the bed to go and get the food.

" _There is also a standing order for dinner to be delivered at 6:00 tonight_."

Bucky was chuckling as he turned his tablet off and placed in on his nightstand. "Vic seems to have thought about everything."

They joked about how mad Victoria would probably be mad with them for doing this, but neither one of them wanted to leave her to go sit at the table, so they spread one of the blankets, stored in the corner, over the top of them and proceeded to eat in bed.

* * *

"Well, don't the two of you look cozy," Tony grinned at the sight before him as he walked in and surveyed the strange situation that was going on.

"Actually, we are," Steve told him while Bucky grumbled under his breath.

"How is she doing?" he asked looking down at the unconscious female. Just like when she was downstairs, there was not a sign of life from her. He found it just as creepy now as he did then.

"Vic seems to be doing fine. As soon as we got up next to her, the shivering stopped," Bucky told him as he walked over to the large window to look out.

"Wade told us that no matter how many layers he would put on her that they never did stop for him," Steve informed him.

"So, it's another possible strange connection to the soulmark?" he asked wondering how such a strong connection was able to happen.

"Maybe," Bucky said.

"But, we still have no idea as to _why_ this would happen, but we think that we may have figured out _when_ they will happen," Steve said. He listened as they told him about the connection the dates had with the new moon.

"And here I thought astrology was just hokey," he smirked. "There are some scientist out there that for years have said that there may be a connection between astrology and soulmarks. Maybe this is a type of proof."

"We'll maybe know for sure next year," Steve said with a smile. He found it amusing that they were at least planning that far ahead. Chatting for a few minutes more, he started to walk out of the room before turning to them.

"Do the two of you actually need anything? Magazines…snacks…bedpans," which earned him a paperback being tossed his way from Bucky's side of the bed as he laughed and ducked through the bedroom door. Once he was further down the hallway, Tony yelled back, "Just page me if you do."

* * *

Nat walked into the bedroom and smiled at the scene. The three of them were adorable. Steve had fallen asleep next to Vic while Bucky was putting down his tablet after removing the earbuds.

"Watching something?" she quietly asked moving over closer to his side of the bed.

"Just one of the movies Vic put onto a list for us to eventually watch," he said gesturing to the open space on the edge of the bed. Nat was actually surprised at the offer and accepted. "Turns out she found a comedy about hit-men."

"Really?" she asked curious.

"Yep, and it is pretty funny," he said. "Not exactly realistic, but funny."

"Any movement?" she asked looking at Vic and Steve lying there. When he had laid down to take a nap, Steve had rolled to face Vic and put his arm over her stomach. She was lying on her back, looking the same as earlier. It did remind her of the princess stories of Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. She almost asked if either of them had tried kissing Vic to wake her up.

"Nothing," he said. "No rolling over, no twitches."

"Did the two of you at least eat something for lunch?" she asked.

"Yeah. Vic set it up with FRIDAY for our lunches to be delivered when today happened," he said with a grin.

"She did?" Nat said also finding it amusing that she had planned that. "She's gotten to know the two of you pretty well, it would seem."

"Yeah. She also has our dinner being sent over later," he smiled to look over at Vic and Steve as Steve stirred a bit in his sleep, but not Vic.

Bucky then told her about the possible connection they had found concerning when this should happen to her as well as explaining the pile of blankets in the corner. They talked for a while before Steve woke up, immediately checking on Vic, saying she still felt warm.

"Are the two of you bored yet?" she asked.

"No," they said in unison, not really believing them. "Really?"

"If this is something that we have to do every year to have our soulmate with us, then we are _never_ going to complain," Steve told her.

"You know that you both don't actually _have_ to be here? It's just the _shivering_ that you are helping," she pointed out.

"Don't care, we're staying," Steve said with finality.

"Maybe by next year, we might have a TV to watch," Bucky supplied with a smile.

They asked if she had gone over the files that SHIELD had sent over to see if she could find anything on Rumlow. The base they had gone after over a week ago had not been under his commands so there had been nothing for the past four weeks attributed personally to Rumlow.

"We did get some interesting new information today," she then began. "Turns out that yesterday, there was a bank vault robbery in Istanbul. They went through numerous security boxes, either to disguise an actual targeted one, or they were just there at random. A security guard got a lucky shot off before he was killed. The robber killed showed up on SHIELD's file as a HYDRA agent associated with a cell that Rumlow oversees."

They looked at each curious at the event just like she had been.

"Robbing a bank's vault is not Rumlow's typical MO," Steve pointed out, which they all knew.

"And there was no actual sign of him," Nat told them. "He's been laying low for a while now, which might be a sign of him working on something bigger."

Since his message on the wall in the warehouse in Austria, it was the last known location of Crossbones.

"At least there was no sighting of him today," she told them looking down at Vic peacefully sleeping without having to worry about this stuff.

"Hopefully, by this time next year, he'll not be a problem for anyone," Bucky said sweeping at some of Vic's hair that fell on his side as he adjusted his seat.

* * *

By the time that their normal bedtime arrived, Bucky was ready for the day to be over. He and Steve had wanted to be there for Vic, but sitting around not doing anything for most of the day had led to many random boredom arguments. Next year, they were going to plan much better and have more activities for them to do.

They had argued over which movies they were going to watch, which songs on Vic's playlist each of them considered good, which pillow was the most firm and who would get it, who would be the one to shoot Rumlow in the ass when they got the chance, and how to annoy Tony for the bedpan comment.

Overall, they had a good day. It had been a long time since the two of them just talked, as opposed to hanging out in the same room as they had after he had come to stay at the Tower. It felt a lot more like old times, before the war. To help alleviate some of the aches of sitting and laying around all day, they both had at some point taken quick showers, or run to the kitchen for snacks. At one point Bucky had grabbed a pair of his favorite knives and told Steve that he was going to teach him how to twirl it. Steve had flat-our refused to do such a thing anywhere near Vic, earning him a scolding.

The only thing they did agree on was that tomorrow, as long as nothing earth-shattering happened, they were going to spend the entire day with Vic again, but this time while she was awake. If she even _tried_ to go to work, they would kidnap her away from the Tower. They decided that after being inside all day, that either going to a museum or just a few laps around the park with lunch at the Boathouse again, would be a nice way to stretch all of their legs. Maybe a combination of all of it.

Bedding down for the night, he knew that they were both silently praying for Vic to wake up in the morning as everyone expected her to.

* * *

Trying to roll over onto her side, Vic found herself trapped under a mass of arms and legs, as usual. Therefore, instead of trying to roll in a direction, she stretched her body lengthwise, pointing her feet downward while her arms reached over her head. She smiled at the warmth coming from her two protective warriors. She quickly found that she was not only very thirsty, but also very hungry. There was no way she was just going to lay here this morning and wait for them to wake.

Making up her mind, using the skill she had copied from watching Bucky move stealthily, she slowly and carefully began to lift the arms from around her, lying them onto the bed before slowly pulling her legs upward from under the pile of men. Satisfied that it had worked and she had not disturbed them, Vic crawled slowly down the bed toward the edge. It may have taken a few minutes, but she was free and they were still asleep.

Looking over to the corner, she saw the pile of blankets was still there. It was very late in the month, so she was starting to believe that being with the two of them, that maybe she would not have her coma day ever again.

Since it was still dark, the sun not yet over the horizon, she figured by the time they woke up, she could have breakfast ready. Slipping on a pair of fuzzy bedroom shoes, she crept from the bedroom, using Steve's bathroom since it was always slightly cleaner than Bucky's. She was starting to believe Bucky liked it too much when she put on the maid's outfit to make him clean his room while she watched, waiting for him to finish, and was starting to keep it slightly messy on purpose.

Heading towards the kitchen, Vic then began to pull bacon _and_ sausage from the fridge, feeling the craving for both, as well as waffles covered in butter, powdered sugar and syrup. If only she had some chopped praline pecans to put on top, she thought, deciding to order some online later. She even put on a pot of coffee to ease Bucky's overnight withdrawal.

About half-way through making a double recipe of waffles, she heard a calamity of noises coming from somewhere down the hallway. Turning towards the sounds, two very large forms appeared, running at full speed before skidding to a stop, examining the den and kitchen areas. When Steve and Bucky both spotted her standing there waiting to take the waffle from the iron, she could see something about them...a focused intensity.

"Oh, no! No playtime until after breakfast! I'm hungry!" she harshly warned, pointing the tongs threateningly at the both of them. Instead of them saying anything, Vic abruptly found herself crushed in their massive arms.

"Air!" she finally managed to get out after a few long seconds of being pinned in place.

They both released her, and started to examine her as she noticed that the light changed to indicate the waffle was ready. She batted someone's hand away from her hip as she tried to get to it before it burned.

"Are you alright?" Steve asked as she felt Bucky's hands still moving over her.

"Why wouldn't I be?" she asked putting the waffle on the rest of the stack. Picking up another set of tongs, she passed them to Bucky with a tap on his left arm, saying, "Here. Turn the bacon over."

"Viiiic!" he annoying whined her name while standing there staring at her.

"Whaaaat?" she mimicked the whine back at him pouring more batter on the waffle iron.

Vic looked over at Steve, who was rubbing both of his hands up and down across his face, not quite looking like himself. Turning to Bucky, she noticed that he also seemed out of it.

"What is _wrong_ with the two of you?" she asked closing the lid down.

Steve gave a loud sigh before saying, "What _day_ do you think this is?"

That got her attention. "Ah, hell!"

They both then seemed to ease up a bit, and laughed at her cursing, but once again crushed her in hugs, but this time she understood why.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The hit-men movie that Bucky is watching is Grosse Point Blank. If you haven't seen it, do. "Popcorn."
> 
> Also, if the title of this chapter seems familiar, it's a song title from Nine Inch Nails.


	58. Valentine's Day

Victoria tried to not rush through getting ready this morning, but how could she be anything but excited about today. It was Valentine's Day. And for the first time, she was not going to be the single waitress taking all of the loving couple's orders as they sat, ate, and stared into each other's eyes with annoying little hearts flying over their heads. Well, ok…maybe the hearts were only part of her imagination, but still…they were very annoying.

Each of them had agreed to get a single choice as to where to take the others on a mini-date during the daylight hours, and reservations had been made for dinner and dancing tonight. So, Steve had requested to be first since he said that his choice was probably the furthest away, then they would stop for lunch. Her location would be next, then Bucky's since he said his was close to the Tower. All of them had agreed to keep their selections a secret to be a surprise for everyone.

The only downfall was the chilly weather hovering in the forties. She could not wait for warmer weather when she would not have to have a coat blocking her from the two of them. Of course, being on the cold side always meant that her warriors would be protectively squeezing her between the two of them. Just the thought brought a smile to her face.

Grabbing her jeans, double socks, and the special shirts that she had purchased specifically for today, Vic dressed as quickly as she could, considering the outer top more than the other items. She knew exactly what was going to happen in a little while. A few extra minutes in front of the mirror to put her hair into a Dutch braid and she was ready to go.

Walking out of her bedroom, she found Steve already dressed and sitting at the island, checking something on his phone. He gave her a quick look and smile, before going back to his phone. Then his mind registered what he had seen. His eyes seemed to be popping out of his head as he look back over at her.

"Wha…" Cleaning of his throat… "What are you wearing?" Steve asked.

Vic glanced down with complete not-understanding on her face at his question.

"Clothes," she answered as she made her way over to the den's chair to sit and put her boots on.

"That is not normal clothing," he pointed out.

"Depends on what you do for a living," she taunted him.

"You are _not_ going outside like that!" Steve then stated, trying to use his leader voice on her.

Turning her head ever so slightly, she gave him a sly smile, then said, "It's _adorable_ that you _think_ that!"

"Buck!"

A few seconds later, she heard the pounding of heavy feet running down the hallway and stopping behind her as she finished with her boots.

"What!?"

"Tell Victoria that she is _not_ going out looking like _that_!"

Bucky then turned to look at her, so she stood up and let the two of them get the full effect of her outfit now that her boots were on. The matching looks on their faces were worth it.

Vic had found a pair of black leather boots that came to just below her knee with a slight heal. There were buckles on the outside for a nice touch. Even though she didn't normally wear them, she had gotten a dark blue pair of skinny jeans to wear today, which hugged her thighs, waist, and hiney tightly. But it was the dark red brocade leather corset that she knew that had the two of them at a loss for words.

It fit very snugly thanks to the dark bronze steampunk buckles that crossed over the front of it. The back was where the leather lace-up strap crossed in a zig-zag pattern to be tightened even more. Right now it gave her a perfect hour-glass figure without being too tight. It was sleeveless and was designed to be a halter top so there were straps that went over her shoulders and buckled at the back of her neck, holding the top up so that her 'boys' didn't spill everywhere. And since it was chilly outside, she had found a cute white lace top with short sleeves to go underneath of it.

"So, are the two of you ready to go?" she asked pulling out her pocket watch and glancing at it.

No response from either of them.

Giving a heavy sigh, Vic then walked over to the elevator and called it before grabbing her black leather riding jacket from the coat rack.

"Oh, no…Absolutely not!" Bucky then managed to strain out with a cracking voice as he realized she intended to leave.

"What?" she asked feigning ignorance. "Don't I look good?"

"Too good for anyone else to be looking at!" Steve answered, bringing a smile to her face.

"Worried that someone will hit on me and I'll decide to go home with them?" she asked.

"Of course not," Bucky said as the elevator doors opened and she took a step inside.

"Then ya'll better get in here with me before I spend the day alone. Oh…and let's throw in a month without 'playtime' for the first one of ya that _negatively_ mentions my outfit and _two months_ for the second one who opens their mouth," she coyly grinned, which stopped both of them from whatever they had almost been about to say. They had been together long enough to know when she was honestly threatening them.

Watching her warriors glare at each other, silently pleading with the other to say something with a lot of head nodding and hand gestures her way, not wanting to lose 'playtime' ever, they finally gave up without a word being spoken. They each grabbed their coats and quietly took up their spots on her sides, as she latched on to their arms with a smile.

* * *

As the ferry carried them down the East River, Steve was glad to see that the cold weather had not put a dampener on Victoria's smile. When they had arrived at the dock, they had learned that for the entire time that she had lived here, Victoria had never taken a ferry anywhere. So he and Bucky were sitting back on one of the benches watching her leaning over the side to watch the waves as they headed to the location he had selected.

"Not _brave_ enough to say anything earlier?" Bucky goaded him, probably since Victoria was out of earshot.

"I didn't hear _you_ chiming in after that little _threat_ either," he pointed out.

He noticed that Bucky's head then took a slight tilt as he stared at Victoria as she leaned a bit over, her exquisite round ass sticking out from underneath of her jacket just enough to cause him to get a semi.

"Not that I mind the view, though," Steve grinned as he heard a chuckle from next to him.

"Look!" Victoria then practically shouted as she came rushing over to them, landing partially on both of their laps. "A carousel!"

"It's called Jane's Carousel," Steve told her as they turned to see the colorful spinning item behind the full glass structure. It was situated in the Brooklyn Bridge Park right on the water, in the shadow of the bridge, overlooking the East River and Manhattan.

"That's so neat," Victoria said with longing in her voice.

"Would you like to ride it?" Steve asked, hoping that his idea for today had been a good idea.

"Could we?" Victoria asked excited.

"Well, if we don't, then the tickets I've already gotten for it will go to waste," he told her.

The next thing Steve knew was that Victoria's lips had captured his with her arms wrapping around his head tightly. He knew that it had been a great idea at that point.

Steve could not believe how packed Jane's Carousel was, but then, it was a great place to bring someone on a date for a fun time. It had been a short walk from the pier along the water's edge, but the three of them were not in any hurry. There were more couples at the carousel than children today. He headed over to get the tickets, leaving Victoria and Bucky in each other's arms as they watched the spinning item.

When he got back, Victoria wrapped her arm around his waist, pulling him into their embrace.

"Vic was just telling me how she's never been on a carousel, only roller coasters," Bucky told him, which he had not actually thought of.

"Never?" he asked her wanting to hear what she said about it.

"No. When the carnival came close to town, I wasn't allowed to go," she softly said, knowing it was another one of _those_ subjects.

"Well, I have plenty of tickets for numerous rides," he grinned at her, hoping to get her back into a good mood, which it did by the beaming smile that she was giving him.

They rode together twice before Bucky bowed out, giving the two of them some private time, as he went sit on a bench saying that he was going to keep watch. Steve knew that he was only using that as an excuse specifically for him. Bucky recalled how Steve had been unable to ride anything like this growing up due to getting nauseous, with or without a dame at his side. But Steve appreciated the gesture and did notice that as they made revolutions that Bucky had his phone out and was taking picture of the two of them.

Three more couple rides later and they were ready to finish their walk before heading to lunch and then move on to wherever Victoria had chosen. Walking back towards the ferry, Steve led them to The River Café nearby where he had made reservations for them. They sat overlooking the water, watching the sailboats and other crafts pass by, enjoying the scenery as they ate.

* * *

As they rode the subway to the stop closest to her date location, Vic had to stop herself from having a continuous grin on her face. She doubted that either one of them would ever guess where she had chosen, if they even knew that somewhere like it even existed. But considering both of them, she felt it was the perfect spot.

It was a short walk on the streets to the entrance. When they got there, both of them froze on the street just in front of the large picture window, staring at the location. The current window display was made up of two skeletons captured in the middle of having sex doggy style. Vic thought that it was hilarious.

"Are you serious?" Steve asked, staring at the two items that were permanently screaming out in pleasure from their act.

"I have a feeling that she is," Bucky answered him for her.

Talking to both of them together, Vic explained, "Well, since Steve likes museums and Bucky likes sex, I figured that the Museum of Sex was the perfect place for the both of ya."

Latching on to their arms, she began dragging them forward towards the doors. Neither one of them tried to argue or stop her, which was good. She didn't want to lose playtime herself if they both whined. She did notice that Steve faintly pulled his ball cap a bit further down, as if to hide. He was so _adorable_ when he turned that shade of red.

For the next two hours, they walked around looking at all of the exhibits, a wide smile on Bucky's face most of the time. Steve was a bit more refined with his examination of the different items on display, but there were a few slight covert grins. He slowed his pace dramatically when they reached the hallway displaying sketches of sexual positions throughout the past few centuries.

Bucky seemed to find the displays of playtime toys more to his liking, whispering to her a few times if she would consider trying a few things he had not even known existed. Each time, she would just answer with a kiss to his cheek. Vic was sure that their next few playtimes would be fairly interesting.

When they got to the large inflatable bouncy area in the shape of bare nipples, only Bucky agreed to go in it with her, Steve saying that he wait for them. So, she grabbed Steve, removed his shoes before he could complain _too much_ and dragged him inside with the two of them. When they finally left the museum, Steve had opened up just enough so that he wasn't beet red anymore.

She could hardly wait until the two of them got their Valentine's presents later. Vic had noticed both of the reminiscing over the display of different style pin-up girl artworks from the war. That told her that they were _definitely_ going to like their presents.

* * *

Bucky was still leading them down the street to the store that he hoped that Vic liked. He remembered that first night when she had mentioned not liking chocolate, but luckily, in this day and age, there were numerous options. So he was leading them to the store that he had reconned earlier this week to make sure that it would do for his location of choice. It had been perfect.

Reaching the opposite street corner, he gestured towards it and heard the sharp intake of breath from Vic. She had looked across and spotted the two-story candy store ahead of them. Seconds later, her lips were locked on his. Only giving her a grin as they broke apart, he led them across the street and inside of the colorful bright location.

"Since you don't like chocolate, then we need to find something else that you really like," he told Vic as her and Steve's eyes tried to take in all of the sights. There were so many different plastic containers with sweet treats that it would take an hour to probably go through the entire store and see everything, especially since there were two floors worth. Vic seemed a bit stunned but began to slowly walk around, eventually grabbing one of the bags to start filling with numerous varieties of sugar treats.

Steve, he noticed, was drawn to the section where they had a display of classic candies that included many which they had grown up with. There were some that he was surprised were still around, but everyone liked sugar and chocolate he guessed. He chuckled a bit when he notice little Stevie emerge and grab a basket for a few items himself.

Back then thanks to the recession, they had been very strapped for cash, so it was a special occasion when they would be able to get something for themselves. Bucky had always made sure that if he had a bit of money left over after rent, groceries, and bills had been paid, that he would grab them both something sweet. Sometimes he may only have enough for one piece which they would cut and share. Glancing into the basket, he did notice that now there were two of everything that Stevie had chosen.

About thirty minutes later, they emerged out onto the street, all of their purchased rung-up and placed into shopping bags, a black one for Steve, and a bright pink one for Vic. Before they even crossed the street, he saw her popping something into her mouth, chewing on it with a smile.

Since they were only two streets over, and a couple of blocks away, they agreed to just walk home. About the time that they hit Park Avenue, he noticed Vic rummaging through her bag yet again. But when she pulled out what he could only describe as a colorful lollypop in the shape of a unicorn horn from the bag, he had to speak up.

Pulling Vic off of the center of the sidewalk towards the building they were next to, he informed her, "Oh, no! You are _not_ eating that on the _street_!"

"Why not?" she innocently asked holding up the phallic item in her hand.

Bucky narrowed his eyes at her, and _then_ he saw the corner of her lip raise. Yep, she was trying to tease them.

"Because we remember the ice cream cone. We were lucky enough then that we didn't have a group of horny guys following us home _that_ day," he pointed out to her as Steve just nodded in agreement since his mouth was full of chewy caramel that he had gotten to fill up his mother's jar on the kitchen counter. "Sucking on that would be way too phallic of a suggestion."

"Spoil sport," she sighed but she did put the candy back into the bag. "I guess I'll just have to eat it later…naked…while covered in bubbles in the bathtub."

Vic then started to head towards the Tower, which loomed ahead of her in the middle of the street, leaving the two of them just standing there while picturing the erotic image she had _so easily_ placed into their heads.

"But we can join you then, right?" Steve managed to ask through the caramel while running after her, bringing a smile to Bucky's lips at hoping for a positive answer…for both of them.

* * *

Vic stared at the mirror, double checking everything to make sure she had done the makeup correctly. It had taken almost an hour to get her hair just right, but it had been worth it. The reflection that now stared back at her perfectly mimicked the picture of Maureen O'Hara from one of the shots taken of her back in the forties from when she was in _Sinbad The Sailor_.

Her hair was fluffed up, with large curls resting on her forehead. The sides were pinned up high while the rest of her curly hair rested on her shoulders. How they did this years ago _without_ the numerous products that she had in her hair to keep it this way, she had no idea.

Before stepping into the bedroom, she made sure that her warriors were not around and peeking (mostly Bucky). The bedroom door was still partially closed, so she made a quick dash to the closet where she had left her dress for tonight hanging. It was a delicate pink color, in a simple elegant lace style, resting on her shoulders, short sleeved, with the bottom hem stopping mid-thigh. To finish it off, she had found metallic silver heels which worked perfectly with the silver star necklace that they had given her for Christmas, which she already had on.

The only thing that would be a surprise would be what she had chosen to go underneath of it. Victoria wondered if they would discover it before they got back home tonight.

"Are you ready?" Steve called out, as she was zipping the dress up on the side.

"Almost," she answered, giving a twirl to see just how high the hem would go up. There _was_ a chance that with enough spin, the surprise might be visible. Vic smiled at the idea.

Thirty minutes later, they were seated once again in the same restaurant that they had their big date at in a different booth, but almost identical to the previous one. They had all agreed that a second trip there would be perfect for Valentines. They also planned to go dancing again afterwards.

But this time, the two of them were a bit more subdued when it came to request for kisses and their touches during dinner. Not that she would have minded a repeat of last time. But they sat and talked like normal couples…well, normal couples of three…would, passing on dessert because Steve said that he had already placed an order of desserts at the club.

Arriving there, it was even more crowded than last time, but the reservations had been made over a month ago for another private booth on the upper floor. This time, Steve got the first dance while Bucky sat and watched them. Vic did notice that he did go to the railing and get a couple of shots of them dancing, smiling as he watched them together.

Getting back to the table, she and Steve found that their dessert for tonight had been delivered. Strawberries on long skewers which had been artistically cut so that they resembled roses. There were two different chocolates, dark and white, melted in warm bowls so that they could be dipped before eating.

Since they had both been so adamant about the unicorn horn candy, she chose a skewer, covered it in some of the white chocolate and then placed it in her mouth. Seconds later, she sucked the entire thing clean, making sure to swish her tongue just enough for them to notice, leaving just a drop of the white creamy substance on her lower lip for show.

"Victoria…" Steve admonished as she licked it away seductively.

"That's it!" Bucky firmly stated, standing up and pulling her with him. "We're going to go dance before someone earns too many spankings."

"You two are so funny," she told Bucky as he gripped her tightly, swaying with the music. "I was just trying to make sure that ya'll will be in the mood later."

"Trust me, sweetheart, we've been in the mood since before we left home this morning," he pressed the small of her back, pushing her into him enough so that she felt his already harden member, bringing a smile to her face.

"Is that my unicorn candy or are you just happy to see me?"

"Do you know how evil you can be sometimes?" he asked before clamping down on her earlobe to suck on it.

"Absolutely," she moaned out, while giving her hips just enough of a forward rounding grind to bring out a moan from Bucky with the action.

About an hour later, she found herself on the floor dancing with Steve again. After one faster twirl, she noticed that he pulled her in hard, keeping her pressed against her.

"Is there something that you want to tell me?" he asked by whispering in her ear.

"About what?"

"About what I just _saw_ when you did that _spin_ ," he pointed out softly.

"Oh, that…" she leaned in so that she could whisper back into his ear, "Those are just the red leather panties that I got to go with my outfit tonight. Princess on top while temptress underneath. They match the bra that I'm wearing too."

"You can be so mean," he told her.

"Bucky said that I was evil. Maybe I'm slipping and will have to try harder with you," Vic told him.

"Don't you dare. I will concur with Bucky and change my comment to evil," he grinned at her, which gave Vic an idea.

"Too late," she told him.

Leading them slightly off to the side of the dance floor, she turned around in Steve's arms to make sure that Bucky still had a good view of them. Taking a hold of his hands as she swayed her hips, she stared Bucky down as she slid them over her waist, then her hips, before she felt them touch the her bare skin of her legs. With that, she then moved their right hands under the hem of her dress, turning just enough so that Steve would be able to reach directly between her legs.

Bucky's eyes grew wide as he realized what he was watching. With very little prodding, Steve's hand began to run over the leather panties, examining them the best that he could out on the dance floor. After a few moments, she glanced around to make sure that nobody else was paying attention, and luckily they weren't. Because of her own body blocking the view, she then moved her hand on top of Steve's member.

Leaning her head back, now able to see Steve's face, she told him, "Touch me," before resuming eye contact with Bucky.

The hem of the front of her dress, for the most part, hid his hand as Steve began to circle around the top of her panties. When she realized that he was not going any further, she then repeated more firmly, "Touch. _Me_."

"Victoria," he started to say, glancing around them, but then saw that they still did not have an audience. Every other couple on the dance floor was engrossed with their own restrained touching. Pressing back into him, she circled her hips a few times, feeling him growing hard against her, she then moved her right hand so that it slipped between his pants and skin. A second later, she had him grasped with her fingertip making gentle circles around his head. That seemed to be the final prodding that he needed.

Steve's fingers then began to slide around the edges of her panties, before moving them just enough so that they found her smooth bare skin underneath.

"Lower," she urged him, still keeping eye contact with Bucky, who looked about ready to either have a heart attack, or join them on the dance floor.

As Steve's fingers found the folds of her skin, she drew in a deep breath as he began to circle around her sweet spot. The grinding motion which her hips then began was a combination of making him touch just the right target while also getting him even harder as she stroked him. Bucky now looked like he was staring down the barrel of a rifle, all of his focus on the two of them, as if the club was entirely empty.

"You are so wet," Steve hissed into her ear as his fingers slid a bit lower. He then turned her a bit to the side, giving him more room to move his fingers over her, but her eyes never left her other warrior's. As a single finger was able to slip inside, she knew the expression on her face told Bucky exactly what had just happened. The fact the he suddenly sat forward, somehow scrutinizing them even more intently than he already had been, was impressive.

With each delicate pump of his finger Steve was rewarded with his own stroke, the two of them urging each other on with this new sexual playtime game of exhibitionism. As Steve kissed her neck and ran his tongue over her ear, Victoria made sure to keep her eyes on Bucky, letting him know that this was for him.

Tilting her head so that she was close to his ear, she told Steve, "Someone is liking the show."

He then looked up at the balcony area, giving a slight laugh at their soulmate glaring at them with predator eyes.

"How about we take this show on the road?" Steve asked, but then he gave a her a deep thrust with his finger, holding it and her, in place. Resting his head against her, his warm breath caressed over her ear as he harshly hissed, "Actually, I'm _telling_ you that is _exactly_ what we are going to do."

Gesturing with his left hand towards Bucky, Steve started to again give slow deep thrusts as he informed her, "We are going home. You are going to strip that dress off and show us what you have been hiding underneath of it all night. Then we are going to take turns holding you down while the other licks right here," he said running his thumb over her clit causing another gasp, "until you scream for each of us. Do you understand?"

Vic was barely able to breathe out a heavy, "Yes, Sirs."

"Then we are both going to fuck you until you scream again. Is that what your _evil_ little body wants?"

"Absolutely, Sirs."

"Good, because you've teased us enough today, Tentatrice. Now, release me and give Bucky our sign so he knows it's time to go," he commanded her.

Motioning with her hand, she gave him the sign for 'time to leave' that they had used during the war and which they had decided to teach her. They definitely came in handy at times likes this, she thought.

"Good girl."

With that simple praise, Steve slipped a second finger inside of her, almost making her orgasm right there on the floor from the sheer naughtiness of pleasure that he was giving to her.

Steve then removed his hand entirely before taking a hold of her wrist and pulling her to the stairs as Bucky matched their walk, looking a bit disappointed that the show was over. She was so close to needing release that if either one of them had suggested a bathroom stall or alleyway, she probably would have agreed without hesitation. This was going to be a very long car ride home.

"Someone has reached her limit of teasing for today," Steve informed Bucky as he took her other hand into his.

"I'll be having some very wet dreams tonight after that show," he informed them as they went through the crowd towards the front door while texting their driver.

"You have Victoria to thank for that one."

"Oh, I'll be thanking her a couple of times once we get home," Bucky grinned over at her.

"I know, especially since I've already informed her of the plan," Steve smirked at her as their car was pulled around.

* * *

The next morning found Vic waking up still in Bucky's bed where the three of them had collapsed so late at night that the city around them was dark. Since both of them were still asleep, she carefully snuck out of bed, leaving them blissfully unaware as she went to her closet. After getting home last night, they had been so preoccupied with doing other things, that were so deliciously naughty, that she never had the chance to give them her gifts.

Grabbing the two bright pink wrapped packages, one with a red bow and the other with a silver, she headed back and found them both still sleeping. Placing them on the nightstands closest to each of them, she then left the bedroom to go and get the next part of _her_ plan ready.

* * *

Waking up a few minutes later, Bucky rolled over and began to slide his left hand over the mattress, hoping to eventually make contact with Vic. But instead, all he got was a yelp as his cold metal fingers poked Steve in his side where he had probably been asleep.

"Stop that, Jerk," he mumbled, scooting further away from him and rolling so his back was to him. "I'm going to buy you a pair of gloves that you can wear to bed."

"Won't do it, Punk," he pointed out, poking his friend in the backside for fun.

A few moments later, he noticed that Steve sat up but did not leave the bed.

"Hey. Check your nightstand," Steve told him, so he rolled over and spotted the present resting there.

"They're from Victoria," he heard from behind him as he grabbed the flat object, curious as to what it was. The matching sounds of tissue paper ripping from his side of the bed joined with Steve's as he finally exposed the picture frame with a very unique portrait displayed.

"Holy hell," he breathed out as he stared at the wonderful sight before him.

His was a custom made, digitally mastered portrait of Vic as a Elvgren Pinup Girl, as he guessed that Steve's was also. The scene was from the view of someone standing outside a 1940's bathroom window looking in from behind at Vic, who was kneeling in a tub full of water. She was totally naked, but the view was from the side and there was nothing actually visible thanks to her elbow's position except her round under-breast and ass-cheeks. There was a look of surprise as she spotted him, being the Peeping Tom outside of the window.

"Wow," was all he could say as he then glanced over eager to see what Steve had for his gift.

They exchanged picture frames as he then saw another shot of Vic. This time, the scene was outdoors at the side of a pond, while she was sitting on a tree stump, removing her clothes while looking over her shoulder. There was a 'No Swimming' sign with a skirt hanging on it, and Vic was wearing underwear, stockings, heels, and panties while removing her shirt, showing her under-breasts sans bra, as she undressed to go skinny dipping. It was just as sexy as his own.

"Victoria gave you the one where you would be stalking her," Steve then pointed out with a smile as they swapped them back.

"And yours shows her breaking the rules," he grinned looking at his again.

With that, Bucky jumped up out of the bed, quickly followed by Steve as they ran out into the hallway, looking for Vic. He heard the sound of running water so they both turned to head into her bedroom, freezing at the bathroom doorway as they both peered inside.

Vic was leaning back in her tub, most likely nude but it was hard to tell with the massive mound of frothy white bubbles covering her and the water. But in her hand was the unicorn horn lollypop from yesterday as she deeply sucked suggestively on it, looking right at the two of them. Removing it from her mouth, it made a popping sound from the strong suction she was giving to it.

"I know that at least _one_ of you will fit in here with me, but _two_ may be a stretch. So, whose going to make it inside the tub first?" she asked sticking out her tongue and sliding the phallic item back into her mouth as the two of them made a bee-line for the hot water, trying to push the other out of the way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation: Tentatrice = French for Temptress
> 
> Also, to give you a heads up, the next chapter will be the calm before the storm...before the hurricane. Everything that has happened during this story is finally coming to a head…


	59. The Camping Trip

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Readers in New Jersey, Oregon and Brazil -  
> FYI: in every other US state, gas stations are self-serve and you pump your own gas (prepaid at the pump with a card, also). I did not realize that you all still only had full-service stations until I helped a couple from New Jersey at a local gas station. Just wanted to give you a head's up since this information pertains to this chapter and may cause you to read it with misunderstanding without it.

**Early March**

* * *

"Come on! Rock, paper, scissors!" Vic had yelled at him and Steve before hitting her head on the steering wheel, mumbling something about 'a week of this'. That had been five hours ago, before the crack of dawn, and Bucky was still proud that he had won so that he could sit in the front seat next to Vic. Steve was lying across the backseat, with his legs bent upwards thanks to his height, taking a nap after being lulled by the rocking of the Jeep making its way down the Interstate toward the entrance to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

For the past hour, unbelievably, they had been discussing some of his missions he had gone on with HYDRA, but in Russian so that Steve would not understand. After a long argument about sometimes needing to vent, he had reluctantly agreed to do so, starting with two missions where he had been assigned to protection detail. He figured that since Vic already had read his files, she knew what he had reported back, but it did give him the opportunity to vent a little.

Eventually, she was able to drag a couple of more missions from him, asking specific questions to see if he remembered the full account that he had given years ago. He noticed that she mentioned ones where the target had not been a nice person to begin with. Vic pointed out that by discussing them with her, it would help to make sure that his memories were intact with Wanda's help, but he knew it was a ruse. She had to eventually give him this very pouty face, but he had relented. And he also knew that Vic would never judge him for the actions he had taken, like others had tried to do.

At first Steve had grumbled to both of them about it not being nice to talk in another language without everyone present being able to understand, but then she had spoken to him in French, and he had quieted down, pulling out his sketch pad and getting comfortable. He found it funny that she could get Steve to quiet up. Now, they were passing through the city closest to the Blue Ridge Parkway's northern entrance, pulling into a station to fill up with gas before starting the scenic route.

Picking up an empty chip bag, Bucky crumbled it up and tossed it hard at Steve's head, jarring him awake violently, his body jerking upright with his arms flailing while he mumbled something about puppies. Bucky felt as his cheeks began to hurt from the large grin he now had.

"Wake up, Grizzly Adams!" he laughed as Vic smacked his arm for the stunt.

"You suck, Jerk," Steve mumbled rolling over onto his side, away from him.

Somehow…well, honestly, bribery of a week of private showers, Vic had convinced Steve to grow a beard for the camping trip, pointing out that it was going to happen anyways on the days that they slept in the tent. She had planned out a rotating combination of tent nights and hotel nights, so they would have access to nicer bathroom facilities every other day or so. Vic also pointed out that it would help to disguise him, as well as Bucky's own beard, so that they would not be easily recognized.

He noticed that she packed a brown wig in her backpack for the same reason. They both hated to see Vic when she wore them, liking her natural hair much more. Hopefully there would be no reason for her to need it.

For the past week, Tony had found the baby beard growth on Steve too good to ignore and had FRIDAY play the theme song to an old TV show through the speakers every time that Steve had walked off of the elevator, even onto their own floor, which he explained would stay until they returned and Steve shaved. Vic had finally shown them a picture of who Tony was teasing Steve at being, which Bucky had found highly amusing, deciding to roll with the joke.

"Rest stop," Vic said, poking Steve in the butt cheek, which also got his attention, earning her a swipe at her hand from Steve but she was too quick for it to connect.

He got out of the car and began to pump the gas while Vic headed inside to grab more snacks, which they had gone through very quickly, considering they had only been in the car since this morning. Steve eventually opened the door and got out, stretching before picking up the squeegee stick and making himself useful by cleaning the windows.

"Vic said we are going to eat lunch before getting on the Parkway," he told Steve as he looked around the area. They were right off of the Interstate that had brought them near the entrance, in what looked to be a normal small city.

"Good," Steve said finishing up and tossing the squeegee back in its container. "I'm starving."

"You haven't done anything but nap for the past hour," he pointed out still with a smile. "How can you be hungry?"

"In case you haven't noticed, we're always hungry," Steve called back to him, heading toward the store where Vic was.

A few minutes later, he was waiting in the Jeep as Steve came back out with Vic and two bags loaded with more snacks.

Getting into the car, Vic chided, "I'm going to have to tell Tony to send your uniforms to the tailor to be let out at the rate ya'll are going through junk food."

"And now we want _real_ food," Steve informed her, rubbing his hands over his face, pretending to fluff out the chin stubble that he called a beard. His own beard was twice the size and thickness after the same amount of time, and he was proud of that.

As they pulled away from the pumps, he realized that he still had the grin on his face since waking Steve up. Vic must have noticed because she kept glancing over at him, a sly look on her own face at seeing him.

"What?" he asked narrowing his eyes at her.

"Nothing. I just know someone who looks like you but who is usually _scowling_ when people aren't looking," she teased as they pulled out onto a street, away from the freeway, moving fast.

"Very funny," he said with a grin. "I thought the point of this trip is to have fun."

"We've barely begun," she said crossing a couple of lanes of traffic like a madwoman.

As he grabbed the 'oh, shit' handle over the door and Steve gripped parts of whatever he could reach to stay in their seats, Bucky asked, "Did anyone ever train you as a transport driver?"

Vic just smiled and kept driving, weaving perfectly through traffic.

"Nope…dune buggy rallies in the Sonoran Desert," she said looking around at the nearby vehicles, "in Arizona."

"Where are you going?" Steve asked moving so that he was sitting between their seats, his head poking into the front so see outside better, while using their headrests as grips.

"Lunch. You want ' _real food_ ' on a road trip, I give you… _Cracker Barrel_ ," she said with a devious grin that they knew meant she was up to something as she pulled off the road and into a mostly filled lot.

Ahead of them was a large, dark-brown building with rocking chairs lining the long covered front 'porch'. Pulling into a parking spot, Vic turned the car off, quickly jumped out and turned back towards them to say, "The perfect restaurant for people ya'll's age," giving an evil villain laugh before closing the door behind her.

As they watched Vic walking away from them, automatically expecting them to follow her, which of course they would, Bucky asked, "We're going to have fun on this trip, aren't we?"

"Yes, we are," Steve replied, patting him on the back as they got out, locking the Jeep behind them.

* * *

Steve stood on the rock cliff staring out over the valley below, taking in the view as the sun had disappeared behind the low clouds off in the distance. Bucky was sitting a bit further back with Victoria right next to him on an outcropping of granite, both of them eating from a bag of trail mix, laughing at something. Other hikers were still wandering around, taking pictures of the scenery.

He couldn't help but think about all the changes that had happened over the past few years. Starting out being alone, holed up inside of an apartment that SHIELD had designed for him to help acclimate him to this era, he had actually contemplated just making himself disappear. Why did the world need him anymore? There had been nothing left for him in it. Bucky was gone, all of the Commandos were gone, Howard was gone, and even Peggy had not been there all of the time. But Fury had found a way to make him useful, and if he hadn't, Steve doubted that he would still be here.

When he had first started working with the Avengers, it made him miss the Commandos on the best of days. They had been thrown together out of necessity, and it had taken time…and a lot of patience…but eventually, they had gone from being coworkers, to friends, to a family. They had given him something to look forward to everyday.

Then his new world had been turned upside down when he found out that Bucky was still alive. But it had not been a happy reunion in any sense. Just as he found his soulmate, Bucky had left, not sure of him, or his own mind. Bucky had only known that he needed to run…from HYDRA, from SHIELD, and especially from Steve, his failed mission. It had taken him two years, and a lot of close calls from HYDRA, to finally convince him to stop running.

And now, finally together, they somehow had managed to find their other soulmate. The one person they had been convinced they would never meet. Victoria was alive, she was healthy, and she was with them. Never complaining when they didn't get a joke, teasing them if they were in a foul mood from a mission until they cracked a smile, and making them run an extra mile so they had to pass the bakery that made better cinnamon rolls than the one closer to the Tower.

Pulling his phone out of his back pocket, he opened the camera, but unlike every other tourist on top of the mountain, his picture faced the opposite direction, towards the one that had his two soulmates tossing peanuts into the air and trying to catch them in their open mouths.

* * *

The best part of hotels was the fact that they never ran out of hot water. Of course, she had gotten spoiled living in the Tower, which also never ran out. There had been a couple of dumps she had lived in where you were lucky to get five minutes of _warm_ water before it turned to ice. But her bank account could sure attest for the benefit of her frugality. It had taken her a short while after moving to the Tower to even start to take longer showers, realizing that she could.

The first day of the trip had gone very well, with them actually liking her choice of restaurant for lunchtime, which she _still_ found highly amusing. They had also hiked to one waterfall, and then past it up to the top of the mountain for a late afternoon view over the valley. She had stayed away from the edge, not wanting to take a chance, even with Bucky and Steve being there with her.

On the hike down, Steve had picked her up at one point, putting her onto his back and carrying her part of the way. When she asked him why he was doing it, he had simply answered 'because he could', giving her a peck on the cheek. So, she had just wrapped her arms over his chest and enjoyed the moment.

"Care for some company?" she heard from outside of the shower curtain.

"Always," she responded as two extra bodies crowded around her, cutting her off from the hot water, but as the firm hands came to rest on her naked body, she didn't mind at all.

* * *

"The instruction are _literally_ printed on the tent," she explained to Steve, dropping the small cooler of food onto the picnic table at the individual camping site they had for the night.

"Tents should be nothing more than a large cloth hung on a piece of string between two trees," Steve exclaimed as she watched the expanding tent pole snap his fingers again while trying to get the support poles straighten out.

"Welcome to the twenty-second century, Captain," she told him, causing Steve to startle a bit.

"This is not…" he started before he saw the look she was giving him. "Very funny, Victoria. You've been hanging around Tony too much."

"Just checking," she grinned at him as she went to get the sleeping bag out next. _Eventually_ they would have somewhere to put it. Bucky had disappeared into the woods on a mission of twig gathering to help start the campfire tonight.

"This is impossible," Steve said dropping the rod and standing there with his hands on his hips, shaking his head.

Sighing at the adorable sight, she walked over, picked up the rod, and within thirty seconds, had it ready to slide inside of the track for the tent's roof.

" _I'll_ unpack the car," he walked off, looking slightly embarrassed.

When Bucky returned a couple of minutes later with enough twigs to get the fire going, she already had the tent in place and standing. The last stop before the campsite had included purchasing food for dinner and breakfast, along with two bundles of wood for the fire, pointing out that chopping their own would not be possible (the ' _but we are in the woods, it's made of trees'_ argument lasted fifteen minutes). Steve had cleared around the fire pit and spread the thick waterproof blanket she had gotten them to use to sit on, throwing their sleeping pillows there to use also.

They cooked the entire package of hot dogs, ate a bag of chips, half a jar of pickle slices and later on, the two of them had went through the s'mores like madmen. She, on the other hand, sucked on the old fashioned stick candy she had picked up at the restaurant yesterday. Vic had hidden rest of them in the car from the guys after they went through half of the supply before dinner last night. She'd had to ban the two of them from eating any more.

* * *

**March 10**

"Shh," Vic whispered towards him, putting her finger to her lips. She pointed at the edge of the sleeping bag to where the zipper was. Understanding, but not knowing why, he slowly unzipped it so they would be able to get out. Carefully opening the flap of the tent, he saw Vic peek back at where Steve was still sleeping, zipping him inside. If they had been able to see the horizon, he guessed that the sun had just cracked it.

They were both barely wearing anything, sweatpants and t-shirts, but she had grabbed their shoes before leading him out. Taking his hand, he followed her down the path that led to the small stream that had soothed them to sleep last night.

Reaching the bottom of the small gully, she led him over to an area of the trail where there was a raised stone outcroppings at different heights.

"Stand right there," she said, indicating a slightly raised area just a few feet high.

"Why?" he finally decided to ask.

"For one of your birthday presents," she deviously grinned.

Knowing she had a plan, he stepped up onto the area, then turned back to face where Vic was still standing on the path. Thanks to the cold weather, he had surveyed the area and had found that all the other private campsites nearby were empty last night, giving them a bit of privacy. But he still noticed that Vic gave a final look around, making sure that nobody was close.

Satisfied that they were alone, she grabbed the band of his sweatpants, pulling them partially down, along with his boxers underneath, exposing his morning-hard shaft to the cold air.

"Happy birthday!" Vic excitedly told him as she leaned forward, taking a hold of him with her hand, giving a few pumps to firm him up even more before sliding him inside of her warm mouth. With him being on the higher ledge, she was now perfectly heightened at his waist, giving her easy access to him.

Bucky had to grab a nearby tree to help steady himself as he stood there in the partial dark, in the middle of the cold woods, listening to the stream bubbling, looking down on his soulmate as she swished her tongue just the way he liked it.

He felt like a king surveying his kingdom.

It was already the best birthday ever.

* * *

Sitting at the table in the strange house restaurant, Steve still couldn't decide if waiting standing in a line for almost an hour to sit down was a good thing or not. There was no menu to choose from, they had just been told that food would just be delivered to them. Victoria told him to just trust her, but this was still just a restaurant, and not her own cooking.

Victoria had informed them earlier today on a walking trail that they would be having a home-cooked meal for Bucky's birthday dinner…only she would not be the one cooking.

The waitress was now parking a wheeled cart next to their table and unloading the heaping bowls and plates of food in every spare space. Fried chicken, green beans, corn, mashed potatoes with gravy, stewed apples, coleslaw… He had to admit that it all smelled delicious. Fixing their plates, both he and Bucky picked up large pieces of fried chicken, taking hesitant bites. They both stared at each other after the first bite.

"Go ahead and say it," Victoria said eating a drumstick. "I know."

"This is better than the one you make," Bucky was brave enough to admit, to which Victoria only nodded and kept eating.

"I've _never_ been able to duplicate this recipe," she said before getting one of her grins. "Oh, Bucky. Think you can sneak in the kitchen and get a copy of the recipe for me?"

"I'm an assassin, not a thief. Send Natasha here, she'd get it for you," he said in a low voice with a grin.

"I want at least two of the ham biscuits. Ya'll can split the rest," she said taking her share of the items and moving them to the far side of the table where they couldn't reach them. "And don't forget that we have dessert waiting back at the room."

The matching wide grins just caused Victoria to shake her head knowing that they were recalling Bucky's birthday request. She had ordered up a chocolate cake from a local bakery a month ago and they had picked it up on their way into town this afternoon. So as a final present, to which Steve would reap the benefit, Victoria had agreed to have their slices served on her naked body. Of course, Steve was sure that she would enjoy dessert too considering everywhere they could smear the icing...

An hour later, they all left with full bellies and smiles, agreeing that it was the best non-Victoria home-cooked meal ever, as they walked back to their hotel and the waiting chocolate cake.

* * *

_"…she's my cherry pie...taste so good, make a grown man cry…"_

…smack of a hand…

_"…In the midnight hour she cried, more, more, more…"_

_"…Television lover, baby, go all night…"_

…another smack of a hand…

_"…At the drive in, in the old man's Ford, behind the bushes, til I'm screamin' for more…"_

_…_ and another smack of a hand _…_

"Stop that, Bucky, and turn that off..."

"House rules, Stevie…driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cake hole!" Bucky exclaimed after he batted Steve's hand away from the radio yet again.

Sometimes Victoria wondered if the two of them had ever really grown up.

"I'm sick of listening to this playlist that you created," Steve told him, crossing his arms and pouting as he slouched in the front passenger's seat. "How could you _possibly_ have found so many songs about _sexual innuendos_ in the first place?"

"It was called the 80's and 90's, Steve," she informed him.

"Then I'm starting to think that I'm glad I missed them," he grinned, looking over his shoulder at her.

"There is nothing _wrong_ with my playlist," Bucky defended himself. "Besides, it helps to get me _in_ _the mood_."

"I thought that was what _oxygen_ was for," Vic smartly answered, earning a set of narrowed steel blue eyes aimed at her from the rear view mirror.

_"…I want to fuck you like an animal, I want to feel you from the inside…"_

"Oh, come on!" Steve then yelled, tossing his hands up, "Now they're not even _trying_ to be subtle…"

 _…_ and another smack of a hand _…_

* * *

"Come on, Victoria. You've done it before," Steve was trying to egg her on.

"It was your idea, after all," Bucky then had to chime in.

"Well, I've changed my mind," she was looking around for an escape route.

"Oh, no! We are doing this," Steve then took a firm hold of her hand. "All three of us, together."

"We'll go nice and slow," Bucky told her as he grabbed her other hand. "Or maybe fast would be better…"

"It's worse back in the Tower and you know it," Steve pointed out as they drug her across the stone path, a fog covering most of the low valley surrounding them, but only on one side.

"Why did I even suggest this?" she mumbled now finding herself only five feet away from the suspension footbridge located a mile above sea-level. "If I never get rid of my fear of heights, I _really_ don't think that it would be a problem at all."

"We live over seventy floors up. This is nothing compared to our bedroom window," Steve said before giving her forehead a kiss. Glancing over, Bucky lifted her hand, kissing the back of her knuckles.

"Fine, but if I pass out, neither one of you better undress me and take naughty pictures," she warned them.

"That was an option?" Bucky grinned and earning him a playful kick since her hands were occupied.

"Just hold on to us. Don't look down, look forward," Steve said as he started to move them onto the metal bridge. Glancing around, she kept waiting for the paralyzing vertigo to start...but it never did. Deciding to test her limit, Vic looked straight down to the ground eighty feet below, and still nothing. Her warriors were protecting her from the fear.

Before she knew it, they were across the chasm, standing on the rock pillar on the other side.

"Not a ping of fear," Bucky smiled at her, giving her a long kiss, not caring about the tourists surrounding them. Turning around, Steve gave her a chaste kiss, trying to not draw any more attention to them than they already may have.

Standing there in his blue denim shirt, with his slightly darker beard still growing, she wondered what Steve would look like with partially longer hair. She could _easily_ keep him from the barbers during the trip, she thought with a smile.

So far during their entire journey, everywhere they had stopped, not a single person had recognized a bearded Captain America.

She had been able to convince Bucky this morning to let her put his hair up in warrior braids. Luckily, they had watched _Vikings_ , and when she said that she could make him look like Ragnar, he had agreed without much coxing.

So, the Winter Soldier also managed to walk around without hassle, and looking like he just needed a large axe to complete his ensemble.

* * *

"Did the two of you complain this much during the war when you had to walk places?" Vic asked leading them down a side path off of the main trail to an unknown location. She had refused to actually tell them where they were going, just that they would enjoy it.

A few minutes later, the path left the woods and they could finally see the waterfall they had been listening to for some time. It was about a hundred feet from top to bottom and they were just below half way up it, walking on a wide ledge that seemed to go underneath of it.

"Victoria, are you sure about this?" Steve asked as they followed her as she used the rock face to guide her under the falling water, which avoided the edge of the path they were on.

Instead of answering, she turned away from the water and disappeared. After a few more steps, they reached the same spot they had last seen Vic at, finding a narrow passage into the cliff's side. They barely managed to get through.

Vic was standing in a large cave that had a hole in the stone many feet above their heads, behind the water which allowed a bit of light through, illuminating the area. Even with it being underneath of a waterfall, the place was dry. They both looked around, taking it all in.

There were stalagmites and stalactites forming everywhere and the light entering made the mineral deposits in the high walls sparkle like the night sky.

"I stayed here for two day," Vic told them as she walked over to a raised ledge and hopped up to sit on the large surface. "I was between cities and didn't have anywhere to be, so I set up camp with a fire and just rested."

They both walked over to the ledge, sitting down next to her.

"This is much better than that dilapidated log cabin you slept in that you showed us a few days ago," Steve grinned at her.

Vic then took her backpack off and unzipped it. He hadn't known what she had inside but he saw that the waterproof blanket took up the entire thing. Pulling it out, Vic spread it out on the ledge behind them.

Before either of them could say anything, she had removed her shoes and clothes, telling them, "Ya'll are both overdressed again."

* * *

"How about a break?" Steve asked as he glared up the mountain side, his eyes following the stairs that would lead them to the top of huge stone spire. Damn, they were only about half way up? So far, he had to admit the views had been great, but even _he_ got tired of the repetitive left-right-left-right upward motion after a couple of hundred steps.

"Five minutes," Bucky informed him grinning as he sat down on a higher step, pulling Victoria down so that she was sitting in his lap. "And here I always thought that you were going to _mentally_ break him, not _physically_ break him."

"I have _many_ talents," she beamed, giving Bucky a kiss.

" _I'm_ the one who needs some compassion…not _him_ ," Steve smiled at her as he took out his phone, taking another picture in a long line of them.

* * *

Vic turned off the light to the bathroom in the lakeside cottage she had rented for them to stay at tonight, walking into a dark bedroom. She knew that she had left the bedside lamp on. That was when she felt the arms. One grabbed her firmly around her own arms and waist, pinning them at her sides, while the other covered her mouth to prevent her from screaming.

She was then lifted up and carried a few feet further into the bedroom, to the foot of the bed. There was enough moonlight coming in through the window to shine on the familiar silver object that was mostly hidden in the dark corner of the room. Her heart began to pound as she tried to struggle, but the arms just tightened their grip. Most people would have been afraid of what that shadow used to represent, but it had another more delicious meaning for her.

"I heard that you agreed to let someone have you somewhere special," the heavy male voice whispered into her ear. Feeling him push his hips forward, with an already hard member against her cheeks firmly, he indicated the area physically. "That he could have your final cherry. That Bucky could slip his cock in your tight ass. Is that true?"

Oh, how turned on she got when Steve talked dirty and got a bit rough during playtimes. If the team only knew how naughty he could be in bed, they would all faint, _especially_ Tony.

All Victoria could do was stare at the looming shadow and nod her head. She had in fact talked with Bucky a few weeks ago about this specific topic. Steve had gotten his first time, and she told Bucky that if he wanted to, he could have the other. He had accepted her offer with a smile, but told her that it wouldn't happen until later. Since he never brought it up again, she thought he hadn't really wanted to.

"Tonight is that night," Steve heavily whispered as his warm breath fell caressingly onto her ear. "Are you still sure?"

Again she nodded.

"If you want it to stop, snap your fingers," he instructed as the shadow took a step forward towards them. Bucky was already naked, and now she wondered if Steve was too. The snapping of her fingers was their signal to immediately stop whatever they were trying if she was unable to speak. So far, she'd never had to do it.

In Bucky's hand was the bandana that he had _insisted_ on buying in the gift shop today. He had formed a large knot in the center of it. As he got closer, she began to struggle, but Steve held on firmly. It was only for show and they both knew that. They'd had numerous playtimes over the past few months and this would be no different, except for the entrance.

Bucky then reached her, running his silver hand down the side of her face before Steve removed his hand just as the knot was shoved between her lips as the ends were then tied behind her head. Screams here would carry, not be contained by concrete floors like they were in the Tower.

Steve's free hand then slid down the front of her nightshirt, into her pajama bottoms before moving under her panties. Bucky's eyes watched his movements, but not yet making any of his own. As his fingers slid over her lips, causing a low moan, he informed Bucky, "She's already warm and slick for us."

A chilling grin appeared on Bucky's face at hearing that as he then undressed her with Steve still holding on so that she could not escape…not that she really wanted to. Her heart was already pounding with anticipation.

Over the next few minutes, now with Bucky holding her in place, Steve handled securing her to the bed with rope she had packed for the trip, never intending for it to be use this way. Her wrists were tied to her ankles as she was kneeling on the bed, her head on the mattress. The rope had gone under the bed, pulling her limbs outward just a bit before being secured in place, ensuring she could not close her legs. Bucky would have full access to her ass that was now up in the air.

As she lay there, she felt the bed behind her move, knowing who it was even before the finger ran its way from her neck to the small of her back. What a wonderful shiver. With the room being so dark she couldn't see Steve anymore, but she knew that he was somewhere, enjoying watching the show in the moonlight, waiting patiently for his turn.

Without a word to her, she felt his fingers apply a cool gel all over her exposed hole. As she gave a struggle for fun, she felt a slick finger slide its way inside of her, causing an erotic moan to echo the room. Testing her tightness a few more times, she felt him move into the final position between her legs.

With one hand he gripped her hips to keep her in place, as if the ropes weren't already doing their job, while his other hand guided him to the tip of her hole. Slowly, Bucky began to push his way inside, causing an extraordinary delightful sensation she had never experience before being with her warriors.

"Are you alright?" she heard Steve ask from somewhere in the dark.

She mumbled, "Yes," the best that she could from behind the gag, wanting it to continue.

"Yes, what?" was the automatic reply.

"Yes, Sirs." She knew they understood her muffled answer.

Hearing that, Bucky then began to slowly move back and forth, each thrust careful but firm at the same time, each one going a bit deeper. As she rocked on the bed, moaning in delight at the naughty feeling, her body began to want even more. Taking a chance, as he pushed forward, she moved her hips back, pushing him all the way inside.

"It seems that someone likes this," Steve's voice said from a different spot than it had been in moments ago.

When Bucky finally found his release a few minutes later, she was still craving more, not satisfied yet. She felt when the bed behind her shifted as the two of them switched places. Steve's hand caressed her raised cheek for a moment before she felt the firm smack of his hand, causing her to wail, wondering what she had done to earn a punishment. There was then a second hard smack.

"That was for the thousand stairs today…one for the five-hundred up and one for the five-hundred down, and _not_ mentioning that there was an _elevator_ ," he then informed her, making her give a quick laugh, as he then pushed his way inside of her untouched slit. Steve did not go as slow, pumping into her ravenously, building her up even more over the next few minutes.

As she whined, hoping one of them understood, she felt a hand gliding over her lips, searching for her favorite spot. Then there was another hand, slipping a finger inside of her new non-virgin entrance. With all three areas being stimulated, Vic screamed into the gag as her body shook with satisfied delight from her warriors' touches.

* * *

"If ya'll don't get your tushies inside of that amusement park right now, I know of another mountain not far away that's just waiting to be walked up," Vic pointed at the park entrance, threatening him and Steve as the two of them stood their ground next to the Jeep.

They knew Vic wasn't really mad at them (no accent) but they had quickly planned this the moment the roller coasters came into view, deciding to mess with Vic this time. She had taken much delight at their expense over the past week, so they felt that annoying _her_ a bit was only fair.

"Steve can't handle roller coasters," he informed her, crossing his arms in a protective manner with Steve standing slightly behind him. It reminded him so much of what he would have done years ago.

"That Punk," she indicated by pointing a finger at Steve, "has jumped off of _numerous_ structures without a parachute. Don't try to pull this 'weakling' Stevie rigmarole on me, Jerk."

"My stomach _is_ feeling a bit queasy," Steve then chimed in trying to sound a bit childish and sickly.

Spreading her arms open wide, she snarked, "Maybe if the two of you would lay off all the junk food…"

Glancing over at Steve, hoping to stop the laugh that was forming, he instead saw that Steve was actually rubbing little circles on his belly. He shouldn't have looked. Bucky had to cover his face as he laughed at the sight of 'weakling' Stevie putting on a show.

"You two…" was all Vic got out before she started to utter phrases in another language, one they didn't even recognize. They glared at her red face as she stomped her foot and gestured with her hands wildly in the air, as if she were having a conversation between two people.

After a few moments of that, she quieted down and took a deep breath.

"Feel better now?" Steve asked while smiling and coming to stand next to him.

The glare she gave stopped them cold in their tracks. Vic could only have learned _that_ from Natasha.

Taking a quick, brave step forward, he grabbed her up bridal style turning them to head for the gate entrance. Vic seemed to give up at that point, relaxing in his arms and letting her head fall upside down so she was looking at Steve, walking on his right.

"What language were you _cursing_ at us in?" Steve asked as he ticked her exposed neck, earning a hand swat.

"Hawaiian," she grumbled. "So it doesn't count."

"That was definitely a first," he said as they heard the screams when a roller coaster car plummeted through a corkscrew loop.

This was going to be fun.

* * *

"That is the second time a damn semi has honked its horn at us while passing it," Bucky grumbled looking in the rear view mirror at the truck now behind them. "What am I doing wrong?"

"You're not doing anything wrong," Vic told him from the front passenger seat. They had just barely gotten onto the Interstate less than an hour ago to start the trip north towards home and already he was annoyed with modern drivers. "They are honking because they want a show."

Steve's head was suddenly popping between them from the back seat as he asked, "What do you mean 'a show'?"

 _Now_ he understood why Vic kept complaining while they did that as _she_ drove.

"They want me to flash them," she said, but he didn't get that term.

"What?" they both asked.

"They're honking to get my attention, hoping that I will lift my shirt so they can see my breasts," Vic plainly told them. "They are higher up and already have a good view down at my cleavage."

Bucky then took the next exit, pulled to a stop, and he _and_ Steve informed Vic that for the remainder of the trip, that she would be _required_ to sit in the backseat, where the window tinting was much darker.

* * *

"No more junk food for you two!" she called out as the Jeep pulled to a stop next to a gas pump.

Bucky was driving with Steve sitting shotgun since she had been _banned_ from it. Steve had suggested that he could climb into the backseat to keep her company, but she threatened to tickle him if he did…while also kind of hoping he didn't listen to her.

Maybe she should add _sex in a moving car_ to her bucket list...

They had left Atlanta this morning after spending all of yesterday at Six Flags. It had taken a few minutes for her to get over their stunt when they had gotten there, but it had been a great day. They had gone on every good ride at least three times, not minding the lines one bit. They ate cotton candy, chocolate covered bananas, Dippin' Dots, snow-cones, pizza, burgers, funnel cakes, pretzels…basically any junk food they could get their hands on.

Luckily with their enhanced stomachs, they didn't get sick on any of the rides after consuming such rubbish. She had been right there with them, but she had been fine also. Maybe it was another connection due to the soulmark? She knew that they never ate like that at home, and it was a vacation, so they were entitled to the massive amounts of sweets.

Besides, she would just add a few extra miles to their daily jogging once they got back home to make up for all of it.

"We still have two days of driving. Yes to junk food," Bucky grinned at her before closing the door behind him. He looked like a lumberjack with the long sleeve flannel shirt he had gotten somewhere along the trip after she made the comment about how guys looked sexy in them. Vic didn't have the heart to tell him that she had been joking...but seeing Bucky wearing it, she quickly decided to change her opinion of them.

Steve was already heading for the pump. They were right off of the Interstate somewhere, but since she had been lying down listening to songs with headphones on while the front of the car argued about gun models, she hadn't been paying attention. All they had to do was follow I-20 until they hit I-95 North. If Bucky could track a target through the woods, he could follow her simple directions.

Vic had planned the road-trip home to pass through D.C., curious as to what the place looked like now. Bucky had been a bit more hesitant about stopping, but when she remembered Steve telling her about the Smithsonian display for him, Steve, and the Howling Commandos, he had lost the argument. She was _totally_ seeing that.

Sitting up a bit, she watched Bucky disappear inside of the small convenience store. But the neon sign in the window caught her attention. Icee. It had been so long since she'd had one, and right now, she didn't care what flavors they had.

Hopping out of the Jeep, she gave Steve a quick kiss, running her hand over his mostly filled-out beard and noticing he was still wearing her pink skull head wrap, making him look even more adorable, before heading inside to claim her cold, frozen drink.

Bucky was moving down the chip and cookie isle, three items already in his hand while looking for more. Heading to the back wall, she smiled at seeing the machine, displaying the brown and red frozen treat, Coke and cherry. Her favorite two flavors to mix.

Filling up the largest cup they had, she went to see if she could get Bucky away from the candy isle he was now in. Did they get cavities or did the serum stop that from happening? Vic never had one herself, but she would have to ask about it later, since she was already sucking on the frozen drink.

"Hurry up," she eventually mumbled leaning on him as she waited for him to finally grab four forms of chocolate. Bucky always made sure to get Steve the same thing he was getting for himself…he was still looking out for him.

She played with the stray pieces of his hair that had come free from the warrior braids due to the rides yesterday, making him look fairly wind-blown. She would have to redo his hair again tonight when they stopped. Vic knew he liked it when she played with his hair...or maybe it was that he was sitting between her legs.

Walking up to the counter, Bucky carefully dumped his haul of goodies onto the counter, and she reluctantly put her drink down so it could be included.

"Weren't you the one just saying no more junk food?" he sternly asked pointing at the drink.

"I told _you_ no more junk food. I didn't say anything about _myself_ ," she smirked at him.

As the male cashier started to ring up the items, Bucky wrapped his arms around her waist, nuzzling at her neck.

"Stop that," she mumbled.

"Why?" he mumbled in her ear.

"{Because we are out in public, and exhibitionism has never turned me on,}" she told him in Russian, trying to stop him from making a spectacle of them for the cashier.

"{That's definitely _not_ what I remember from that show with you and Steve on the dance floor in the club last month,}" he said, throwing _that_ up in her face as he got another kiss from her neck, making her giggle as his long beard ticked her sensitive skin. Vic wasn't sure if the warmth starting to flow through her was from Bucky's body heat or the firm hands pressing her into his hard body.

Yes, her bucket list was definitely getting added to on this trip...twice...

"Vikki? Vikki Hickey?"

Victoria felt all the warmth drain from her entire body and disappear in an instant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A cliffhanger? You didn't see that coming?
> 
> First: I hope you liked and recognized some of the Easter eggs that I placed in a few scenes.
> 
> Second: I pulled from a couple of personal experiences: my dad loved the Cracker Barrel when we went on family vacations (it's set up like an old country kitchen and usually filled with grandparents); I love 80's & 90's bands; I had a hard time crossing the bridge at Grandfather Mountain but eventually did (on DeviantArt, search for unajet and you can see my picture of it from the spire rock).
> 
> Third: Some of the places along the Blue Ridge Parkway do exist, go there if you get the chance. There are dozens of trails and waterfalls to hike to.  
> The restaurant is the Dan'l Boone Inn in Boone, NC. (Best restaurant ever).  
> Chimney rock is the location for the stairs scene (elevator doesn't always work).  
> Near Six Flags Over Georgia (Atlanta) is the other mountain she threatened them with, Stone Mountain. Very fun to walk up.


	60. Old Wounds

"Vikki? Vikki Hickey?"

Bucky had to take a moment to think as to why that name was horribly familiar to him. Then it dawned on him.

Turning his head towards the gruff feminine voice that had uttered the hateful nickname that Vic had been called during school while growing up, he felt his blood start to boil a bit.

"It is you," the woman was saying while staring at Vic, who had gone stiff as a board in his arms. Her voice sounded like an old man's...harsh, deep, and grinding to the ears.

Standing up a bit straighter, he glanced around, double checking their surroundings. The male cashier was ringing up their items, but a bit slower as he was now paying attention to the scene before him. The woman had come from a room behind the counter, probably the manager's office. They were the only others in the small gas station store. Outside, Steve was still at the gas pump, as well as another vehicle carrying a family. No immediate threats…except for the woman.

"My, my, how ya've changed," the woman said, moving from around the counter to stand before them.

He did a quick assessment of her. Her tight clothes showed a body not cared for, her makeup was too heavily applied, and her hair was two different colors, blond on the ends and long brown roots. It also looked as dry as straw from probably having been colored for years. Her mouth had scabby red cracks at its corners and a cigarette hung from between her lips. Overall, she looked…pathetic, he thought…there was no other way to describe her.

"Stacy," he heard Vic barely manage to get out. So…that just confirmed that Vic _did_ recognize her.

"It's been a long time," the woman commented, taking a drag on the cigarette.

"Seven years, nine months, six days," Vic calmly stated.

The woman sneered at the statement. "I guess ya _haven't_ changed that much. Still just as _weird_ as ya used to be."

He felt Vic tremor at the comment, but she didn't move, as if she were fixated on the woman.

"So, wha'd ya come back home for? Those soulmates of yours finally kicked ya ugly ass out?"

That got his attention, and _not_ in a good way.

"What the hell did you just say?" he growled out at the woman as he fully turned, now standing right behind Vic as they faced her. The woman, Stacy, finally looked up at him, taking another drag and blowing the smoke in their direction.

"Got ya'self a dumb one, I see," she commented. "Looks like he needs a bath too. There's a car wash out back."

He went to take a step around Vic towards the vile creature and found an arm outstretched, stopping him.

"Don't."

Vic's voice was low, with a bit of cracking just in that single word.

"Ya must have felt like _hot shit_ bein' all over tha news for those few weeks. Reporters were _crawlin'_ all around here, askin' questions about yer sorry ass. Don't worry, we told them _all_ about ya."

With that, Vic turned toward the cashier, whose eyes were wide while watching the exchange, as she dropped a handful of money on the counter to cover their purchases and grabbed the bags in her hands before turning towards the door. He noticed that she left the drink she had on the counter.

"Go," she whispered to him waiting for him to move. He looked down at Vic, but she was staring straight ahead, her entire face was pale, and he saw something in her eyes that he hated to see…tears forming.

"Vic," he said reaching out and placing his hand on her upper arm, expecting her to say something, to defend herself like she normally did with that sharp tongue of hers.

The door behind him opened at that moment, and he heard, "How many snacks could you be getting?"

"Next time ya come in here, at least try to not look like a homeless person. I have a reputation to uphold, ya know," Stacy stated standing with her hand on her hip, the cigarette hanging from between her lips.

He watched as Vic then pulled her arm free of his grasp and took a couple of steps towards the door and Steve, who was staring dumbfounded at him, only catching the hateful woman's final comment.

"Buck?" he said then his eyes were drawn to Vic. "Victoria?"

He heard the woman snort at hearing her full name. Bucky turned back to face her.

"What is your problem!?" he demanded with a raised voice.

"Stop," he heard Vic lowly say from behind him. "Come on."

"Don't know about the witch ya'll are traveling with? She's pure evil. Best leave her by the side of the road. Maybe we'll all get lucky and a semi will hit her," the woman laughed out.

"Excuse me!?" Steve's raised voice echoed throughout the small building.

"She's a real demon. Named _and_ branded as such," Stacy stated flicking ashes on the floor.

"How dare you say something like that!?" Steve bellowed at the woman.

He heard her chuckle, as if hearing a joke, not intimidated in the least. That was when he heard the door to the store close behind him.

Turning around, he saw that Vic was walking towards the Jeep without waiting for them or even looking back. Moving hastily towards the door, he didn't give the woman a second glance, grabbing Steve's shirt collar and pulling him physically out with him, knowing Steve wouldn't leave otherwise. By the time they cross the small parking lot, Vic was already putting the bags into the backseat on the floor, before climbing inside and shutting the door.

"Get in!" he angrily demanded, moving to the driver's side, pulling the keys from his pocket. Steve wisely got inside on the front passenger side seconds before he pulled out of the gas station, heading down the single-lane road away from the interstate, wanting to get away from the repugnant place. Nobody spoke as he just drove.

Two minutes later, he pulled off onto a dirt road leading into some woods, throwing the car in park and getting out. He slammed the door shut much harder than he had intended. He heard Steve jumping out after him, carefully closing his door as he made his way over towards him as he spotted his target. Needing to lash out, he punched a low lying limb on a large oak tree nearby, his left fist shattering the hardwood as the entire tree limb fell to the ground with a thump.

"What the _hell_ just happened in there?" Steve asked glancing between him and the Jeep, where Vic was still sitting inside.

"That woman knew Vic!" he said pointing back in the direction of the gas station. His mind was replaying everything at once, making it all a messy jumble as he messily tried to explain, "She called her Vikki Hickey…before calling Vic weird…and ugly…and evil…"

"Who the hell _was_ she?" Steve asked interrupting his stumbling word rant.

" _Hell_ if I know! Someone named Stacy. Vic _knew_ her name!" he told him pacing back and forth, still feeling like hitting something. "She said something about Vic _coming home_ because we _kicked her out_!"

Upon hearing that, Steve turned around and headed right back to the Jeep, opening the door where Vic was sitting. He could see him talking to Vic, but he was so angry at the strange occurrence that he couldn't focus on hearing what was being said. He hadn't had to deal with a bully in over seventy years, and they had _not_ been anything like he had just witnessed. Physical abuse was what he and Steve had dealt with, not anything verbal like that.

"Buck, get over here!" Steve called to him a minute later.

Coming to a stop next to the Jeep, he saw Vic sitting on the backseat, but she was now turned so her feet were dangling over the ground. Steve was crouched on the ground in front of her, looking up at her as she had her head dropped, her eyes focused on the dirt. He had _never_ seen her look so small and helpless.

"Stacy was one of the kids that Victoria grew up with. The female ' _leader of the pack_ ', so to say," Steve calmly told him.

"Vic…is _that_ what you grew up listening to _every day_?" he asked trying to sound calm.

"Yes," her voice sounded so tiny.

"How didn't you kill her? I'm ready to punch her after barely a minute!" Bucky told her, leaning his back on the side of the Jeep for support next to the open door. He felt Vic's hand close around his metal one.

"You get used to it," she calmly told them, shocking him and Steve with the comment.

" _That_ ," he said pointing back to where the woman was, "is _not_ something you should get _used_ to!"

"I had no idea where we were. I just wanted an Icee. I didn't realize that it was Holdenz's Station. They remodeled so it didn't look the same," she said still not looking at either of them. They had never seen her like this. Even during the incident with the guitar, where Vic had thought the group had been laughing at her, she had been angry, not withdrawn like this.

"Victoria, how close are we to your parent's house?"

She lifted her head, looked around, then said, "About eleven minutes from here."

Steve then stood up, put his hand on his shoulder, and took a few steps away, moving Bucky with him.

"What should we do?" Steve asked.

"Call in an air strike from SHIELD on that place!" he sincerely answered pointing back at the gas station again, earning him a scowling look.

"Seriously!" Steve said glancing back at Vic. "Victoria's parents, who she hasn't seen in almost eight years, are _minutes away_ down that road!"

"So?" he asked spreading his arms wide with his palms up. "It's not like she misses them. Vic organized this trip, right past them _without_ planning on stopping! They aren't exactly _nice_ people, in case you have _forgotten_!"

"That may be so, but this time, Victoria will have _us_ by her side. Either way, she can have some kind of _closure_ on this part of her life."

Bucky looked at him, then took a few steps towards the oak tree, trying to decide whether or not to hit it again.

"Do you _really_ want to leave here with _that woman_ having gotten the upper hand? With Victoria _feeling_ the way she does right now?"

That did it. He stopped in his tracks. No…he did not!

"I want to go."

They both turned their heads to look at Vic who was now standing on the ground, looking at them.

"Go where?" Steve asked wanting clarification.

"I want to try and see them."

"Are you sure?" he asked taking a few steps towards her. "We can just get in the car and leave."

"We're already here," she still sounded a bit off, but he saw a strange determination in her. A bit of the confidence she always had was finally coming back.

Steve then walked to the passenger door, opened it and asked FRIDAY for the closest place to spend the night, getting a small, cheap motel just a few miles back from the way they came on the other side of the interstate overpass from the gas station.

"Get in," Steve told the both of them as he walked around to the driver's door.

"Why?" Bucky asked coming to a stop next to Vic.

"We aren't going _anywhere_ looking the way we do," Steve informed them getting in and starting the Jeep.

Taking into account how each of them looked: long scruffy beards, wild or messy hair styles, Steve in a pink bandana, loose baggy clothes to ride hours in…that was where Stacy had gotten the homeless comment from. They had just been enjoying their time together, not really caring what they looked like since they had just planned on driving the entire day. Stacy hadn't even recognized him and Steve for who they really were, even being with Vic. All of the publicity they'd originally had, always showed them dressed up and looking well-groomed, or in their uniforms, with their faces partially covered.

Getting inside as Steve patiently waited for them, Vic sat down on the back seat so he went to sit next to her, saying, "Scoot over, Doll."

Once he was sitting next to her, Bucky closed the door, wrapping his left arm protectively around her as she laid her head against his metal shoulder. Minutes later, they were pulling into the motel parking lot, Steve getting out to go rent them a room.

"Are you sure about this?" he decided to confirm while they waited. "We can still just head home."

"Yeah," Vic answered. "It's not like I'm trying to come back. I just want to know...how they feel now, knowing about us."

Steve opened up the room's door while Bucky grabbed their bags from the back of the Jeep. The motel was exactly the type of place he would have stayed in while on the run. Old, in need of repair, and working on a cash basis. There was also _no way_ they were spending the night _here_. Vic deserved so much better than this!

* * *

Steve ran his hands over his shaven face, relief filling him at feeling a bit back to normal. He wished that he could trim his hair a bit, but it was not a necessity. He and Bucky were lucky that he had hidden his shaving kit, just in case they needed it, in his bag where Victoria could not find it after she stipulated it was _not allowed_ in her car.

Victoria was currently in the shower, while Bucky had already showered, shaven and gone to get dressed. Steve had sat on the bed with her, just holding her while she rested on top of him while Bucky used the small bathroom. The overall mood of the motel room was quiet and apprehensive.

They both knew that Victoria was probably not going to have any type of happy reunion. But going into this while knowing that, would help to get her through it. Unlike the incident at the gas station, for which she had been totally unprepared. There, the shock of having her old bully suddenly appear before her had dazed Victoria to where she was defenseless. He had never seen her that way before and never wanted to again.

Heading into the room, he pulled out the one nicer set of clothes he had brought with him. Bucky was already dressed and finishing putting on his boots to go with the black pants and dark gray shirt he was wearing. He noticed that it was short sleeved, having chosen it on purpose he guessed. As Steve started to get dressed, he saw that Bucky was now fiddling with his phone, very focused on it. During his shower, Bucky had removed the braids that Victoria had put in his hair, washing it and now having it combed back from his face. He looked a lot like his old self, and definitely better than he had at the gas station. Steve heard the water in the shower turn off.

Buttoning up his own shirt, Victoria came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, her long hair dripping on the floor, her body nicely flushed red from the heat of the water. He had seen the woman, Stacy, at the gas station. But when he thought of how Bucky had said she had called Victoria ugly, considering how she herself looked, it was laughable.

"If I remember the phrase correctly, Stacy looked like she was 'rode hard and put away wet'," Steve said with a chuckle.

"What?" Victoria asked him as she picked up her panties with Bucky's star on them. She had been wearing his shield ones earlier. Victoria had gone back to the store later and purchased all the pairs they had in stock, so she now wore them most of the time, saving her sexy panties for nighttime and special occasions.

"I was just thinking that considering what _she_ looked like, I find it funny that Stacy would call you ugly," he said taking a hold of her hand and pulling her into him to hold onto. "I can guarantee you that I can find _one_ other person, very quickly, who can back me up when I say that you are the most gorgeous woman in the world."

"I have no idea _who_ you would mean," she smiled with a lovely blush while looking over his shoulder at Bucky.

Tightening his hold on her, he gave her a hard, deep kiss, making sure that he left no doubt as to the sincerity of his words.

"Alright…break it up," he heard Bucky say as he heard him moving to stand behind him. "Vic…while you were in the shower, I had FRIDAY run a background check on this Stacy person."

Victoria's eyes widened at hearing that. They both watched Bucky as he examined his phone's screen.

"Turns out, she is divorced from her soulmate, living back home with her parents, and she's been arrested twice for soliciting," he said with a bit of a grin. "That's some _reputation_ that she wants to uphold."

He saw Victoria thinking about what Bucky had found before asking, "Is all that really true?"

"Yes, you can ask FRIDAY yourself if you want," Bucky said pulling her from his arms and into his own hug.

"Travis was her soulmate…is…whatever. They were so proud of themselves in school, walking around with everyone following them. They were the only match in school. They were…him and Stacy…" Victoria trailed off.

Steve sat on the edge of the bed, pulling her from Bucky and onto his lap. He smiled at the not-intimidating-anymore glare Bucky gave him for the act.

"I think we can guess the rest."

"Even with Stacy being his soulmate, I couldn't even count the number of times that I saw him under the bleachers making out with other girls."

"The file did mention adultery as the reason for their divorce," Bucky told her putting his phone away.

"Seeing them together, and then knowing that he wasn't happy with his soulmate…it was one of the reasons I always worried about meeting ya'll."

Bucky then moved to sit next to his left on the bed, pulling Victoria's legs into his lap.

"I hope that _by now_ you realize that we are absolutely _nothing_ like either of those people," Steve pointed out, giving her a kiss.

"There is no one else out there for us," Bucky told her.

"Anything that hateful woman said to you was probably just because of her own insecurities. She put you down so that you wouldn't see how horrible her own life was," he told her lifting the edge of her towel to catch some of the water droplets from her hair threatening his shirt.

" _Everything_ that ugly, hateful woman said was a lie," Bucky then flatly stated. "Weird…absolutely not. You are brilliant. Between all of the skills you have, all the languages you can speak, they just show how smart you are. Actually, how did you do that thing with the dates?"

"What?" Steve asked.

"Before you came in, when Stacy said that it had been a long time since they had seen each other, Vic was able to give the years, months, and days since they had."

"It's just another one of my things," she plainly stated. "Another one of my weird things."

"Don't ever say that," he told her lifting her chin to look at him. "It's just another amazing gift to us. So, you can tell the exact time between two dates?"

"Yeah," Victoria sighed, as if she was hesitant about telling them. "I've tried to make sure to not do that aloud whenever someone mentions a length of time. But, just now, I couldn't stop myself."

"You've been holding back doing that _since we met_?" he asked her, now starting to remember all the little times Victoria had seemed to hesitate while talking about _when_ something had happened. Victoria then just simply nodded her head.

"Vic, you don't have to hide _anything_ that you can do from us," Bucky told her, before getting a devious grin on his face.

"What?" Steve asked, not sure if he wanted to really know.

"So, if I asked you how much older I was than Steve…?"

"One year, three months, twenty-four days…Methuselah," she then grinned at him, seeming a bit more relaxed now.

"You just _had_ to throw that in there, _didn't_ you?" Bucky sighed.

"Of course," Victoria answered, with a smile starting to appear.

"Come on…let's finish getting ready. Maybe some of that _obnoxious_ music you like will help to make you feel better."

Victoria smiled at his tease while picking up his phone, knowing that he had added a couple of songs she had introduced him to onto his own playlists. He pressed the button, requesting, "FRIDAY, can you play the top three songs listened to from Victoria's music?"

" _I can play two of the songs, Captain, but the third one has been banned_ ," they all heard.

"What do you mean banned?" Steve asked as Victoria got a wild look in her eye, then reached for his phone, which he pulled out of her reach.

"FRIDAY, don't you say anything!" she called to the device.

"Vic, why would you have banned a song that you liked?" Bucky asked taking the phone from Steve's hand and moving to stand to keep it further away while he held Victoria in his lap when she tried to stand up to get to Bucky.

"FRIDAY, don't…" was all she got out before Steve covered her mouth with his hand.

"FRIDAY," Bucky spoke into the phone, looking back over at Victoria who was struggling to get out of his grip, yelling inaudibly from behind his hand, "Please explain the reasoning as to why there is a banned song."

" _Sergeant, Miss Victoria banned the song from being played due to the lyrics possibly being upsetting to you if you heard them_."

Bucky stared at the phone for a moment, then over at Victoria, who was calmly still now that the reason had been revealed. "Vic, care to explain?"

Removing his hand, she sighed, then said, "The lyrics specifically mention cryogenics and amnesia. I thought that they might upset you."

Looking as if he were thinking about something, Bucky quietly asked, "Are there any _other_ songs of yours that you have banned?"

Shyly, Victoria answered, "Maybe."

"For the same reason, or something similar?" Bucky asked.

Victoria just nodded her head.

Bucky then came back over, tossed the phone to the bed, picked her up from his lap and gave her a large hug.

"You don't have to worry about me like that," he barely heard Bucky say as his face was buried in her neck.

"Too bad, because I do," she informed him as she smiled.

"Victoria, why don't you chose three songs that put you into a great mood, and ready for a fight, since we don't know what we are walking into," he said, grabbing and passing the phone to her. She then raddled off three song names that they didn't recognize, of course, and loud thumping music started to play as they all finished getting dressed.

When Victoria had gone back into the bathroom to fix her hair, he went over to Bucky who was now packing their travel clothes into the bags.

"Ready to do this?" Steve asked.

"Just another mission," he smirked at him.

"Try to _not_ call in any airstrikes…no matter what happens."

"No promises," he smiled at him. Looking over to the bathroom wall, Bucky asked, "Vic really does love us, doesn't she?"

"Did you have any doubts?" Steve asked but already sure of the answer.

"Not really, but I never even considered that Vic would do something like _that_ with the songs. Never listening to them again, even one of her very favorites, all because of me. What type of person does that?"

"The best kind," he said patting him on the back, "And she's all ours!"

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The role of Stacy is played by a combination of the bullies I dealt with for ten years. You don't want to know where I drew inspiration from for what Vic went through. I can only hope that they all are out there in the world leading extremely miserable lives, especially since I couldn't be happier with mine. :)


	61. Going Home

Victoria gripped the steering wheel tight, wringing her hands around it as she drove down the road towards her family's farm. Overall, she saw that not much had changed since she had been gone. But then, there had never been much change around here anyways.

Houses were usually on a couple of acre parcels, with a quarter mile between them. You didn't just walk next door to borrow a cup of sugar, you drove. The newest house growing up was still thirty years old then, with her own being built by her great-grandparents.

Turning down the small state road, she hadn't gone too far when she saw that there was at least one thing that _had_ changed. She pulled the Jeep to a stop, right there on the road, knowing that nobody was likely to be passing by anytime soon.

They hardly ever did. It was such a backwoods road that it didn't have any paint markings to divide the lanes, no reflective lights, and there was not a streetlight around for miles. You didn't just happen to find this road, you had a reason for being here...or you were really, _really_ lost.

"Vic, what's wrong?" Bucky asked her from the back seat, poking his head over the armrest.

"Remember me telling you that I learned how to speak Gullah from someone back home?" she asked them to which they both nodded. Nodding her head towards the passenger side of the road, they both turned to look. "That was Sadie's house."

"What house?" Steve asked seeing only the trees.

"Come on, I'll show ya," she said opening the door and getting out.

Walking around the car, Vic heard them following her on the thin footpath that was very overgrown. The woods had not only overtaken the small front yard that had been there but the underbrush was so thick not a sign of their destination could be seen. Vic had to lift small pine tree limbs out of her way as she guided them.

After only a few feet, she was suddenly at the bottom of a set of wooden steps leading up to a small log house. Looking off to their right she saw that the bottle tree still there, with its colorful glass bottles stuck on the ends of the stronger branches, the sun shining through them from above, giving a rainbow effect to the tree.

"Where did this come from?" Bucky asked as they ended up behind her. She saw him reevaluating their route, taking in the perfect camouflage surrounding the structure.

"The woods can easily reclaim anything that is not properly maintained," she explained, looking over the falling down dwelling. The porch had holes in the floor where the wood had rotted through and she could see light coming from inside of the building through the windows, meaning that the roof had collapsed in on itself. "Sadie must have died."

"Why didn't her family take care of the house?" Steve asked taking her hand in his.

"She didn't have any close by. They all lived down near Charleston. Besides, the house never had glass in the windows or electricity. There is a hand pump in the back that Sadie would use to get water from the underground natural well. It was just the same as it had been when it was built at the turn of the last century."

"And she lived here like that?" Bucky asked bending over to pick a head of the Queen Anne's Lace that was mixed in the underbrush where the flowerbed used to be.

"Yes, and she was happy. She wove sweetgrass baskets and her kids would come and get them to sell to tourist. It paid for her food…well, what food she didn't grow," she said remembering sitting on that porch for so long, learning her first extra language. A thought came to her and she gave a small chuckle.

"What?" Steve asked.

"I just realized that ya'll and this house are about the same age," she grinned taking a backwards step from them. Steve managed to get to her first, sweeping her up off her feet and over his shoulder as Bucky groaned with annoyance, tapping the top of her head with the flower.

They headed back to the car, with her being carried the entire short distance. Loading back inside, she knew that they were only one curve away from being able to spot the farmhouse.

"Before we go, there are a few things I _probably_ should warn you about, but the one that may matter would be that if a Sheriff's car shows up, it more than likely will be my cousin Kevin. I saw him on one of the gossip videos when the reporters came here. I don't know if they'll call for him or not," she told them.

"We're not going to cause any problems," Bucky answered from the back seat, which earned him two turned heads from the front with matching stares. " _What_? _Really_?"

Putting the Jeep in drive, she slowly headed down the road, which once past the turn and woods, opened up to large cow pastures on both sides of the road. The couple of hundred black and white milking cows were grazing everywhere, and she noticed the two of them staring at the sight.

"Yankee city folk," she mumbled, earning her a poke in the side from the backseat. As they were about to pass by where two fields met, she slowed the car to a stop once again.

"See that there? Remember at our first sleepover...that's the ditch I mentioned that I tried to jump the dirt bike over and fell into," she said pointing out of the window.

"Are you _kidding_?" Steve asked sounding like he did not believe her.

"Nope," she said looking at it for the first time in so long. It didn't seem to big now. "Just _barely_ touched the other side. I landed flat on my back with the bike on top of me, pinning me down. It took forever to get it off but the worse was trying to get it out of the ditch. If I had Riddick now, I could easily jump it."

"You would do no such thing, Vic," Bucky stated as the two of them glance down into the chasm that had a bit of rainwater in it. She could see the worn paths from where farmhands still jumped over it for fun.

"What? The two of you can run off and do _superhero whatevers_ , but I can't jump a ditch?" she asked wondering if they would take the bait.

"Oh, no. Don't answer that one, Bucky!" Steve exclaimed, pointing a finger at her. "It's one of her 'foot in mouth' comments!"

" _Fine_. Then see that?" she asked pointing down the road at a long forgotten sight. "That's their house."

All three of them stared at the two story farmhouse about a quarter mile away, set back a couple hundred yards from the road, surrounded by open fields. It had double front porches, top and bottom, and looked to have a fresh coat of white paint on it. Some of the huge azalea bushes had already started to bloom. Seeing it again was a strange mixture of love and hate. The house itself, she loved, it was the contents that she didn't care much for.

"It's lovely," Steve said as she started to move them once again.

"It sort of reminds me of Clint's," Bucky added.

"I know. That's why I like it when we head to his place," she said remembering the other few times they had gone for a day or two so Bucky and Wanda could work together while she and Clint would fix or repair something. Laura would usually put Steve on Nathan duty. "Well, here goes nothing."

* * *

 

No matter how they felt about the people in the house, the structure itself was beautiful. There was a large oak tree off to the left side at the front of the house. It seemed to be dripping with a gray fuzzy substance as well as strings of a purple grape-looking flower. The overall sight brought back images of Scarlett O'Hara and the old south to Steve.

"Victoria, when you told us about that flower that you like, is that it?" he asked pointing towards the tree.

"Yeah, that's wisteria," she said with a smile. "The other gray stuff is Spanish moss."

The driveway was a long dirt road, like Clint's, and it went around the right side of the house. They followed it, but Victoria stopped the vehicle before it would take the circular turn, staying on the far side of it away from the house. She stayed sitting in the car without moving. Glancing back at Bucky, he indicated that he also wasn't sure what she was doing.

"Shouldn't we knock?" he then asked.

"No. They know we're here. You'd be amazed at the acoustics of the place," she smiled turning the car off. Victoria then opened her door, saying, "Both of you out on that side of the car."

Stepping outside, she didn't move away from the car as he and Bucky both got out on the passenger side, with Victoria and the vehicle between them and the house. He realized at that moment that Victoria had strategically moved them out of harm's way in case something happened. Looking over at Bucky, he saw that the same thought had also occurred to him from the frown he had.

"Victoria…" he started but she just held up her hand.

That was when the side door on a long enclosed porch opened, and a female who looked to about be Victoria's age stepped on the small concrete stoop. Her dark brown hair was practically the same length as Victoria's. Letting the glass porch door close behind her, she glared across the yard at them for a few moments before her body seemed to ease up a bit.

"Lilith."

"Joy."

"What are ya doing here?" the female named Joy asked, looking all of them over. He noticed that she had the same accent that Victoria would do for him every once in a while...soft and southern.

"We were passing through the area," Victoria told her, not going into detail about their vacation.

They all heard a muffled voice crying out from inside of the house, and Joy opened the door back up, calling inside, "It's Lilith." A few moments later of listening to the distant voice, she turned back and said, "Wait here."

When the female had gone back into the house, both he and Bucky were instantly around the car and right next to her.

"Vic, why is she calling you that?" Bucky asked the same question he wanted answered. Steve still remembered from months ago when she had told them the meaning behind the horrible name.

"Because that's my name. That's the only name my family referred to me by while growing up," she plainly explained to them, staring at the house, not looking at them. That was how she grew up? Being reminded every time they called her that she was unloved?

"Who was that female?" he then asked.

"My sister…Joy," she professed, shocking both of them with the answer. In all the months they had been together, she had never even eluded to having any siblings. "You can tell by her name how precious she was to them when she was born less than a year after me."

"Get in the damn car, we're getting out of here!" Bucky firmly stated, anger dripping from his voice at hearing that. He was walking past Victoria to the driver's side, just as the porch door opened back up, getting their attention back on the country residence before them.

Now, Joy was joined on the small stoop by an older looking woman. Her dark brown hair had scattered gray throughout it, but it did not detract from her appearance. Considering all three women carefully, Steve could see that there was a strong family resemblance when it came to body structure and facial features. Only Victoria's hair made her truly stand out from the three of them.

At that point, Victoria stepped away from the car and started to slowly cross the small grassy area between her and her estranged family. He stayed close behind her, as Bucky took up position on his back left.

"Hi, mom," she said to the woman looking down on Victoria without a single emotion on her face.

"Lilith. A bit surprised to see you here," she coolly said, wiping her hands on a small kitchen towel.

"I'm sure," she answered. He could see the woman start to scrutinize Victoria's appearance.

"I see you let your _hair_ grow out."

"Why wouldn't I? Did'ya actually expect me…" he heard Victoria start to say, her voice starting to raise before she stopped herself, taking a deep breath. He noticed that her accent had started to slip through. She had been getting angry for some reason.

"So…these are them?" her mother then asked, as Joy shifted uncomfortably next to her mom.

"Them? You mean my soulmates? The ones you tried to make me scared me of? Then, yes…this is them," Victoria answered with a touch of condescension in her voice, sounding a bit more like herself with the comment.

"Ya'll have caused us a lot of problems over tha past few months," her mom told them, glaring between him and Bucky, who had _somehow_ managed to stay quiet throughout the entire exchange so far.

"Reporters hounded us for tha first couple of weeks once they figured out how ta get here," Joy told them. "Hearing tha car and not expecting anyone, I thought that it was more of 'em."

"Yeah, we had to deal with them some, too," she said, still sounding a bit tentative as to where to go with the talk.

"Well, did ya have an actual reason for coming here?" her mom then bluntly asked, tossing the towel over her shoulder in the same manner that Victoria did all the time.

"I just wanted…" Victoria started before hesitating, then saying, "I don't really know what I expected to happen, but I thought that maybe with ya'll now knowing about them…"

Steve knew what Victoria was trying to say, and so did her mother, who just started to shake her head, not giving her the positive answer she had been hoping for. He could visible see Victoria's shoulders drop, knowing that they still disapproved of the soulmark connection...even with him and Bucky being Avengers who had saved the world.

Right then at the glass porch door, a small child appeared, smacking his hands on the glass to get their attention. Joy turned around, opened the door and picked the small boy up before turning back to them.

"This is Lucas, my son," Joy said to Victoria, who he saw visibly stiffen. He would guess the boy to be about five years old, so she probably never even knew about him.

"Does he get locked in his room at night, Mom?" Victoria then bluntly asked, shocking him a bit at the accusation. He heard Bucky give a single gruff chuckle, proud for her taking the stand.

"If you had been normal, then maybe…" her mom started to say.

"Victoria _is_ normal!" Bucky then loudly spoke up, using her full first name and stunning the woman into silence, her eyes going wide at having someone stand up to her it seemed.

Joy and Lucas also began to pay more attention to Bucky being there as the little boy began to squirm in his mom's arms to the point where she had to put him down. He thought that Bucky may have scared him by yelling, but the boy instead came down the two steps and started to run over towards them.

"Lucas, get back here," Joy calmly requested while moving down the steps now, but not hurriedly, as if she wasn't worried about him. He and Bucky stared down at the little boy who was only a few feet away from them, his eyes searching over the both of them. His eyes fell to Bucky's arm and face with a smile, but when he looked up at him, he frowned.

"What's wrong?" Steve asked Victoria, not sure what to do, and really hoping that he didn't start to cry for some reason.

"He's looking for ya'r shield. He's not sure who ya are without it," Joy said coming to a stop in front of Victoria.

"He knows who they are?" she asked her sister.

"It was kind of hard to keep it from him with everyone around here talking about it. They even studied 'em," pointing with her finger, "in class," Joy told her.

"Would it be all right for him to see the shield?" Steve asked looking over at Joy to see if she approved. She nodded her head, so he went to the back of the Jeep, opening the door and reaching up to take his shield from the specialty hooks that Victoria had mounted on the ceiling, up and out the way, so that he would never be without it.

Taking it down, he crouched on the ground so Lucas could touch it as he looked at Victoria's mom standing quiet on the stoop, watching the event. She hadn't said anything since Bucky's outburst, which may be a good thing.

"We were passing by on the interstate, and I had the misfortune to run into Stacy at the gas station," Victoria said to Joy, who seemed a bit disgusted at hearing the name of the hateful woman. At least they all agreed on that. Lucas ran his hand over the star's outline, smiling the entire time.

"She loved it when the reporters started showing up. Stacy told them all about what they used to do to you back during school. The strange part was, as others around here that ya went to school with starting telling similar stories, there were less and less of the interviews showing up on TV and the reporters slowly stopped coming around. I think they didn't appreciate how ya were treated," Joy told her.

"Bullying is actually _frowned_ on. And how do you feel about how I was treated?" Victoria asked her.

As they were talking, Lucas moved over to Bucky, reaching up to touch his hand. The little boy certainly wasn't shy, or scared. He kind of reminded him of Victoria and when they first met…wanting to see Bucky's arm.

"It's what I grew up with. I didn't know," she admitted, with him remembering Victoria saying something similar to them a long time ago. Bucky knelt and allowed the boy to run his hands over his arm, lifting his sleeve and poking the star like a button with his finger. "But now, having Lucas, I know that it wasn't right."

"I need to finish making lunch," her mom suddenly commented, turning to open the porch door.

"Should I bother to call again to say hello?" Victoria asked looking up at her mother.

"No, I don't think that's necessary," she flatly stated before walking inside, not bothering to look back. How could someone be like that to their own child?

"How's dad?" she asked Joy. Lucas then went over to the Jeep, running his hand over the artwork of the dragon running down its side.

"Um…dad passed away three years ago," Joy said and he saw Victoria wobble a bit at the distressing news. He went to move towards her but Bucky was closer, putting his arm around her for support. "I thought you knew."

"No."

"He had a heart attack while at the dairy. By the time they got him all the way to the hospital, it was too late. He's out in the family plot," she told her. "My husband, Billy, and I, moved back in with mom not long after, that way she wasn't alone."

"Is there anything that ya need?" Victoria asked, astounding him a bit that she would offer _anything_ to her family, especially after the way her mother had just acted.

"No. We're good," Joy said, snapping her fingers to get Lucas' attention. The little boy came running, jumping up into her arms. "I better get back inside. For what it's worth, I'm glad ya got away from here and found them. It was nice meeting ya'll."

With that simple statement, Joy turned around and headed towards the house, Lucas waving his small hand at them, a smile on his face, never having said a word to them. All three of them stood there in silence watching as her sister and nephew went inside of the house without even looking back.

"Don't speak unless you are spoken to first," Victoria then stated out of the blue, getting both of their attention.

"What?" he asked, not sure what she meant.

"That's what we learned growing up. We weren't allowed to speak unless a grownup either asked us a question or initiated a conversation. Looks like Lucas is learning the same thing," Victoria said looking at the house.

" _That's_ why he didn't say anything to us?" Bucky then asked.

"Yeah, ya'll never addressed him directly."

Steve wondered how Victoria could grow up living with such contemptuous attitudes towards her. If that was what she had been used to, then no wonder Wade had considered her shy when he first met her. She probably was still under the influence of her upbringing when she met him. He began to wonder how well Lucas was going to fair…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The picture of the house is my actual grandparents' home. It is around 100 years old. I liked the idea of using it when writing the story and I recently got a chance to head there and got a new picture. The wisteria is not in season and the Spanish moss is not too visible. The small white structure to the right is the Pump House, where the well's pump machine is located. I don't have any other pictures to go with the story but I wanted to share this one with all of you.


	62. Revenge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FYI: Kudzu – a very fast growing vine with leaves. It is thought to grow a foot a day. The old joke is that if you stand around too long, it will grow over you.

"Alright, then," Victoria said after a few extra moments of staring at the house after Joy and her son had gone inside. She then headed towards the driver's door, opening it up, turning back to him and Bucky. Waving her arm widely in the direction of the vehicle, she told them, "Well, I don't see any kudzu holding ya' there, so get in."

"What?" they both asked as she shut the door, starting the engine, not understanding the word she had used, which was not all that uncommon.

Steve reattached his shield to the ceiling hooks before coming around the vehicle, finding that Bucky had grabbed the front seat, leaving him to get in the back. She rounded the drive and headed away from the house without a word. He knew that if she wanted to talk, she would have, and since Bucky was unusually quiet, he must have figured it out also.

When they got back around the bend and down the road a bit where the woods met up with a field of something tall growing, Victoria pulled off on the side of the road, opening her door before they were barely stopped.

"Stay!" she demanded of them, pointing a finger at both of them before shutting the door. Steve noticed that she left the car running.

"What is she doing?" Bucky asked as they watched her start to walk down the country road a short distance.

"I'm not sure, but after what she just went through, I'd give her a moment," he told him when he saw Bucky's hand moving for the door handle. Victoria then turn to the right, hopped a small ditch and disappeared into the tall growing stalks of something.

After just a few minutes, they both heard a loud scream…but one from anger, not fright.

"That's it…moments up!" Bucky informed him, hopping out and making his way towards where she had disappeared at.

Steve made sure he was right behind him after grabbing the keys from the ignition. They basically stepped over the ditch to get to the field. Whatever this stuff was, it had grown taller than them, hiding Victoria from their sight. It was planted in rows so they were heading parallel with the road, making them able to see down the dirt paths between rows as they headed deeper into the field.

Once they reached the row she was on, they saw Victoria kneeling on the ground a couple of feet away. Walking slowly towards her, she didn't even acknowledge their movements, which was not quiet thanks to the leaves draping over the path. Even Bucky was not able to be stealthy in here.

Her hands were filthy and it looked like she had pounded her fist in the soften dirt of the earth where she knelt from the indention before her. Hunched over, her hair was falling down over her cheeks after having come free from the braided style she had it in, shrouding her face from them. There were even patches of dirt on her back.

"Victoria?" he spoke softly as they made their way through the stuff to her.

"I'm fine!" they heard her say angrily as she pointed a finger at them, stopping them in their tracks. That was when he noticed that the small area she was in looked like someone had chopped down the tall growth. Sections of stalks were littering the ground, and a fresh sweet scent filled the air. She had taken her frustrations out on the plants. Now that they were there, she flopped down, moving from her knees to sitting criss-cross on the dirt path. "I just needed to vent."

Slowly, they moved just enough so that they were able to be close to her as they crouched down to be at a better eye level with her. This time, she didn't indicate for them to stop their movements.

"Vic, what was that comment about your hair that you started to get angry at?" Bucky asked after checking their surroundings. They would easily hear anyone approaching thanks to the hanging leafy stalks.

She continued to stare at the ground for a few moments before speaking up.

"Due to the _unnatural_ color, when I was young, my mom would cut it herself very short, in a horrible pixie-cut style to try and make it less noticeable. For a few years when I got older, she would also color it brown, to match my sister's hair, but after a while she quit. Mom said that if it didn't cost so much, that she would have kept dyeing it," she told them. He looked over at Bucky, as they both were probably picturing how she would have looked, and they both would have hated it.

"Well, we both love the color of your hair, and you can do whatever you want with it now," Steve told her. He wondered if when Nat and Pepper first mentioned cutting her hair back on their 'girl's day out' if she had been worried about what was going to happen to her. Steve did remember Victoria initially looking a bit scared at the time.

"Come on," Bucky offered his hands, helping her to stand up from the ground. She brushed off her hands, and he got rid of the dirt on her back.

Before they started to walk back to the car, Victoria looked over and said, "Grab a fresh stalk," she indicated the tall items before they began walking through them. He did, grabbing one easily from the ground where she had cut them down in anger, but he was not sure why she wanted one.

Reaching the car, Steve opened the back door for Victoria who was joined by Bucky sliding into the back with her, as he then went to the driver's side. There was no way that they were going to leave her alone to dwell on what just happened. There was also no way he was going to let _this_ be the end of their road trip, not anymore.

Opening up the GPS and examining the map of the extended area, Steve made a decision for all of them. Finding a location that he felt would fit what they needed, he put the car in drive, leaving her childhood home behind, hopefully never to return. He watched in the rear view mirror as Victoria fixed her hair of the loose strands that had come out.

A few minutes later, he came to the location of the final mission for them around here before they started _his_ new side adventure.

Stopping once again in the parking lot of the gas station, he turned around to face both of them.

"Alright…out," he instructed them with a smile before doing so himself.

When Bucky and Victoria were standing next to the side of the vehicle, he pointed to a spot on the ground.

"Promise me that you will not move from _this spot_ until we get back," he requested, knowing that if she promised that she would do it.

"Promise…but I don't know why we are here again," he could hear her voice was a bit angry but confident as she crossed her arms. Maybe a good scream had helped her.

"Trust us," he said tapping Bucky's shoulder so he knew to follow.

At the back of the Jeep, he pulled a long sleeved shirt out from his pack, tossing it to Bucky to put on to cover his arm. They both then into headed to the same gas station that had started the hateful events of today.

"FRIDAY," he said to the phone he pulled out of his pocket.

" _Yes, Captain_."

"Please start to video record our surrounds, for possible future necessity," he said, getting a raised brow from next to him.

" _Yes, Captain_ ," he heard, knowing that whatever happened over the next few minutes, they would have proof, if necessary. He wouldn't put anything past the woman inside. He remembered the movies that Pepper had listed for them to watch when they had first found Victoria, where a lot of misunderstandings would have been cleared up with a bit of proof.

"Do you remember what drink Victoria wanted to get when she came in here?" he asked hopeful, holding his phone in his hand but at his side.

"Yeah, I was watching her when she got it," he answered.

Opening the door, he grinned at him, "I figured as much. You are _such_ a stalker."

Inside of the store, the male cashier was gone and the object of their combined hate was behind the counter, another cigarette in her mouth as she flipped through a magazine.

"Go get it," he instructed Bucky who moved swiftly to the back of the store while he paused near the counter.

"Well, hello there, handsome," Stacy drawled with a voice raspy from years of smoking. She put the magazine down as her eyes perused his and Bucky's bodies.

"Ma'am," he simply said, not actually thinking she was deserving of the respectful title.

"We don't get many fetching men such as yourselves in here," she smiled at him, exposing a set of yellowed stained teeth. "Care to stretch your legs a bit? I can make it worth your while. Both of you."

By then, Bucky was already heading back over with a large disposable cup. As he placed it on the counter, Steve replied, "No, that won't be necessary," pulling a couple of dollars from his pocket for the item and placing them on the countertop. She rang up the drink, putting the change into his hand.

"Ya sure? My only other employee quit a little while ago, but for the two of you, I'll lock the store up for an hour. I'll even give ya a special rate."

"I'm surprised that you would be so accommodating towards us after how you treated our soulmate and us earlier," he stated with a simple smile.

"What 'cha mean?" Stacy asked, looking totally confused.

"A couple of hours ago…when we were here, with our soulmate…Victoria," he informed her, pointing out of the window over to where Victoria was still standing on the very spot she had promised to be, leaning casually against the Jeep. Smiling, he turned back to Stacy, whose mouth was wide open, the cigarette having fallen to the ground, shocked into silence as comprehension of who was standing before her took over.

"Now, if you'll excuse us…we're on vacation with our fun, beautiful, highly intelligent soulmate who's waiting for us. Good day," he said picking up the drink and walking out of the door, a wide smile plastered on his face while Bucky put his arm around his shoulder.

"You know, I do believe that was the first time you've ever dealt with a bully without getting into a fist fight," Bucky chuckled at him.

"It was _almost_ as rewarding," he told him, earning Steve a punch in the shoulder.

" _Now_ can I move?" Victoria asked as they got close.

He saw her body shift, watching Bucky who hunched just enough to indicate he was going for her, but Victoria stood her ground as she had promised.

"Nope!" Bucky said lurching forward, sweeping her upwards by gripping her hips, spinning them around as she laughed at the thrill.

Lowering her against his own body, Bucky planted a firm kiss on her lips, turning the two of them so that Steve understood it was a show for the jealous eyes from inside. Holding the drink up where Victoria could see it, her eyes grew bright. Leaning over as Bucky still had her suspended from the ground, she latched onto his head, pulling him close so she was able to give him a kiss for the gift.

"Alright, now…everyone inside," he instructed as Victoria's feet made contact with the ground and the drink disappeared from his hand into hers. "We're taking a detour for a few more days."

"Why?" she asked before sucking on the drink.

Her lips wrapped nicely around the straw, he thought.

"Because we are not ending a perfect vacation on today's note," he informed them, opening the back door for her to get inside.

"Where are we going?" Bucky asked standing at the open door.

"East. We're heading for the beach," he informed them. "We are going to get as _far away_ from here as possible. And I think I found the perfect place, Folly Beach…nicknamed 'The _Edge_ of America'. It seems very fitting right now."

"Ya know that at this time of the year, that water will be freezing, right?" she asked him. "Plus, we don't have any bathing suits."

"Who said anything about swimming?"

* * *

**A Couple of Hours Ago**

"Sir," the HYDRA agent greeted Jonathan Weiss, coming to a stop next to him as he sat at the dining room table looking out over the New York City skyline. "We just received an unscheduled report from the agent sent to do the background research on Victoria Roth."

"Why?" Weiss plainly asked cutting a piece of the filet Mignon he was having for lunch.

"There was activity that he felt you would want to be made aware of instantly," the man informed him, placing the printout of his report on the table next to him where he could read it. After just the first few sentences, he stopped eating, and picked it up, completely interested in what it said. Re-reading it a second time, he smiled as he handed it back to the waiting agent.

"Tell him that his assignment is over and that he can come home. This incident just confirms what he has been able to find over the past two months from the different sources about this soulmate. I'll let Rumlow know about it during our next scheduled communiqué," he commented, picking up his knife and fork. "Make sure that he gives a full accounting once he arrives of any useful information he was able to secure."

"Yes, Sir," the agent replied before heading to the security rooms.

Weiss smiled and wished that there had been a video of the incident at the gas station from just a little while ago. Reading how Victoria had practically started crying at just being _confronted_ by an old high school bully wholly confirmed the rest of the background checks he had been receiving. For as strong as her two soulmates were, she seemed to be entirely weak. She would indeed be an easy target once the Asset and Rogers were comfortable enough to leave her unprotected.

Victoria Roth will never stand a chance against HYDRA all by herself.

* * *

**Later that Night**

After a dinner of Frogmore Stew for all of them, which Victoria had to reassure him and Bucky numerous times as she ordered it that it did _not_ contain frogs, at a restaurant overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, they now sat out on the small balcony of their hotel room just watching the waves crash and enjoying their evening. There was a thunderstorm far out over the ocean giving them a beautiful lightning display.

On the way back to the hotel, Steve had made Victoria promise to do her soft natural southern accent for the remainder of the trip while they were still in South Carolina's borders. She had easily agreed, knowing what a turn on it was for him.

Victoria then suddenly got up and headed inside of the room. Looking over his should he saw her grab the stalk of plant from the field earlier today.

"Bucky, give me one of your knives to cut this with," she requested, sitting back down in the chair between the two of them.

"What makes you think I have a knife on me?" he asked.

"Ya' _always_ have at least two knives on ya," she pointed out, "along with the earcoms and the trackers."

Steve watched as Victoria then pulled out her own earcom from her pocket which she used to talk with them at distances in stores, or while they were taking laps around Central Park. They had used them a few times on the trip while walking trails, yelling at each other to slow down.

"She definitely knows you," Steve smirked at Bucky as he passed over a pocket knife from his boot.

"So what exactly is that?" Bucky asked as she began to break the stalk into pieces only a couple of inches long.

"Sugarcane," she told them. Victoria cut the broken section of sugarcane into even a smaller section before whittling off the green protective outer skin. Cutting off a couple of chunks, she passed pieces over to each of them.

"What do we do with this?" Steve asked smelling the sweet white 'meat' cube.

"Ya suck and chew on it," she instructed before doing just that herself. They both hesitantly followed suit but Steve found that he enjoyed the strange sweetness of the plant. "We use the sugarcane to make homemade syrup."

"Interesting flavor," Bucky said kicking his feet up on the railing.

They sat out there for about an hour, just talking and eating the raw treat.

"So," Victoria got their attention as the hour grew late, "What bit of bribery would it take to get ya'll to agree to a midnight stroll at the water's edge?"

Bucky and him just looked at each other and smiled.

* * *

**The Next Morning**

Vic woke up to the sound of crashing waves right outside of their hotel balcony. Steve had requested a second floor room, that way they could sit on the small balcony together and she didn't have to worry about the height of it, and Bucky had informed them that it would be more secure than a first floor room. She had pointed out that a top floor room would have the best view, but they had both said that they already had the best view, giving her matching kisses. They had both become overly sweet after the events of yesterday, but she didn't really mind at all.

Steve was already watching her from his side of the bed and she wondered how long he had been staring at her.

"Morning," he whispered to her with a smile.

"That's creepy, ya know," she smiled back at him.

"What?" he asked.

"Staring at me while I sleep. Don't ya have something better to do?"

"Nope," he said leaning over to give her a kiss. "Feeling alright?"

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?"

"I figured with what happened yesterday at the gas station…"

"Nope, I'm fine. Besides, that's all in the past now…" she said as a hand snaked around her midsection from behind.

"Are you sure?" Bucky asked before nuzzling her neck. "Because I can still call in an airstrike."

"That was an option?" she asked with an amused tone, laying on the accent hard.

The cellphone on the side of the bed began to ring. Steve picked it up, answering, "Hello, Natasha."

Whispering into her ear, Bucky asked, "How does Nat do that? I think _we_ have a stalker."

Vic giggled at hearing that while Steve began to listen to whatever Nat was telling him. Bucky, on the other hand, was busy slowly pulling her further onto his side of the bed, away from Steve since he was distracted. They had a funny tug-of-war thing between them when it came to her. She didn't mind in the least.

When Steve hung up the phone, he looked to have mixed emotions.

"So, Nat just gave me good news and bad news," he said placing the phone back down.

"Go with the bad news first," Bucky said rubbing his smooth cheek across her shoulder.

"Remember the bank vault robbery a while back in Turkey? SHIELD caught one of Rumlow's men who was in on it. Fury was able to get out of him what they were looking for," Steve said not sounding good.

"And…what was it?" Bucky asked.

"An instruction manual on how to program and use a Chair," he told them, making Bucky quickly stop his nuzzling and listen. "Not how to make one, only program and use one. They passed it off to Rumlow."

"What does that mean?" she started to ask. "That there's the possibility that this Rumlow guy has one of those damn Chairs?"

Steve smiled at her cursing when talking about the Chair. "It is a possibility. We were able to secure the one from the Vault in D.C. and we found another one in Siberia. There is a good chance that there were more."

"Don't ya remember if there was?" she asked rolling over a bit to talk with Bucky, whose face was full of worry.

"They were able to move the Chair and set it up wherever they needed it, but it took time. If there was more than one, they looked exactly the same to me," he said, not sounding happy at all. "There is the possibility that they had a backup in case one broke down…But the agent never saw an actual Chair?"

"Nope, just the instruction book," Steve confirmed.

Vic decided they needed to get away from this topic.

"So…if that was the bad news, what was the good news?" she ask wrapping her hand around Bucky's arm that was across her midsection. Steve then got a grin on his face, a bit more devious than his normal ones.

"Well, it turns out I'm glad that I had FRIDAY record the second trip to the gas station yesterday," he said scooting closer to her, where she was pinned against Bucky.

"Why? What happened?" Bucky asked, lifting up a bit to see over her.

"Turns out, after we left, Stacy contacted some of the reporters that had been there interviewing her months ago and tried to make the claim that she slept with the both of us, _and_ that Victoria _let_ her," Steve smiled for some reason.

"What!?" she screamed, accent gone and replaced by anger, she sat up in the bed, not believing what she heard. "Bucky, call in that damn airstrike!"

"Hold, on," Steve said, pulling her back down as he and Bucky then pinned her down with nice warm bodies. "I had already informed Nat as to _everything_ that happened yesterday and had FRIDAY give her access to the video I recorded when we went back inside to get you the drink."

"So what happened?" Bucky ask as she was still too fuming to talk.

"The reporters called the PR department to try and get a statement from us, and Nat sent over the video of what _really_ happened. They then rewrote the story telling about how she was trying to slander all of us to get her own ' _fifteen minutes of fame_ ' Nat called it," he told them. "As of this morning, Stacy is now the current joke of the internet."

Hearing that, Victoria finally relaxed, then beamed knowing that Stacy had finally gotten some of her own medicine.

"So, what should we do today?" she asked. "A nice, long walk on the beach?"

"No more walking," Bucky stated firmly as Steve groaned. "You'll be lucky if we let you out of this bed at all today."

"Ah...but there's no food here!" she pointed out their greatest weakness.

"Fine! Food, _then_ back to bed," Steve said trying to pull her back to his side.

"Great, because I've been wanting some shrimp an' grits," she sighed wantonly. It had been so long since she'd had some.

"That sounds like a _horrible_ breakfast," Bucky told her.

"Damn _Yankees_ ," she groaned as she got pinned to the bed once again for a morning romp, along with one muffled scream, before their feet even touched the floor.

* * *

**End Act: One**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, now the storm has passed and all of them handled it fairly well. Ready for…Act: Two - Hurricane Rumlow?
> 
> Thanks for all of the great reviews for the past chapters! I'm glad that the story had met with your approval. I hope that now with the next section starting that it will continue to keep you fascinated and on the edge of your seat since this is where the action will start. As I stated at the very beginning, I wanted to make sure that the affections between all three of them was fully established before moving on, and considering the comments from all of you, I believe that I succeeded.


	63. Act Two: Missing

**Early June**

* * *

Glancing at the clock on Steve's side of the bed, Vic saw that it was just past six a.m. At least she had managed to get five hours' worth of sleep, she thought. Rolling onto her back, Victoria released her grasp on her surrogate pillow for Steve and pushed the fake fluffy Bucky away from her. She hated the two of them being gone, and hopefully over time it would become easier. Even though it had yet to. But they would be home by this evening at the latest if the mission went as planned.

She knew that the group was in a time-zone at least six hours ahead, so they would definitely be ready for the homecoming meal upon arrival. Vic wondered if Tony had already started being annoying about finding out what she was going to make, or even submitting his own request. She had learned to have FRIDAY block all communications from Tony that dealt with food so she could sleep…anything else would get through.

The early summer sun had already risen enough so that the city was visible outside. The temperature was going to be steadily rising today so if she wanted to get her daily morning ride in, she needed to get moving. Crawling across the pathetically empty bed, she made her way to the closet. Pulling out everything she always wore and took with her biking, she looked down at the spot on the floor where she had been lying just a few hours ago before heading to the gym.

Every time the group went out, Vic saw them off, giving her warriors hugs and kisses, along with a warm smile while assuring them that she would be fine. But all of that changed once they were gone. She would eventually find herself lying on the floor of the closet or the den, controlling her breathing while listening to soft classical music. With nobody around, she could loudly repeat over and over how Steve and Bucky, and now including the rest of the team, would be back soon and they all would be fine. Last night was probably the worst since Pepper and Happy were still in California so she'd had the upper Tower to herself.

Luckily, she had convinced FRIDAY a while back that the guys didn't need to know how she worried and had finally quit asking if Vic was alright every time. Once the small panic attack would finally leave her, she would change and then head to the gym, spending an hour or two punching the bags or sparring against one of Tony's LMD's. Steve had FRIDAY set her up with one that she could handle, with safety features always on the highest level since he worried so much about her. Vic had dealt with drunks that were more challenging.

Once the fear of losing them would pass, she would then start to plan their homecoming meal. It had taken a few mission to find out the preference of everybody, but they all would end up agreeing that whatever she had made was the best item yet. Tony had actually begun to request her Chicago deep dish pizza, not out loud where everyone would know because of feeling like he was betraying New York style, but by texting or having FRIDAY ask for him. Sometimes she would give in and make it, making sure to act like it had been a hardship on her, but only because it was still so fun to mess with Tony.

Dressed in her tight biking shorts and a loose tank-top over her sports bra, Victoria grabbed the pair of socks that Steve had given her last month to put on along with her new sneakers before braiding her hair back away from her face. Three smaller braids starting at her hairline, moving towards the back before connecting and draping down her back. It was just enough to keep the wind from tangling the exposed parts, making it easier to deal with when she got back to brush and wash it.

After a few minutes' worth of stretches, Vic headed down to the garage level to head out on her bicycle. Since it was still early and not scorching hot, she should be able to get three laps around the park in before the heat kicked up too bad. Grabbing a bottle of water from the mini-fridge Tony had put in the garage for her to use, she slipped it into the drink holder on the bike, before testing the air in the tires. Everything looked good, so she hopped on and headed for the automatic door that led out onto the street.

"Good morning, FRIDAY," Vic called out as she slowly glided towards the door.

" _Good morning, Miss Victor Victoria_ ," the AI responded with a new taunt from Tony, which she just shook her head at.

"I am going to drop water balloons on that man's head when he gets home," Vic mumbled but with a smile as she already starting to consider revenge nicknames for Tony. "I'm going out for a ride, my normal route. Once I leave, can you time me? I'm going to push myself and see if I can get under 50 minutes this time."

" _Yes, I can do that. Your records do not show that you have never been able to make the route in under 53 minutes_."

"I know, but I don't have Steve and Bucky here to slow me down. Besides, I need something to do," Vic joked while trying not to think of the group and what they may be doing right now.

" _Do you need me to place a grocery order for the homecoming dinner_?" FRIDAY asked, having gotten used to doing so as a normal occurrence from her.

"I still haven't decided what to make. Has Tony bugged you yet about what he would want?"

" _No, not yet_."

"Will miracles never cease. I'll wait to see what he may request, then I'll decide if he _deserves_ it. So, I'll let you know the moment I get back," she said punching in the door's code to leave.

" _Very well then. Have a good ride, Miss Victor Victoria_ ," FRIDAY stated.

"Thanks, see you soon…well, not really _see_ …you know what I mean..."

With the opening of the large roll-up door, Vic felt the rush of warm morning air surround her. Luckily, it was a lot dryer and less humid here than other places she had lived, so it should not be a problem for early morning rides for a few more weeks. Pulling her Nano from her pocket and snapping it to her shirt, she put the earbuds in before turning on her playlist, clicking until she found just the right song to start her ride with. With the door automatically closing down behind her, Victoria left the Tower.

* * *

"I don't get it," Sam commented coming in for a landing at the office door after finishing his overhead sweep the abandoned building and not finding a single hostile in the area. "Was the intelligence bad?"

"It didn't _seem_ to be," Natasha sighed, putting her guns back into her holsters. Tony watched as she walked over to one of the desk tables with papers on it, running her finger over the top of it, lifting it for him to see that she found a thin layer of dust on the top of it. Lifting up one of the files, she did the same with the area that had been underneath of it, finding no dust there. "If I had to guess, this place has been set up to look like an outpost, nothing more than just a distraction."

"But the photograph that was taken of Rumlow clearly shows him entering this building by the door that we saw," Tony reminded him, scanning the room for any hidden doors. Examining the results, they showed that there was not a single thing about the small office in the warehouse that should not be there. Seeing Nat at the table, he asked, "What about those files? What are they?"

Natasha opened the one in her hand, quickly scanning over it before tossing it down on the table and stirring up dust with the action.

"A record of produce shipments from two years ago when this place was still in business," she answered moving over to a desk.

" _Guys, we are not finding anything else out here_ ," Steve informed them over his earcom. " _There is no way this is a HYDRA outpost. They didn't just clear out of here…they never used it._ "

"So…we _were_ set up?" Sam asked, scanning the exterior of the building with Redwing. "But then, where is the ambush?"

" _Maybe they slept in_ ," Bucky's voice answered over his earcom.

"That was _my_ line, Bucky!" Tony jealously stated.

" _Better luck next time, slowpoke!_ " Bucky happily sneered over the earcom at him, causing a slight smile at having been teased by the assassin. He was definitely _not_ the same person who had first arrived at the Tower.

"Then, Rumlow came to this building, allowed his picture to be taken, and then had it leaked to lure us here…to what? To waste our time?" Natasha asked heading for the door to the room. He and Sam followed her out and down the hallway to the large storage area where Steve and Bucky were still searching.

"He was at least here less than twenty-four hours ago, so there is a good chance that he still may be nearby," Steve told them, coming into view from one side of the area, while Bucky emerged from behind a dilapidated concrete wall on the other which separated the large area into small spaces.

"I'll set Redwing to do a one-mile sweep, scanning for facial recognition in case this was just a shortcut to the real safe house," Sam informed them, playing with the device on his arm.

Tony knew that he was being much quieter than normal, but there was _something_ about this mission that was _nagging_ at him…and not in the good way that Pepper did.

"Let's start to head back to the Quinjet while birdie does his scan. When Tweety's done, let's get out of here," Tony grumpily told them, walking out of the same door Rumlow's picture had been taken at. Nat moved off to the side to report to SHIELD. He could hear the others chatting as they headed to their ride, but he was not paying attention. Usually when they lost track of Rumlow, it was because they were late arriving at a discarded base…not like this.

"Tony, are you alright? You're being very uncharacteristically ' _not you_ '," Natasha commented, falling into step next to him after having contacted Fury as to what they had found, which was a big, fat goose egg of nothingness.

"Nice to know that I leave an impression. But I don't like the feeling behind this, Nat. Something's not right. This isn't how we usually lose Rumlow," he admitted as they rounded the corner of a nearby building. Arriving into its proximity, the Quinjet dropped its cloaking, becoming visible and lowering the ramp so that they could enter.

"We'll figure out what his plan is," Nat informed him before heading over to her storage locker, depositing the large gun she had slung over her shoulder into the rack. The others were also disarming themselves, prepping for the long flight home.

Steve and Bucky were off to the side talking about something with smiles on their faces, but they had already removed their earcoms so he could not pick up on the conversation. No doubt it had to do with Vic, and how they were planning to defile his favorite employee yet again. So far, she had lasted longer than all his previous private mechanics. That achievement alone probably made Vic deserve a raise. Sam was sitting on the bottom of the ramp, watching Redwing's transmission as it scanned the area.

Stepping out of his suit once he had made it to the corner designated as his, he pulled his Led Zeppelin t-shirt down from where it had ridden up his chest as it rubbed against the inside of his suit. That was an annoying flaw to have to deal with.

More armaments…easy.  
More thrust…easy.  
Keeping the suit from acting like he was an easy prom date…impossibly hard.

Walking over to the pilot's chair, he sat down. With the press of a button, it spun around and slid forward so that he was now at the flight console.

"Hey, Tweetie, how much longer till we can leave?" he yelled over his shoulder towards the back of the jet at Sam.

"Really? You just used that one. I thought that you were suppose to be creative or something," Sam called back at him.

Right then, Redwing appeared through the window, startling him a bit while seeming to be staring at him before it flew off over the roof towards where Sam was.

"Very funny. You want creative? I'll have Vic paint your suit canary yellow as soon as we get back," he joked as Sam walked up the ramp, Redwing secured to his back, before hitting the ramp close button on the wall.

"Let's just head home, shall we?" Steve asked hanging his cap up next to his shield.

"We all know why _you two_ want to head home," Natasha coyly smiled while unzipping her suit, exposing the simple shirt underneath that was much more comfortable for the ride home.

"You know it," Bucky said with a smirk all over his face, but still receiving a punch from Steve at the comment.

Since their incarceration day, Tony had taken the time to actually talk with Bucky, getting to know him...something he hadn't done in all the prior months he had been at the Tower. Steve pointed out to him that over the first weeks after Vic arrived that it was like his childhood friend had finally reappeared. Tony had to admit there were times he enjoyed hanging out with Bucky when not on missions, he just wouldn't say it out loud where anyone could use it against him.

"Alright, children. Buckle up, wheels up in…right now," Tony lifted the Quinjet up off of the crumbling pavement. As they got higher, he looked over the commercial area one more time, still not liking the outcome of this mission. Once they were high enough a few minutes later and set onto their course, he put the jet into autopilot.

Turning around in his chair, he glanced around at the four others, each doing their own thing. Even if this mission was a bust, at least he would be eating like a king tonight. Now, all he could think about was finding out what Victoria had planned for their homecoming meal. A new tradition he thoroughly enjoyed, which his scale could unfortunately attest to.

"FRIDAY, what's our flight time home?" he asked, sure he was going to be close to guessing.

" _At your current rate of speed, just over four hours, Boss. There is a tailwind_ ," she informed him.

"And what does Vic have planned for dinner by chance?" he asked clapping his hands together and rubbing them with a smile on his face without even knowing the answer.

" _I do not know, Tony_ ," she told him.

"Well, then, _page_ her so I can _bug_ her," he requested leaning back in the chair, propping his feet up on the main work console with his hands behind his head.

" _Miss Victor Victoria is not here_ ," the AI said.

That was when Steve and Bucky stopped their conversation entirely.

"Where is she?" Steve asked firmly.

" _Miss Victor Victoria went out for her morning bike ride_ ," FRIDAY told him, making Steve seem a bit better with the answer.

"You know that Vic is going to get back at you for using that name, right?" Bucky then asked, to which he only smiled and shrugged his shoulders. He and Vic actually enjoyed annoying each other like siblings.

"Then how much longer until she gets back? I have a craving for her Chicken Tortellini," Tony smiled at the memory of the times she made the dish, including their incarceration day.

" _I am not sure when Miss Victor Victoria is due back_ ," she said before adding, " _She is already late for returning during the lap time which she was trying to beat_."

"What do you mean, FRIDAY?" Bucky asked this time before Steve could.

" _Her normal lap times takes between 53 to 58 minutes. She has already been gone for 191 minutes_ ," the AI informed them as everyone suddenly became interested in their conversation, Natasha and Sam also stopping their chat.

"Even Victoria does not just suddenly become two hours overdue," Steve told the rest of them, but they all knew that. She may do 'side adventures' (ice cream, antique shops, street musicians) while out, but something that long, he would hope she would at least notify FRIDAY to her change in schedule like always.

"Bucky…is that tracker still on her bicycle?" Steve then asked, while all Tony could think of was ' _stalker_ '.

"No," he glumly answered. "When the battery died, Vic pointed out that since we were usually with her, that there was no point of having it so I never put another one on."

"FRIDAY, how about her phone? Did she take it with her?" Steve asked.

" _Yes, Captain, she did take it with her_ ," said before coming silent for moment, " _But I just pinged for its current location and cannot find it_."

"I need you to do a trace on her phone. Find the last known location for it, right now!" Tony instructed sternly, becoming very worried where this was headed. Was this why he was having such a bad feeling?

" _The last signal was on Central Park West, not long after she had left the Tower for her ride_ ," FRIDAY informed them. " _After that, it dropped off entirely_."

Steve stared at the floor, his voice flat and cold with his request, "FRIDAY, scan all police reports for around the same time her phone went out in that general area and see if there is _anything_ that would indicate that Victoria was involved in an occurrence."

Tony hated that he was actually hoping for Vic to be in the hospital...the best option his mind could conjurer right now. Less than a minute went by before FRIDAY came back with the information he had not wanted to hear.

" _There is an incident report filed this morning at 6:44am involving an unidentified woman on a bicycle being involved in an altercation with three men before being taken against her will_."

"Pull that police report up on the main screen, now!" Tony demanded, standing from his chair as everybody else did the same, all coming over so that they could view it.

Looking over at the digital clock on the screen, he saw that it was already 9:51am New York local time. Everything they were about to learn would be hours old.

Reading over it, they all saw that the police were called after a van containing three or four men forced a bicycling woman with long, light blond hair off of the road, causing her to fall to the grass. The three men then proceed to grab at the woman, but she then fought back, trying to fend them off. This went on for a while before she was forcible knocked unconscious with a 'gun' device. The men then hauled her into the van before taking off, heading away from the park. It has been labeled by the police as a possible kidnapping. No identification was found at the scene to help identify the woman and her recovered phone was smashed.

Then Tony noticed that there was a video file attached to the police report.

"FRIDAY, play the attached video file," Tony calmly requested, not sure how Steve and Bucky were going to take this.

The shaky video started and Tony could tell that it was made with some kind of GoPro type camera attached to another bicyclist's helmet. Knowing Victoria, they could easily tell that it was she biking not too far ahead of the person. Then a black van, with no plates, swerved into view from the left off of the road, a bit ahead of her, causing Vic to suddenly jerk her bike to the right to prevent a collision by falling onto the grass, her earbuds being dislodged as her body rolled a few times. The door to the van slid open as they watched Vic starting to stand up, seeming unharmed from the fall. Three unarmed men dressed in all black tactical gear hopped out, their faces mostly covered to hide their identities.

As the first man reached for her arm, Vic smacked his arm away with her left forearm while delivering an uppercut blow with the base of her right palm to his face. The man then doubled over screaming loud enough for the camera's audio to pick it up while covering his face with his hands in obvious pain, liquid red quickly forming on his hands. Tony guessed that she had just broken his nose with the strike after seeing the amount of blood starting to pour from it.

The other two who seemed to be guarding the scene, witnessing the first one go down, rushed Vic at the same time.

For the next few moments, Vic punched and kicked at them while both goons constantly attacked her. She was not easy on them, so they were not easy on her. They watched in horror as she was unable to dodge all of their assaults and took a couple of hard blows to her chest, but there were also a few to her face. They were not hesitant about hitting a female after what she had done to the first one.

Distracted by the better fighter, the other man managed to get his arm around her neck from behind into a chokehold while Vic kicked the other in his chest, causing him to fall backwards. After a strange moment of hesitation, her response for the man holding her was to bite down on his right forearm hard, causing him to release her neck. But he had to deliver a hard blow with his left fist to the back of her lower spine to get her to free his forearm from her mouth. He then kicked the back of her knee, weakening her stance so that Vic then fell kneeling to the ground. From behind, he then kicked the side of her head, causing Vic to fall prone. Before she could recover, the man dropped on top her, grinding his knees into Vic's back, holding her down with his body weight with his hand pressing her face into the ground.

The bloody-nose punched man had recovered and returned to the van. The one she had kicked away was standing back up.

Vic was barely struggling, possibly having been stunned by the ferocious head shot. Tony watched as she did something with her hand, moving it strangely but he glanced over the other side of the screen as the Bloody-nose man returned from the van towards Vic while holding some type of gun in his hand.

There was no sound captured on the video due to the distance, but they could see Vic talking. To her attacker?

Bloody-nose yelled at the others to move as he brought the gun up, aiming right at Victoria. As the man on her back rolled off, she barely managed to look in his direction before he fired, leaving Vic now lying on the ground unconscious. The three men then hauled her up, and roughly threw her into the van before driving away.

The person with the camera saw something being tossed from the van's window and rushed over to retrieve it: Vic's phone smashed on the pavement. Now that the show was over, he pulled out his own phone to call the police. The entire occurrence was less than three minutes long. And being New York City, there were numerous spectators, but not one tried to help Vic as she was taken.

Tony looked over to where a very quiet Steve and Bucky were standing. He had dealt with Pepper disappearing before, but the two super-soldiers sitting across the way had never been in this type of situation. Neither one of them spoke as he paused the video.

He had thought that he had seen Steve angry, but what he was witness to now could easily be described as pure rage. Bucky on the other hand…his face was purely emotionless. The only type of distress noticeable was a slight movement causing his arm to calibrate. Steve silently placed his arm on Bucky shoulder, which got his attention enough so that he turned to glare at his soulmate with a look that Tony guessed was pure Winter Soldier.

"I know that weapon," Natasha then simply told them. "It was developed by SHIELD…called the Night-Night gun. Vic will be fine, it only knocks someone unconscious for a few minutes."

This barely seemed to help Bucky as his arm continued to be about the only sound in the Quinjet. Using his hand, Steve pushed him back a few steps away from the console, hopefully protecting the equipment. As Steve began to quietly talk with him, Tony hoped he was calming him down enough so that he didn't smash his way through the Quinjet. He and Vic had just finished repairs not long back thanks to Bruce.

Now, he needed to focus on the task at hand. Tony turned back to the screen. Natasha came to stand right next to him, placing her own hand on his back.

"How do we find them?" she simply and calmly asked him, as if he knew how to find her.

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" he sarcastically, and angrily, answered her. Seeing the cold look Nat gave him, he mumbled a 'sorry' and just shook his head.

There was no doubt that it was Rumlow, but how do they find someone that had evaded them for going on three years? Their only lead was the video.

Reaching over he hit the playback, starting from the beginning again. Sam walked around to stand on his other side. Maybe between the three of them they could find something. There was no distinguishing marks on the van and no names were mentioned the entire time. He instructed FRIDAY to begin a traffic camera trace on the van, but there were a lot of blank areas around the city where they could disappear into. When they got to the part where Vic was lying on the ground, Nat tapped the screen to pause it.

"What is Vic doing right there?" she asked pointing at the picture of Vic, moving the video frame-by-frame for a three-second window. Vic's hand went towards her ear.

"It looks like she's removing something from her pocket," Sam supplied as a thought came to him hearing that.

"Guys…does Vic carry an earcom with her?" Tony asked hoping that he was right.

"Yes. She knows I carry them around, and we used them while running and biking together," Bucky answered in a cold, harsh, Russian-tinted voice.

"FRIDAY, look for any audio file that was created today by the earcom that Vic keeps on her," Tony demanded.

" _There is one file, Boss, created during the same time stamp as the video_ ," FRIDAY informed the group.

"Play the audio," Steve simply requested.

The next few second they listened to the attackers talking while Victoria's voice spoke, but not a single one of them could make out what she was saying before it went to dead static.

"FRIDAY, is this file corrupt? What's going on with it?" Tony asked pulling up the schematics for recording, but not seeing a reason for the mess of jumbled syllable sounds.

" _No, Boss, the file recording is not corrupt_ ," they were informed.

"Then what the hell is wrong with it?" he asked, turning the volume up and playing it again.

Suddenly Steve hit the side of the Quinjet, not in an angry way, but in more of a ' _hot damn'_ way.

At the same instance, Bucky asked, "Steve, is that what I think it is?", sounding a bit more optimistic for some reason.

"FRIDAY, put the audio file into a translator," Steve requested with a hopeful smile crossing his face, "Decrypt it using the Hawaiian language,"

"Why would you do that?" Sam asked aloud for all the three of them.

"Because Vic knows how to speak Hawaiian," Bucky informed them still with a hint of Russian in his voice but coming back over to the screen. "FRIDAY, when the translation is complete, sync up the video and audio files, then play them simultaneously."

"Why does Vic speak Hawaiian?" Tony had to ask not understanding why she would as FRIDAY worked.

"Because she lived in Hawaii," Steve answered, somehow with a bit of amusement in his voice, a look passing between him and Bucky. There was something there, a private story or moment, but unfortunately now was not the time to ask about it.

"Vic was trying to tell us something without her attackers knowing," Natasha responded in understanding. "If she had spoken out loud in English, they may have tried to stop her, or changed their plans, knowing that it was being recorded. They did not recognize Hawaiian or consider it a threat."

After a few moments, the video automatically moved to the scene where Vic reached into her pocket before it started to move forward. As the earcom activated, they all listened. Vic's voice was replaced with a cold feminine computer voice, much duller than FRIDAY's.

 **Vic:** _My warriors, I'm sorry_ …  
**Attacker 3 (arm bite guy):** _What the hell is she saying_?  
**Attacker 2 (fighter):** _I don't know_.  
**Vic:** _find them by_ …  
**Attacker 2:** _How hard did you kick her head_?  
**Vic:** _finding my favorite_ …  
**Attacker 1 (bloody-nose guy):** _Get out of my way_.  
**Vic:** _security guard_.

As the round from the Night-Night gun made contact, the earcom dropped off the recording, maybe having been knocked from Victoria's ear. Watching the video with the recording was not any easier. Hearing Vic calling Steve and Bucky her 'warriors' was a bit hard to hear, knowing that it had to be a private term of affection between just the three of them. Crazily, she had even apologized for not being able to escape from the men, as if she should have been able to. But they needed to concentrate on the rest of the audio. That was what mattered. Vic had tried to get some kind of clue to them.

"What does Vic mean by her favorite security guard?" Sam asked the ensemble.

After a moment Natasha spoke up, " _That's_ what we called the _lobby guard_ that picked on her when she first came to the Tower!" looking over at Steve and Bucky. "I don't think either of us ever knew his actual name. _Somehow_ Vic must have _recognized_ him!"

Tony then rewound the video again, to when the one attacker grabbed Vic around her neck. He was the only one she was in a real close proximity to for any length of time. Zooming in on their heads, he adjusted the video enough to clear the picture. The man's face was covered except for his eyes and mouth, but seeing the scene up close and clearly, they could all tell he had been talking to Vic as he held onto her neck. It was right after that when she began to bite his arm.

"That him!" Bucky angrily growling out, the hint of Russian accent still lining his voice. "Whatever he said to Vic, she recognized it and knew who he was. Tony…Happy knows _exactly_ who that guard is! He saw them together that first day during the press conference, before we met her. He's probably the same one who you stopped from kicking her out after she moved in."

"We need to formulate a plan," Steve interjected calmly, turning to Bucky while placing his hand on his shoulder, and saying, "We know why they would have taken Victoria…they're trying to get to you. That means they will not harm her. They will most likely want to make an exchange. But thanks to Victoria, we have an advantage when it comes to finding her. If they get wind that we know the identity of one of the attackers, they may dispose of him, permanently, to keep him quiet. This _is_ Rumlow we are dealing with."

"Fine," Bucky ground out roughly before resting his metal fist on the console table. "You make your plan. But make sure that it includes _a lot of blood_ being spilled!"

Tony swallowed hard at hearing the Russian tone in his hostile voice, barely getting past the slight lump of fear that was suddenly caught in his own throat. For over a year of being on missions with Bucky, he had never seen him this cold and angry, even with multiple HYDRA agents shooting at him. He had probably felt the same way when Pepper had been taken, but it was so different seeing it in somebody else.

Right now, Steve was the brain and Bucky…no, the Winter Soldier was the brawn.

"FRIDAY, get this hunk of junk moving, at top speed, towards home! I don't care what it takes!" Tony instructed, moving back into the pilot's chair. Checking the console, he saw they were now just over two hours out with the additional speed. Since he was not in a teasing mood anymore, he softly requested, "And also, change Vic's name back to normal."

Behind him, he could hear Bucky's quiet voice telling Steve, "Vic's already been gone almost three hours, Steve. Think how scared and frightened she must be."

"We are going to find her, and get our Victoria back!" he heard Steve calmly but firmly say, as if it were already for foregone conclusion.

Tony hoped it was.


	64. Waking Up

**Three Hours Earlier**

* * *

Victoria was starting to wake up and it took her a moment to remember that something was not right...and she was _not_ happy about that. Trying to pull her arms from where they were laying above her head, she found that it was impossible as they were bound that way. Her head was a bit dizzy as she tried to shake off the sluggishness caused by either the kick or that strange gun. Her cheeks and ribs were only a little sore from some of the hits she had been unable to block, but she didn't feel any real damage.

At that moment, the vehicle she was in hit a large pot hole, tossing her body slightly off of the metal floor. The impact of coming down reminded her of the hard punch she had taken on her back since it was in pain once again as she landed on the same spot, but at least it didn't feel as bad as it could have been.

Opening her eyes, she found herself staring at three men dressed in black, the ones who had attacked her. The first one she had hit had taken his hood off and was using it to try and control the flow of blood still coming from his nose. She grinned at seeing his eyes already darkening into black circles from the strike she had given him. Another one, who had delivered a couple of painful shots, still wore his mask, but it didn't really matter to her. They were just thugs in her opinion, doing someone else's bidding.

Rolling her head back, she saw a fourth driving the van, dressed in normal clothing as to not draw attention to himself. Through the front window she could see the skyscrapers as she passed. They were still in Midtown. She must not have been out very long. The guards were arguing about something so she turned her attention back to them.

"We have to take it out! If it _is_ a damn tracker, then this whole thing is going to be for nothing!" Mask exclaimed while pointing down at her for some reason.

"We were also told to bring her in _unharmed_ , and you saw how well _that_ went!" Nosy replied, his voice extremely nasally due to his injury. She couldn't help but giggle at how he sounded like a cartoon character. Hearing her, all three turned their attentions to her direction. None of them looked happy, but Nosy won with the look he gave her. "She's already starting to look like a punching bag…not that I mind!"

"I'm not getting caught because you two can't make up your fucking minds!" the final one said, ripping his mask off.

Her favorite security guard from the Tower.

He obviously wasn't worried about her seeing his face if he was revealing it to her. But if he had been worried about his identity, he wouldn't have whispered into her ear telling her that she should have listened to him when he told her to leave the Tower with her bike.

Foolish pride on his part, a break on hers.

Luckily, he seemed to have no idea that she managed to get a message about him out to Bucky and Steve. _If_ they found it was something else. She watched as he pulled a pocket knife out, flipping it open with his finger.

"Too bad you woke up. This would have hurt a lot less if you ass was still unconscious."

"What the fuck are ya doing?" she growled out, her southern accent cracking through her normal speech, while a special asshole was moving right for her with a knife.

Struggling hard to see how well bound they had her, Vic felt the metal handcuffs around her wrists, which were somehow secured to the floor of the van. Her ankles were also secured, but it felt like rope, but once again, she was unable to move them from the floor. She was pinned lying straight as an arrow. Luckily the feeling of the cuffs had not started to be an irritation since they were not extremely tight.

"Getting that fucking tracking device out of you!" Guard told her, already moving across the van heading toward the front, closer to where her head was.

What the hell was he talking about? Bucky may have been her favorite stalker in the world, but there was _no way_ that he had gotten a tracking device _inside_ of her without her noticing. _Right_?

But if Bucky somehow had, she sure was _not_ going to complain about it right now.

Guard crouched down next to her head, and as he roughly grabbed onto her upper left arm, it finally dawned on her what he was talking about. With her arms suspended over her head while wearing a tank-top, they had seen the small raised area of skin, and jumped to a wrong conclusion.

"That's my birth control implant, ya jackass!" she actually cursed at him hearing the accent still coming through, struggling to pull her arm away from the knife's blade, "Not a damn tracker!"

"Nice try, bitch, but we are _not_ taking _any_ chances!" Guard spit out as she felt the burning heat from the blade start to slice open her skin. Vic screamed loudly from the pain, but he did not stop his work. She felt his fingers push the device from under her skin, warm blood running down her arm onto the floor of the van.

"I've never seen a tracker like that," Nosy told them as Guard held it up to examine the thin white plastic item, causing her to shake her head in disbelief at how stupid they were.

"I told ya what it was, taint cheese!" she snapped, receiving a slap across her face from him for the insult.

"You had better watch what you say, bitch," Guard laughed down at her. "You're going to be in the company of these men for quite a while. I, on the other hand, get to head back to the Tower and watch your two bastards fall apart from losing you."

He had no idea how much that simple phrase comforted her. That proved they had no idea that she had been able to get a message out to them. When, not ' _if'_ Vic told herself, they figured out what she had been able to do, they would know who to look for. With him being inside of the Tower already, they would quickly and easily be able to find him. There was no way _he_ would hold up during an interrogation from Bucky, Steve, or Natasha. Tony...he'd just irritate him until Guard talked just to get him to be quiet. All she had to do was wait for them to get to her, wherever she was being taken.

Moving to the front seat, he opened up the window and tossed her implant out, still believing it to be a tracker. Whatever, she decided. They didn't even bother to cover the cut to stop the bleeding, which luckily wasn't bad. A few drops of DNA evidence on the floor of the van, she figured. The van continued to move for a while after that, turning in all directions, as if trying to lose a tail. Her sense of direction helped a little as they made their way through the city so that she knew they were heading towards the ports, and she could also see familiar buildings as they passed by.

Eventually the van pulled into a dark warehouse with a high roof, moving slowly through it for a few moments before it finally stopped. Sliding open the side door, Nosy jumped out, trying to elevate his head as he disappeared from sight, while Guard stood right outside watching her silently, and looking very smug. Mask stayed in the van, close to her feet. She guessed that they were waiting for the order to release her, or so that someone could verify that she had been brought in alive. Either way, she may not get a better chance to escape. As soon as her cuffs were freed, she would make a go at it.

Heavily booted footsteps finally sounded in her ears a few minutes later. Turning her head, she watched as a man dressed all in black military gear appeared in the open doorway of the van, looking right down at her from behind a black mask exposing his eyes with white markings scratched into it, as well as his chest plate.

Reaching his hand out towards her, he grabbed a lock of her hair which had fallen loose during the struggle, examining it. Vic jerked back as much as she could, not wanting this man to touch her in any way. At her attempt, he just chuckled and held on, pulling painfully at her hair for her effort. Judging by his getup, Vic guessed that he was the leader. Releasing her hair, he then roughly grabbed the front of her shirt, yanking it down to reveal her soulmark. She could see the gleam of happiness in his eyes as he verified it was there.

"They must _really_ want to keep you badly if they put a tracker inside of you," his hissed, running his gloved fingers over her soulmark, something _way to intimate_ for likes of him.

"It wasn't a fucking tracker! What is _wrong_ with ya dipshits?" she yelled, amused how it sounded to curse with her natural accent, jerking her body away from his touch. At least it wasn't his bare hand.

"When you take Victoria to her cell, don't worry about being too gentle. I heard what she was capable of," Touchy told them, moving back so that Guard and Mask could release her from the floor. As they began to remove some of her bindings, Touchy loomed down at her, saying, "You broke my man's nose, bitch!"

"Take off that candy-ass monkey suit, and I'll do the same to yours, wanker," she angrily spat out at him, trying to pull her limbs free from where the two jerks were holding on extremely tightly. She felt the cuffs on her wrists click a few notches tighter thanks to Guard's firm grip.

Now _that_ got her attention. Vic just had to focus on anything else, then the cuffs would not matter. Like the fact that she needed to figure out how to get out of here.

Guard slid between Touchy and the door's frame to get to the ground, still holding the cuffs tightly but then he suddenly yanked her arms hard as Mask let go of her legs. Their action left her swiftly sliding over the van's floor and into the air before spilling her body down onto the hard concrete of the warehouse floor. Landing on her back, Vic let out a brief cry of pain at the same spot being struck yet again. Touchy then instantly planted his foot hard onto her solar plexus, pinning her down as two additional guards appeared next to her, grabbing at her arms and legs to hold her in place just like she had been in the van. Five men now surrounded her, greatly limiting her chance of escape.

"You are a brave whore to be talking to me like that...but then I guess you have to be since you like to _fuck_ the _Asset_!" he taunted, pressing his foot down harder, causing her to cry out in pain. Both her front and back were now causing stabbing pains through her body.

Grinding her teeth together, she held in her shriek, not wanting to satisfy him by showing weakness.

"His name is Mr. Barnes to you, ya pompous dick blossom!" she yelled up at him between the shooting pains.

That seemed to get his attention enough so that he pressed down even harder with his foot.

"Not for long it won't be," Touchy told her as he reached up to remove his facial mask.

Seeing the burn-scarred face, Vic instantly knew exactly who this was. The team had been looking for him for quite a while, and unfortunately he had found her before they had managed to capture him. In fact, they had left on their current mission yesterday because of intel they had received telling them that this douchebag was somewhere in Europe. Now, he was standing before her in New York City. It had been a trick.

"I have a feeling that the Asset will do _anything_ in hopes of keeping you safe. Even agreeing to _willing_ go back into his Chair and work for us again. But don't worry, we plan to use the same procedure on your precious Captain also. Two birds with one stone, if you get my meaning…stone!"

There was no way in hell she was going to let that happen, she decided, smiling up at Rumlow.

"First, I can't believe that you're asinine enough to think that is going to work. Second, have ya ever seen the movie _Spaceballs_?" Vic polite requested with all her southern charm, batting her eyelashes like Vivian Leigh would, to hearing his evil scheme. Rumlow, with his exposed burnt skin, looked down quizzically at her, like she was crazy.

"Why?" he asked taking the bait.

In the _sweetest_ southern voice she could muster, Vic replied, "So that I know you'll get the reference when I say that ya look like Pizza the Hutt."

The change on Rumlow's face was instantaneous…well, as much as it could change.

Straightening back up, Rumlow pulled his sidearm from its holster, aiming right at her head. Vic knew she didn't look the least bit scared as she grinned up at him. He had basically just admitted that he needed her alive and safe for his evil scheme, but Rumlow only held the stance for a few seconds until he realized it too.

Instead of pulling the trigger, he put the gun back in his holster before deciding to kick her hard on her left side of her chest, causing her to scrunch up in pain.

As Rumlow then stalked away angry at her like a pouty child, Vic began to laugh at him to his back.

"Pussy!" Victoria yelled at him.

"Toss her in the fucking cell! Now!" he screamed at the top of his lungs to the guards, not even bothering to look back at her.

* * *

Rumlow stomped into the office, not too far away from where the cell Victoria was being chucked into was located. Throwing his mask at the file cabinet, the air rang with the sound of the impact, denting the cabinet and making him feel a bit better.

"The nerve of that crazy, fucking, redneck bitch!" he yelled, kicking over a small table that would have been used to work on, sending it crashing into the far wall, causing a single leg to break off. If he didn't need her alive as a bargaining chip to return the Asset to HYDRA's possession, _his_ possession, he would love to have shot her right there on the ground. But, if his plan worked out, not only would he have full control of the Asset, but the infamous Captain America would also _willingly_ become his mindless toy to control.

With Pierce gone, he had been one of the few agents that knew the location of the backup Chair for the Asset located in America. Once he had absconded from the hospital before the authorities were able to capture him, he had it moved to a new location and had been searching for some kind of way to capture the Asset. And then months ago, the perfect leverage walked into the scene in the form of a soulmate, and his planning had started. Not only that, but she was also Rogers' soulmate. No one in HYDRA had known that one of the two missing pieces had belonged to Cap. Whoever had known way back during the war actually had _actually_ been able to keep a secret.

Through the decades, many Handlers for the Asset would send out search parties to try and find either matches, but never had anyone close ever been found. Now, he knew why. Rogers had been frozen in the ice while Victoria had been living in the hellhole of the Deep South, hidden away by her overly religious parents. If only they had managed during Pierce's time to have found her, then maybe Rogers may not have been able to break the Asset's programming.

"The prisoner seems to have quite a bit of brazenness about her. Nothing like the background check was able to find," Jonathan Weiss' pompous voice caught his attention as he walked in to the office, leaning next to the door as he watched him vent.

"You and your damn background check! The only accurate thing about her file so far is the fact that she bares the soulmark!" Rumlow yelled at the incompetent man, pointing in the general direction of Victoria's cell. Maybe he should have found someone more competent to deal with his men here in the states, but at least Weiss was very good with money. "Weiss, how the hell could you have spent the last six months investigating her and not know that she was obviously trained by either Roger, Widow, or the Asset? Or maybe a combination _of all three_? The bitch broke a man's nose with _one strike_!"

"Everything we were told about her from her family, and members of the community where she grew up, stated that she was a quiet, scared, weak, pathetic female. We even have one of our agents who saw an incident confirming this with his own eyes. Obviously, somehow we were wrong," Weiss told him as Rumlow heard an unseen someone clearing his throat from the hallway outside. Ignoring the interrupter, Weiss continued, "They had to have been training her since she arrived, but only in private. We never were able to get eyes on the secure upper levels or living quarters to know exactly what they were doing up there."

At the clearing of a throat again, "What the _fuck_ to do you want?" Rumlow stalked over to yell at the man looming just outside of the doorway, startling him a bit.

"Sir," he hesitantly spoke, taking a step forward and looking over at Weiss, the one he was used to answering to, "I wanted to let you know that she is in the cell. I am heading back to the Stark Tower now for my shift. When her disappearance become known to them, I will text to let you know, as well as what procedures they are implementing," the man said to Weiss, trying to put some competency in his voice. Rumlow liked knowing that his face still scared the men under him.

"Fine," Weiss sounding bored, turning to the man. "They should not return for a few hours yet, so it may be some time before she is noted as missing. Do _not_ get impatient and blow your cover."

"I won't," he said nodding to Weiss, then barely managing to give him a look in the eye before scurrying away.

"At least _something_ came out of that bribe," Weiss said after he was gone. Just as he was about to start venting again, Weiss' phone then rang, irritating Rumlow even more. He couldn't even get _angry_ without being _interrupted_! Weiss spoke for a few moments before hanging up. "That was confirmation from my man that they have been spotted getting ready to set up surveillance around the decoy building."

"I wonder how long they will waste their time before realizing they were set up," Rumlow chuckled, making him feel a bit happier, walking over to the computer station set up on a desk in the room. Clicking the screen on, he watched security video of Victoria's cell as the infuriating female kicked uselessly at the heavy door locking her in as his captive. He liked a woman with some fight in her. Maybe just not such a smart mouth. Her hair had been just as lovely as he had imagined it to be. He saw that the guards had actually freed her hands from the cuffs. Brave, stupid idiots.

Once Rogers and the Asset were under his control, he might see just how much fight Victoria really had. If she could take having sex with the both of them, then she must be used to pain. She had even managed to laugh after getting kicked in the side from him. Rumlow decided he was curious to see how much pain she really could take.

"I want that bitch moved to the penthouse _before_ they return to New York. If she's actually had specialty training from _any_ of them, that cell may not hold her for long. We will record the message of my demands from there instead. Once they discover their precious soulmate gone, I'll give them some time to stew about it before having the message delivered to them."

Weiss walked over to watch the screen, where Victoria was still kicking at the door. Rumlow was impressed that she had that much energy to keep fighting for so long. He was definitely going to be having some fun with her. He had been staring at her pictures for months, just imagining what he could do to her. Hearing the constant sound of her kicking was becoming annoying so he turned the volume down slightly, to background levels.

"I would send in a couple of extra men to deal with her transfer. It was lucky we sent the two extra agents to deal with any heroic bystanders that tried to interfere with her capture. She would have easily gotten away from just one agent," Weiss commented as she then began to kick at the concrete walls, testing her prison. "We will also need a better way to secure her for transport. The original handcuffs were chosen believing that she could be threatened to come quietly. I do not believe that is the case anymore. If the Widow trained her, she will also be able to pick them."

Rumlow watched as Victoria finally gave up striking uselessly at her cell, at least for now. Instead of sitting on the simple metal cot with mattress, she lay down on the floor, staring at the ceiling, her fists flexing above her head as she seemed to be talking to herself. He turned up the audio but it was nothing more than a mumble, not loud enough for him to hear clearly. But damn if she wasn't cute when she was mad.

Moving Victoria was definitely going to require more than standard handcuffs. The _crazy_ and _smart mouthed_ bitch needed to be restrained so that she was not able to injure any more guards, as well as being taught a lesson as to who was in charge. A smile crossed his face as he thought of the perfect items to help him with this dilemma.

"I know _exactly_ what I need!" Rumlow twistedly smiled at lovely image on the screen.

And in New York City, there were stores that sold _everything_.


	65. Transferring the Prisoner

**Song: _My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark_ by Fallout Boy**

* * *

Victoria was not sure how long she had been lying on the concrete floor, but it could only have been a couple of minutes. She was starting to feel better having calmed herself down, but she really wanted to hit something, which was not happening in here. One hard punch on these walls and she would break her hand.

She could hear movement from out in the hallway beyond the door that had been too stubborn to fall apart on her, but nobody seemed to have cared as she kicked the door over and over. It sounded like there were a couple of guards stationed outside, in case she did manage to get out of here. Even the ceiling was steel security panels that were locked down so she couldn't get out that way.

All she had to do was hope that once Steve and Bucky got home and found her missing, that they would somehow find her audio file and figure out how to get her the fuck out of here. And away from that creepy Rumlow asshole. Thinking about him touching her soulmark sent a shiver down her back, and not in the good kind that her warriors made.

At least she had pissed him off enough so that he had finally left her alone. It was worth the kick to her side.

Reaching down, she lifted the ripped hem of her shirt to see the area where he had impacted. It was already turning purple, and not looking too pretty, but at least it didn't hurt anymore. Steve and Bucky were not going to be happy when they saw it.

So far, the only positive thing was that the guards had removed the handcuffs from her wrists once she was in the cell. They had been hesitant at first, but after pointing out to them that they were tight enough so that they were cutting off circulation, she had been able to convince them that she would behave, as long as they came off. Which she had actually had been.

This was not like the playtimes at home with her warriors. The feeling of wearing them was already starting to cause a tightness in her shoulders.

The guards had her kneel facing the cot, crossing her lower legs, put her forehead down on the cot, and _then_ put her hands as far back over her head as she could, before they would even _enter_ the room. Nice to know that she had made an impression.

Looking over at her arm, she saw that the ripped piece of her shirt was red from trying to stop the blood coming out of the knife slice. She had taken a ripped-off sliver from the bottom of her shirt, making sure to not go too high on count of Rumlow's leers, wrapping it around her upper arm a few times before tying it off.

As she had laid down on the floor, she had spotted the small security camera placed high in the upper corner of the cell, its flashing red light letting her know that they were keeping watch on her. Who cares, she figured. It's not like she was doing anything interesting.

Natasha would probably have bobby pins stashed all over her person so that she could pick the lock and just walk away from here. But that was something that she had never learned to do. She was definitely adding it to her list of new hobbies to learn once she got out.

So, until she had something to do, Vic decided to just lay on the floor and sing the two songs over and over that came to mind: _Jailhouse Rock_ and _Hound Dog_. The two songs that she and Wade had set up for a situation…well, not exactly like this, but close enough. If the guys saw the video, they would understand, but they would already have to know she was missing in the first place, so the songs were a bit pointless now. But it at least gave her something to do.

Now, she could hear move footsteps approaching, echoing their steps throughout the hallway. They didn't sound like normal rubber sole combat boots, like Steve and Bucky wore, but more like dress shoes that Pepper made Tony wear on date nights. They were getting close, so she rolled onto her belly to look under the edge of the door where there was about an inch of space to see out of. Yep, oxfords, brown leather, fairly expensive looking.

"The prisoner is to be transferred to the penthouse in less than an hour's time. Rumlow will be providing something to help secure her better with during transportation than what was originally planned, since she was such a problem for the other agents," Oxfords said to whomever was outside of her door, making her panic attack about to start again.

As Oxfords start to walk away down another hallway, Vic rolled back over and away from the door thinking about what she had just heard. They were planning on moving her from here! But this was the only place that Bucky and Steve would be able to figure out how to get to for finding her! She had to stay here!

"Like _fuck_ I'll let them move me!" she drawled in her accent, as she gave the door one final kick while lying on her back.

Laying there was not going to make her stay here, but like Steve was always telling Bucky, she needed a plan. There were two end outcomes for her to consider: she'd be taken from here, or she stays here.

If she was unable to fight them off for long enough to be found, she needed to let Steve and Bucky know where they had been planning on taking her. Assuming that they make it this far, how would she be able to get a message to them without it being destroyed? She couldn't leave a note of any kind, could she?

Then a scene came back to her from a movie: blood.

Using her blood, she could write a simple message on the wall, but she needed it to be found, not destroyed.

A smile crossed her face as she thought of it: Morse code.

Bucky would recognize it, but it was not used a lot nowadays so hopefully the guards would ignore it if they spotted it.

But there was only one word to lead them further: penthouse.

Hopefully, it would be enough.

Sitting up, Vic moved to the corner directly underneath the security camera. If she put her message on any other wall, the guards may figure it out, but there was a blind spot that she should be able to utilize to her advantage. Vic then slid her finger up under the makeshift bandage, poking at her wound with her nail, opening it back up so that she had something to write with.

Biting her tongue, she managed to keep from making any sound to alert the outside guards. She then began the task of forming the dots and dashes on the wall, just large enough to be read, but not large enough to scream _look at me_. If her warriors found her cell with her gone, they hopefully would see the message. It didn't take long and it was mostly dry by the time she moved back to lying on the floor to consider the next part.

So, what happens if they come to take her away from here?

Closing her eyes, she started to remember scenes from movies, trying to think of a way to help her either get out of here, or to stay here long enough so she could be rescued, like a damsel in distress. But she smiled as she remembered Wade's comments months ago, she was a Mulan. She was not going to wait here patiently like Fiona, and even though seeing her warriors in shining armor would be nice, she preferred the leather they wore.

The first thought was that she needed a weapon. The guards had guns, and even though they couldn't shoot her, that didn't mean they couldn't hit her with the blunt end. Or use that damn stun gun again. If they did, then she was gone. There was only one option for her to even consider.

Looking over at the metal cot, she scooted a bit over to be able to examine the structure of it. The underside was nothing more than weak springs linked together, with an L-shaped sidebar to connect to on four sides. But the end pieces, they would be useful. Made of rounded pipes to create the legs, they formed a square end-piece.

If she could break the bed apart, and separate the ends, she would have metal rods to hold and fight with.

Now, she just had to think about how to fight with them. That was easy. She loved watching martial arts movies with Bucky and she remembered being interested in numerous scenes with fighting using two weapons like she wanted to do.

Sitting upright, she flexed her hands into fists a couple of times, closed her eyes to get herself into the mindset, and then she stood up. Bouncing up and down a few times, she got her blood flowing again, looking forward to pretending to be Bruce. Time to smash.

"Cot...you're going down," she informed the object while reaching over and pulling the mattress off of it.

* * *

Rumlow had been watching Victoria on the monitor since Weiss went out to inform her guards that she would be transferred soon as he left the warehouse. He had send out another agent to retrieve the items he wanted to use to secure her, and was still waiting for him to return.

She had laid on the floor for a while, boring him to no ends, before finally getting up to stand in the blindspot of the camera for a few minutes. He figured that she was finally calming down, hiding like a frightened baby rabbit. Then she had pathetically laid back down again.

After only a couple of minutes, he got bored of watching her do nothing so he sat at the only remaining table standing in the room, propping his feet up. His mind began to wander as he imagined some of the things he could do to Victoria.

There was a sudden, loud, crashing sound from behind him on the computer, startling him a bit. Turning back towards the monitor, he got the shock of watching what was going on in the small cell. He stepped over to get a better look.

Victoria had removed the mattress from the cot and then had picked up the entire metal frame of the bed. His eyes grew wide as he watched the bitch slam it up against the hard concrete surface of the wall. After a couple of strikes, one of her cell's guards appeared at his door.

"Sir, the prisoner!" he said partially out of breath from running to get to him, "She's doing something!"

"I can see that, you fucking idiot!" Rumlow barked out, not bothering to take his eyes off of the monitor. He heard the guard stepping closer, also curious as to what was going on inside of the room.

The cot was not very well made, and as he watched, she finally managed to get it broken into two parts. Grabbing the end piece, she then began to smash it at the corners. A short while later, she had managed to break off the leg pieces.

As she picked them up off of the floor, spinning them in her hands, testing their usability, he saw a smile creep over her face. She had fashioned herself a pair of batons to fight with. Victoria moved back toward the wall opposite of the door, kicking the leftover remains of the bed clear for an area to stand in, waiting for someone to enter.

"Alright, bitch," Rumlow began with a sinister smile creeping onto his own face at watching her. "Let's have some fun! Get me five guards, one with full riot gear. Wait for me outside of her cell. Nobody goes in until I give the command!"

"Yes, Sir," the guard now hurrying away to do his bidding.

It was about that time that the guard returned to the office holding the requested items he had been sent to purchase. Smiling as he examined them, making sure that he understood how to secure them on her, he placed them onto the table. This was one task he was personally going to happily perform on the bitch, nobody else would get the pleasure.

The transport may not be ready just yet, but that did not mean that he couldn't get Victoria prepped for her trip. Strapping back on his chest plate, he walked over to where his mask had fallen to the floor after striking the file cabinet. Rumlow slipped it over his head as he walked to the table, picking up her gifts.

* * *

Vic heard the distinct sounds of people gathering right outside of her cell door. They were getting ready to come in. She had actually been surprised when they had not after she had started smashing up the cot. Maybe they didn't think that she was a threat. Maybe she wasn't, not to them, but that didn't mean that she couldn't at least try and fight back. Spinning the two metal rods in her hands, she started to bounce once again, getting her adrenaline pumping.

"Alright," she told herself aloud while stretching her neck and shoulders, "so does this fall into the brave, crazy, or reckless category?"

Taking a couple of deep breaths, her mind focused on a single song to pump her up even more. Stamping out the beat with her right foot, tapping the rods together at the appropriate time also, she could hear the sound of a raised voice, giving commands, from outside of the door now. Rumlow probably. Might as well see what she was dealing with.

"Hey, Rummm-lowww," she yelled out as loud as she could, drawing out his name. Until she was home, her accent was probably going to be hanging around. "Is that you?"

"Hell yes, bitch!" he called back but sounding a bit too far away from the door, making her think that he was going to be sending in others first.

"Good, I thought that ya might'a been too much of a chicken-shit to take me on!" Vic still pounding her foot to the beat of the song in her head.

"Don't worry, I'll be in there soon enough, but first I have some friends for you to meet!" he called out to her.

Showtime.

Vic then began to sing out loud, hoping that they could hear, full of eagerness...

_"…A constellation of tears on your...lashes,_  
_Burn everything you love,_  
_Then burn the...ashes._  
_In the end everything collides,_  
_My childhood spat back the monster that you see._  
_My songs know what you did in the dark._  
_So light 'em up up up, light 'em up up up,_  
_Light 'em up up up, I'm on fire…"_

Then the door opened.

The first guard rushed her, carrying a plain wooden nightstick in his right hand. Striking out with her left rod, it pushed his outward while, as the same time, she brought her right rod straight across, striking him in his jaw. Vic heard the cracking sound from the impact as well as slicing his skin with the jagged end. The guard crumbled to his knees, howling in pain, blood gushing from his mouth and cheek.

She then brought her knee straight up, catching him under the chin on his already broken jaw, causing him to scream even more, as well a tooth plinking onto the floor. A final heel kick to his chest knocked him back into the wall near the open door. He crumbled to the ground leaving a small bloody impact print from the back of his head on the rough concrete block.

One down.

"Impressive, bitch!" she heard Rumlow call out to her.

Looking out of the doorway, Vic could see him standing a bit down the hallway straight ahead, wearing his mask, body and neck armor, and a chest plate. There were three other guards lining the hallway between her and Rumlow, slightly apart so that Rumlow could see inside.

"Light 'em up," she said raising and spinning her rods in preparation for the next attack.

The next guard heading for the door was dressed in some form of riot gear, carrying a police shield. Thinking back to Thanksgiving, she knew what to do. Unfortunately, Vic knew that she was going to have to release her weapons, at least for the meantime, so the dropped them straight down.

As Riot stepped forward to attack her with another wooden nightstick, she parried his blow with her arm. Taking a hold of the shield, just like Bucky had done with Steve's shield, she performed the same maneuver, twisting him into a forced back-flip, and then spinning her body, removing the shield from his arm and ending up with it herself. With a hard left punch to the chest, he stumbled backwards towards the door's opening.

Supporting himself with the door frame, the guard then turned back towards Rumlow, as if waiting for someone to explain to him what had just happened.

Before Riot could turn back around, Vic lifted the end of the shield and quickly moved towards him, thrusting the narrow end into his neck, below his face-plated helmet. As he stood there choking, she body-rammed Riot with the shield to push him into the hallway on his back, tossing the shield on top of him. Vic had no experience with using a shield so it would be useless to her.

Two down.

Keeping her eyes on Rumlow through the door, she walked backwards and bent down to pick up her rods again. Grasping them firmly, the two of them stared each other down. He was having fun taunting her, trying to wear her down with sending in the guards.

Unfortunately, it might work. She had not been in a real bar fight in years. Sparing in the training room for fun, or venting anger, was not like this.

One of the other guards then grabbed the unconscious guy in the cell from up against the wall. Maybe they wanted to make sure they had plenty of room to fight in without bodies piling up, she thought with a smile.

"Get them from her, men!" Rumlow called out while still holding back, his arms crossed over his chest as he just watched, letting his minions do his dirty work for him.

The two remaining guards then entered through the doorway, stopping just inside. They then each pulled what looked to be empty handles from holsters on their hips. Swiping their arms out, the baton expanded. Vic knew there was something different about these though.

The first guard took a simple swing at her, which she easily blocked with her right rod.

That was when the electrical charge surged through the metal rod and down into her arm. With the shocking current flowing, all she was able to do was scream as her arm became numb. When the guard pulled his arm back, stopping the charge, her right arm fell limp to her side, her rod falling to the ground as she was unable to grip it any longer.

Victoria knew then that her time was almost up. These were not like the gun from earlier. A single round from it had knocked her unconscious for a couple of minutes. These, on the other hand, were designed to only slightly incapacitate the target. There was no way for her to stop them. Rumlow wanted her awake, but unable to fight, for when his skeevy ass finally engaged her.

But she was not giving up, that was not something Wade had ever taught her. They needed to know that she was serious about getting out of here. If only Rumlow had not been wearing neck armor, then _he_ would be the one on the receiving end.

Remembering the movie scene, Vic took a calming breath.

Concentrating on a single point on the furthest guard in the cell, Vic made a full-body spin around before releasing her only weapon from her left hand directly at his larynx. The jagged end of her metal rod slid easily through the thin skin of his neck, impaling itself right where she had wanted it.

As the rod had been flying, the other guard did not waste the opportunity he saw. Slashing out with his stun-baton, he impacted the tip of it onto her chest. Vic screamed as the charge coursed through her. The guard held it on her for at least four seconds, but even that short amount of time seemed like an eternity to her.

When he backed off, Vic tried to replenish her oxygen from the scream and found that her lungs didn't work anymore. Just like the device had paralyzed her arm, it had done the same thing to her chest. Vic panicked as she was unable to take in a breath.

Falling back onto the wall behind her for support, Vic reached up with her left hand to her chest, where her soulmark rested, hoping to somehow jump-start her lungs, but nothing happened. This was worse than having the wind knocked out of her, as had happened before during training sessions with Wade.

"Not so cocky now, are you, bitch?" she heard Rumlow ask from much closer.

Glancing up, Vic saw that he was right next to her. She knew she had to fight. Vic punched out with a left hook, but now she was too slow as Rumlow easily caught her fist with his right hand. Twisting their limbs out of the way, he then quickly struck her in the forehead while wearing his metal facemask.

Victoria went down to the ground…hard.

Between the lack of oxygen and then the head-butt, Vic was not sure how long she had been lying on the floor dazed…or had she actually passed out? She wasn't even sure.

The first thing Vic realized was that she could luckily breathe again. The next thing was that there was a very heavy weight holding her down. Her vision finally began to focus, but all she saw was the massive black form sitting on top of her. Rumlow.

Vic tried to move her arms to bat at him, to get him away from her, but they were somehow folded and being held down. They were also covered in some kind of fabric. Looking down, just past Rumlow's black outfit, she saw a white item wrapping her torso.

He had her upper body encased in a straitjacket.

The guard that had struck her chest was holding one end of an arm sleeve while another guard, whom she had not seen in the hallway, was holding the other. They had already crossed her arms in front of her while Rumlow was in the process of strapping them in place using a buckle that went down her chest area.

Vic realized that she had blacked out for a minute or two for them to have gotten that far.

"Welcome back, bitch! I figured that since you were going to _act_ crazy, I may as well _treat_ you like a crazy person," Rumlow told her as he finished fooling with the strap. Coming up onto his knees so that he was no longer holding her down, he told the other two, "Alright…flip her over!"

Victoria tried to fight to keep them from accomplishing their task, but it was a useless struggle against two grown men. As soon as she was on her front, Rumlow sat back down hard, pinning her body with his crotch area, sitting mostly on her butt. It was a horrible feeling to have him touching her like that.

As the arm straps were tightened down and then buckled behind her back, she could only hope that Steve and Bucky got here soon. She started to panic at the thought of Rumlow taking her away from here and them _not_ being able to find her.

Would one of them, or maybe both, actually agree to Rumlow's demands just to keep her safe?

They had better not!

She could still see the video of Bucky sitting in the Chair from his files. Just the thought of him volunteering to do that again to keep her safe sicken her.

Vic could feel Rumlow working his way down her back, tightening each strap as hard as he could. None of the thrashing that she was doing even seemed to slow him down with his task.

Now that the arm straps were secured behind her, the two guards backed away since they were now useless. After he finished the final one, Vic felt Rumlow leaning down onto her back, his face getting close to her own.

"Those were some impressive moves, bitch. Which one trained you? Rogers or my Asset?" he asked, his breath warm on her cheek. Vic closed her eyes, refusing to even hint as to where she may have even gained some of the maneuvers she had used on the guards. She would never tell him anything about her abilities. "Nothing? How about I show you one of my moves?"

Vic felt Rumlow sit back up off of her, repositioning himself onto her thighs.

"Spread her legs, men!" he announced with too much happiness in his voice for her.

The two guards then relocated behind the both of them. Grabbing onto her ankles, the two guards began to pull her legs apart while Rumlow continued to sit on her. Vic tried to keep them closed, using the fear of what he _could_ do to her next to give her strength, but it was not enough.

Lying there helpless, Victoria felt Rumlow's hands run over her butt cheeks, which were only covered in the simple tight biking shorts she had put on this morning. That seemed like so long ago now. His left hand stopped moving, resting on a cheek, but his other hand continued to move to her legs, much lower than she wanted him to. He was moving slow, torturing her with not knowing what he was going to do.

Rumlow's hand then ran right between her thighs, rubbing hard against her crotch, but slowly moving forward. Never had anyone but Steve and Bucky _ever_ touched her there. She could feel the tears forming, but she would not give this bastard the satisfaction of seeing her cry. His hand then moved all the way to the front of her shorts, his fingers wiggling over her mon, as if he were trying to tease her.

"Where are they?" he said to himself as he began to search the front of her shorts area. Every once in a while, his fingers would touch the bare skin exposed between her pants and ripped shirt. It made her slightly nauseous. Suddenly, he made a triumphant noise. Vic then felt something being pulled between her legs, from the front towards the back. He had been searching for the crotch straps, she realized. She guessed that it was better than the alternative.

Yanking on the two straps hard, Rumlow slipped them into the buckles, tightening them down just like the ones on her back…as much as he agonizingly could. He did them so hard that the shoulders of the jacket pulled her body downwards, tightening up the entire item, it seemed. The straitjacket was now painfully secured around her, the two crotch straps cutting up into her skin.

"Cuff her legs and remove her shoes and socks," he said resting atop of her as the two guards secured what felt like handcuffs around her ankles, preventing her from kicking. Testing their limit, she found that there must be a small length of chain connecting them, just enough to walk with baby steps. She then felt someone pulling off her footwear. Without shoes, kicking at guards and doors would hurt a lot more.

"Sir…transportation is ready," she heard a voice say from the direction of the door.

Turning her head, Vic looked over at the body of the guard she had impaled with the rod, lying dead, slumped partially against the wall. She felt absolutely no type of guilt or shame at having killed him. Vic had been worried that she would, and if she had, it would have made it harder for her to try and escape later if the only way out was to kill again. But nope…she felt nothing for his dead HYDRA ass.

Rumlow then stood up, removing his heavy body weight from her finally, but not that she could do anything. The guards then came over and took hold of her upper arms, lifting her quickly off of the ground. The sudden movement caused a dizzy spell, lasting a few seconds.

Rumlow's blow to her head may have given her a concussion, but she wasn't sure. It didn't seem that bad as the nausea went away just as quickly as it had come.

Focusing on the figure in front of her, Vic saw Rumlow standing only a foot away. Lifting the mask from his face, she was getting the best look of his face that probably anyone had since the accident.

The overall redness of the scars did not leave a single smooth area over his entire face. His left ear seemed to have melted into his hairline, which was higher than it should be due to the scar tissue. His right side was not _as_ horrible, but it was still pretty bad. Vic also saw that his upper neck had more burn marks, making her wonder what he looked like under his stupid chest-plate.

"That little show of yours got me hard, whore," Rumlow was leering at her, his eyes running over her trapped body. Damn it, this time she couldn't help it, she _had_ to say something even knowing she would regret it...

"Really? Because the entire time you were sitting on me, I couldn't feel a thing. Exactly how far down _do_ those burns go? Or is your cooked sausage just that small?"

The hard backhanded slap was totally worth it. There was now the taste of blood in her mouth. But then Rumlow grabbed a hold of her hair, yanking her face forward into his as he planted a hard kiss on her bloody lips. Vic ground her teeth closed to prevent his tongue which was trying to enter her mouth from doing so, until Rumlow gave up and finally put a bit of space between them. Vic then spit right into his face, not caring what he was going to do as a reprisal.

"You are a dead man walking."

Instead of striking her, Rumlow just smiled at her, which worried her a bit more than receiving another hit.

"Even with those bruises on your face, you're still very sexy. I wonder what would happen if I put _you_ into the Chair?" he asked wiping away her bloody spit with his sleeve and then resting his hand on her cheek. "With the Asset and the Captain under my control, I only need you alive to help control them, so I can easily find out. The Chair will wipe away every memory you have of the two of them. And once that's done, when your mind is a blank slate, I can start _your_ reprogramming. Filling your mind with nothing but commands of obeying me. Doing whatever I tell you to. Letting me do _whatever_ I want to you. _Willingly_."

Vic's entire body suddenly grew ice cold as he threatened her. He really could do that to her. She had read the files, she had seen the videos, and she knew _exactly_ what that Chair was capable of. It could wipe away every single memory she had of the past few months, since she had found her two soulmates.

Not being able to remember teaching Steve how to do a bow tie so they could go to the opera. Not remembering showing Bucky how to change out the air filter on his bike so they could go riding together.

"There it is! _That's_ the look I've wanted to see on you face since the moment you arrived! Pure _fucking_ fear!" Rumlow joyfully exclaimed, pulling her out of her own thoughts by running his hand over her cheek. "I see you really _do_ know all about the Chair!"

There was nothing for her to say to that, because it was absolutely true. If she were to lose her memories, she might as well be dead, because that would be better than what Rumlow was threatening to do to her.

She may be scared of the Chair, but not this dickhead before her.

"That shriveled up limp dick of yours looks so much like a naked mole rat that the only way you can get laid now is to take someone elses' soulmate?"

Vic tilted her head up so that the impact of his fist caught her left cheek, instead of her eye, where it had been headed. Her vision turned to stars for a few moments as her body swayed, but she managed to stay upright due to the guards' grips and this time she at least remained conscious. Rumlow then painfully grabbed a handful of her hair, pulling her face back close to his.

"Seems that you _like_ to take a beating, which is really good…but, I don't want to look at _too many_ bruises while I _fuck_ you later!"

Rumlow then toss her head back and held out his empty hand towards one of the guards. A large red ball gag was placed into it, as he got a wide smile on his face.

"This will take care of that filthy mouth of yours, whore, until I put it to _much_ better use," he grinned, grabbing her jaw with his hand, digging his fingers and thumb into her cheeks, painfully forcing her mouth open, causing her to scream at not being able to stop him.

Slipping the hard red ball between her teeth, one of the guards grabbed her hair to force her to bend at the waist just enough for him to access the back of her head. This allowed Rumlow to yank tightly on the leather straps, pulling and buckling it as painfully taut as he could, the straps digging into her cheeks. Only when he was done did the guard pull her back into a standing position.

"Time to go, bitch," he informed her, looping his finger through a ring secured to the collar of the straitjacket that Vic hadn't even realized was there.

As he began to forcibly drag her from the room while the guards pushed her forward, Vic gave a quick glance over to the wall under the video camera, at the small area of dots and dashes, hoping that it would be enough for her warriors to find her before Rumlow made good on any of his threats.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So had badly are you yelling at your screen? A bad guy evil enough to make Victoria curse... As I told a reader, it will get worse for Victoria before it gets better, but I think you'll like the overall story arc.
> 
> Thanks for all the great reviews that have been coming in. I've heard a lot from new reviewers, which is always nice (hint), and of course the faithful reviewers, which tells me that I have kept up your expectation of this story.


	66. The Final Phone Call

Steve knew that he had been sitting and staring at the gum wrapper on the floor of the Quinjet near the center console for some time now. They still were about an hour's flight time back to the Tower. Everyone had already taken care of what they could during the flight, and now all that any of them could do was sit and wait.

Glancing to his left, he saw that Bucky had not moved from the spot he had chosen to brood in for the rest of the flight either. Using a hydraulic arm of the ramp for support, he had been silently staring down at the ramp for half an hour now. Viewing the rest of the Quinjet, he found that everyone seemed to have gone silent once the necessary phone calls had been made…all but one final call.

Tony had instantly called Pepper to check on her since she was in California for a corporate meeting. Pepper was fine and informed them that she and Happy would be returning home as soon as she could. Natasha had called Clint at home, who had gone silent for a few moments at hearing the news before Steve heard him telling Nat that he, Wanda, and Pietro would be at the Tower by the time that they got there.

Natasha had informed him of the lobby guard working for HYDRA and that they needed to enter unnoticed, to which Clint's response had been to laugh. Everyone knew how Clint had maintained an entrance into the Tower that Tony had never been able to find to keep him out.

Sam asked the group if they should try and get in touch with Bruce, Thor, and Vision by calling to Heimdall. But they all agreed that with the Rainbow Bridge opening that it would attract too much attention. Bruce had left with Thor and Vision after they had come for an information gathering expedition concerning the Infinity Stones, one of which was embedded in Vision's head.

Bruce had informed the group that he needed a sabbatical after a HYDRA encounter than had been rough on him, as they always seemed to be nowadays. Tony had readily agreed that Bruce needed a break since he and Victoria had to fix a large Hulk fist-sized dent in the side of the Quinjet.

But a few minutes ago, Steve thought about the last important call that he needed to make. And there was no other way to phrase it but…he was scared. It had taken a while for him to realize that with Victoria's phone being smashed and disabled, Wade was going to be calling him eventually to find out what was going on. He was just dreading having to be the one telling Wade how they had managed to lose Victoria. He and Bucky were probably going to take a pounding from her 'father'.

Reaching over to his storage locker, Steve opened the drawer and pulled out his cell phone. Scrolling down the list until he saw Wade's name, he kept telling himself that it was silly to be scared to make this call, but he knew that he was just fooling himself into doing it. Steve hit dial before he could talk himself out of it.

" _Hey there, Runt_ ," Wade's deep voice sounding happy to hear from him, which was going to make this even harder. " _What's going on_?"

"Hello there, Wade," Steve greeted him, sitting up a bit straighter in his seat as he spoke. From the corner of his eye, he saw Bucky's head spin around towards him at hearing Wade's name. "I'm calling to let you know that…there has been an incident."

There were _a lot_ of seconds ticking away with nothing coming through the phone before he heard, " _What the_ _ **fuck**_ _do you mean by_ _ **incident**_?"

"Sir…Victoria was taken, kidnapped, a few hours ago, while she was out riding her bicycle..." he managed to get out, but before he could continue any further, he heard the loud sound of something made of glass smashing.

As he strode over, Bucky winced upon hearing the sound, taking the seat right next to him so that he could be part of the conversation. The rest of the occupants of the Quinjet were trying to discretely listen in without trying to seem like they were...except for Tony, who was blatantly watching from his seat without a care for his action.

Sounding a bit calmer, Wade asked, " _How was she taken_?"

"Vic was ganged up on by three assailants before finally being subdued with a specialized stun gun that knocked her unconscious," Bucky supplied, simplifying the story. "But, it looked like she did manage to break the nose of one of them. Vic did not get taken easily."

There was a slight deep chuckling sound from the phone, " _How do you know all of this_?" he questioned.

"A bystander was able to film her abduction, and we retrieved it from the police file," Steve told him.

Then they heard the question they both had been dreading, in a deep menacing tone, " _And where the_ _ **fuck**_ _were the_ _ **two of you**_ _while this was happening_?"

Bucky, leaning his arms down onto his knees, supplying the answer to that one by saying, "We've been searching for the bastard responsible for taking her, so he had faulty intel leaked to us, leading us on a wild goose chase to Europe while he had his men grab Vic."

" ** _Who_** _fucking took her and_ _ **why**_?" he angrily asked.

"He's associated with HYDRA, a man named Rumlow, but he also goes by the name Crossbones," Steve answered.

"Vic is being held as leverage because of me," Bucky then said, causing Steve to stare over at him.

But Steve would _never_ consider what happened to Victoria to be Bucky's fault. Rumlow would do anything to anyone to whatever it was he wanted at the time. It just happened that this time Victoria had been his preference. He wanted Bucky…no, unfortunately he wanted the Asset back.

They had found out months ago about the manual being taken from a bank vault. The only reason for it to be of any use indicated that Rumlow possibly had a Chair in his possession. If that were true, he could wipe Bucky again, and this time _Rumlow_ would be his Handler. And having Victoria would give Rumlow the means to do a prisoner swap…Victoria for Bucky.

"He wants to fully control the Winter Soldier, and by having Vic, he will have exactly that," Bucky coldly continued.

There was a few more moments of silence from the phone, as well as himself after hearing Bucky's admission, before Wade spoke, " _Steve, is that_ _ **dumb shit**_ _saying what I think he means_?"

Steve looked over at Bucky with a slight grin on his face, glad that he and Wade were on the same page, moving the phone to his left ear so that Bucky could hear more clearly, even if it wasn't necessary. "Yes, Sir, I believe he does."

They listened as Wade's deep voice put on the most authoritative military tone either of them had ever heard, from anyone, " _The only thing I am_ _ **authorizing**_ _you to do, Solider, is to_ _ **get**_ _ **our girl**_ _ **back**_ _! If you give in to_ _ **any**_ _of their demands, then we will_ _ **never**_ _see_ _ **you**_ _, or **her**_ _, again! Is that_ _ **clear**_?"

Bucky seemed to ease a bit at the command, as if it somehow helped, before answering, "Yes, Sir."

" _Good! Now, what the_ _ **fuck**_ _are you doing to get Vic back_?" was exactly what they had both had been waiting to hear.

"Thanks to Victoria, we have a lead on one of the men who took her and how to find him. Once we arrive back in New York in less than an hour, we have a plan already set into motion to get her back," Steve informed him, not bothering to go into detail.

Tony, who had been _amazingly_ quiet as he watched them talk with Wade, then stepped over to where they were, standing right in front of them, and holding out his hand, indicating that he wanted the phone.

"Wade, hold on a second," Steve requested before passing it over, wondering what was about to happen.

"Hi there, Sir, it's Tony...yes, still arrogant...yes, still with that hot red head, which is actually why I wanted to speak with you. Pepper is flying back right now to New York from the west coast, and I can have the plane diverted to pick you up, if you want...Because I _own_ the plane...Great, one of her minions will be contacting you to set it up. See you soon..." Tony then quizzically looked between him and Bucky before continuing with a large smile… "Which one is the runt?...yes, I _am_ still a fucking genius...I can figure out how to do that."

Tony, with a grin, held the phone in his hand for a moment before hitting the button for the speaker. Steve couldn't stop himself from smiling at the exchange. There was something about Wade's blunt gruffness that he really liked.

" _Who else is there_?" they all heard Wade ask.

"It's Tasha, and Sam is here also," Nat replied, coming over to lean on the center console, Sam joining her. Steve had never heard her use that name for herself before.

" _I want_ _ **everyone there**_ _to keep an eye on Buck! If he even_ _ **seems**_ _to be considering making a deal with this_ _ **bastard**_ _, you take him_ _ **down**_ _…_ _ **painfully**...and lock his ass up until **I** get there to **deal** with him._ _Do all of you_ _ **understand**_?"

Steve watched as all of their friends swore that they would protect Bucky from himself, making sure he didn't do anything stupid before they finally hung up the phone. Tony then called Pepper to tell her the change in plans and text her Wade's contact information.

Turning, he saw that Bucky was a bit slumped over, looking as if the situation was hitting him hard. Reaching out, he placed his arm on Bucky's back, trying to offer comfort as well as hoping that it didn't end up with him receiving a punch.

In a low voice, so that the others could not hear, Bucky asked, "What happens if we can't find a way to get Vic back, Steve?"

"Do you really believe that if you agreed to turn yourself over to be wiped, that Rumlow would just let Victoria go?" he asked back. "There is no way he would perform an honest prisoner swap. You know this."

He had worked with Rumlow for a few years. He had been brutal back then with some of his methods, but since taking the name Crossbones, his activities had become vicious. Rumlow had absolutely no problem with killing anyone who stood in his way of accomplishing a task that would benefit him.

"Maybe not, but if there is a _chance_ for Vic to be safe, with you, I would give in to any demand for her," Bucky admitted to him, confirming Wade's suspicions that he would turn himself over.

"It will _not_ come to that," he confidently told him, gripping his shoulder firmly, "We've already spent too many decades apart, and it will _not_ happen again. I'm not letting _either of you_ go."

* * *

Bassett could not believe how boring the rest of the day was being. Since arriving at the Tower after dropping the irritating prisoner off hours ago, he had done nothing but the usual lobby security as if nothing had happened. Victoria's disappearance had not been noticed yet, and if it had, security had not been informed, which would deviate from normal protocol.

When he had arrived, Bassett had headed to the locker room and swiped his card to log in to the system, the same as punching in a time card. He had run into Franklin Dussault, his immediate shift boss, as he was finishing changing into their suit uniforms, who questioned him as to why he was arriving late. Bassett had known that today was they day they were making their move, so a week ago, he had put a note in to personnel that he had a dentist appointment this morning, to help explain his absence.

Dussault had checked the file and found the note, satisfying his curiosity. He then informed Dussault that he had two cavities that would have to be filled over the next two weeks once appointments were set up. In case he was needed at other times to help with the Victoria situation, this would be a perfect, logical excuse. Bassett had been quite proud of himself for thinking of that.

Now, thinking he heard something familiar, he walked over towards the glass wall that gave a good view up to where the landing platform was for the Quinjet. Watching it come in for a landing, he could barely contain the smile of picturing them finding that annoying woman missing.

He had despised Victoria since the first time they ' _met'_ at the press conference. Next she almost got him fired personally by Tony Stark. _Then_ she had turned out to be their damn soulmate. When Weiss had informed him that they were going to take her, he had actually volunteer to assist. He wanted to make sure that she ended up gone.

Continuing to circle around the lobby as usual for a couple of minutes, an alert notice finally pinged on his earpiece.

" _Attention, security compromised. All lobby guards please escort all visitors in lobby to the exterior of the building. Lockdown will commence in three minutes_ ," the automated female AI voice informed them.

He, along with the other guards nearby, quickly hustled the few people out of the building. When the last person was out of the door, he heard the automated locking of the doors, indicating the AI was watching and knew what was going on.

" _All lobby guards, please report to the security room immediately for a briefing_ ," he heard the voice say again.

Joining the group of other guards who were wondering aloud exactly what type of security compromise had happened, they hurried to the room to receive their next set of orders. There was a group of ten of them total, standing and waiting until Dussault finally stepped off a nearby elevator.

"We have a missing persons, high priority," Dussault informed them, looking down at a tablet. "We need to first do a building sweep to verify she is not injured and unable to respond. Each of you will be assigned a floor, meeting a guard normally assigned to that floor to partner up with to form groups of two. Since she has full access to the entire Tower, all floors including the secure levels must be checked."

Bassett knew that for a missing person's report, this was standard protocol, so the plan was working nicely. Dussault showed everyone a picture of Victoria on his tablet, letting them know who they were looking for, but everyone knew who she was already. Then they were assigned their individual floors, amusing him when it turned out that he was being granted access to one of the higher private floors, as were a few other guards.

Weiss had just been mentioning that HYDRA had never been able to get admittance to these floors that Stark deemed the Avengers private sanctuary. The few guards heading up walked over to the private elevator to take them there. Once he got to the floor, he would find some way to distract his partner so that he could alert Weiss that her disappearance had been discovered.

One by one, the other guards stepped out of the elevator to meet up with that floor's guard to search their floor. He had only been given a floor color of Level Red, so he was not sure what was located on that floor. But standard protocol was to search every room, even closets, for a missing person. He wondered if he might be able to get photographs to give to HYDRA of the layout. They had paid him a lot of money for just watching and giving him pitiful information on Victoria, so what would they pay for actual floor plans and content information?

As the door opened to Level Red where he had been assigned, stepping out he saw a security desk a few feet in front of him with a guard sitting in the chair looking down at something. Past him was a narrow corridor with concrete walls, heavy metal doors every so often. He would have to wait to pull his phone out since the other guard would be able to see him and may question him about the text.

Taking a few steps towards the desk as the elevator closed behind him, Bassett tried to imagine what items Stark had hidden behind these doors.

"I'm here to help with the security sweep for the missing person," he informed the male guard sitting down.

After the man raised his head, it took a few moments for it to set in on _who_ Bassett was looking at: Hawkeye, dressed in a guard's uniform.

He looked up and greeted Bassett with a twisted smile.

"Great! Because I _know_ that you can _definitely_ help!" Hawkeye happily stated while standing up.

Bassett then went to turn, to try and get back to the elevator, hoping to somehow get out of the building, or at least let HYDRA know he had been discovered.

But as he finished his turn, there was already a red-headed assassin standing there smiling at him with her arm extending towards him.

Bassett could not do anything as the Widow's Bite struck him in the chest, knocking him out.

* * *

Watching the monitor, Bucky could barely contain the urge to just walk in the room and start beating the man until he informed them where he had helped to take Vic. Unfortunately, Steve had expressly forbidden him from doing so, before disappearing to talk with Tony and Natasha. Sometimes that Punk knew him _too_ well.

The man, Bassett, had not been unconscious for very long, but by the time he woke up, they had already moved him to a secured interrogation room on the very level he had believed he had been sent to search. Currently he was handcuffed to a chair that was bolted down to the floor in the adjoining room.

Remembering how HYDRA used to operate, as well as the agent from Christmas, Steve had FRIDAY run a medical scan of Bassett to see if he possessed a cyanide-capped tooth so that he could kill himself instead of being interrogated, but the man did not have one.

Which was fortunate for Bassett, since Bucky had been ready to remove it himself…while Bassett was awake…and without any pain medication…using a pair of pliers from Vic's very own toolbox.

Hawkeye was already silently standing in the corner guarding him at Steve's instruction, not trusting him to obey his ' _stay_ ' command. Wanda and Pietro had come with Clint to help retrieve Vic and were quietly waiting for the interrogation to begin.

The only reason he may not as brutal as he could be would be for them...he didn't want them exposed to what HYDRA had taught him to do when it came to extracting information. If necessary, he would order them to go upstairs until it was over.

Finally, Steve and the others returned. Steve stumbled with his steps for only a moment upon seeing him before quickly recovering. While he had been waiting for them, Bucky prepared himself for the upcoming interrogation. He was already wearing his uniform, but now he applied the eye-black over the entire eye area, as well as securing his face mask into place. With a final scruffy shaking of his hair with his fingers, Bucky allowed the tangle mess to fall over the rest of his exposed face. He wanted to make sure that the _full_ Winter Solider intimidating look was in effect… _the_ reason he had the replacement mask made for him.

"FRIDAY is in the process of trying to get his phone decrypted now, but it may take some time. They used a very high-level encryption program," Tony informed them, looking down at the monitor, as if he couldn't make eye contact with Bucky, instead watching the traitorous guard struggling to free himself. "You will probably get answers quicker from him."

"That's my plan," Bucky simply stated before turning to glare at Steve, "So, can we get the hell in there and find out where Vic is?"

"No head shots...we need him lucid to be able to answer our questions," Steve sighed, knowing that there was a good chance that violence was a foregone conclusion. He gave Steve a sly smile, not that he could see, but not verbally guaranteeing anything.

They both headed over to the door, Steve punching in the access code. Everyone else gathered around the monitor, all of them wanting a view of the show that was probably going to happen.

As the door opened, Bassett stopped his struggling and looked up at them as they entered the room, Steve first with him next and shutting the door hard behind him, letting it ring slightly in the concrete room. It delighted him that the man's face dropped while turning a pale shade of white, as he saw the two of them coming to stand before him. He took a hard gulp before he was able to speak.

"What's going on? Why am I here?" Bassett squeaked out while looking between them, but mostly at Steve, who was on his right. Bassett could barely make eye contact with him every so often.

"You are here to tell us where you took Victoria," Steve firmly stated, as they both crossed their arms at the same time, standing intimidatingly over the man, just a few feet away.

Suddenly, a small sense of déjà vu came over him. He flashed back to months ago, when they had been standing just like this, but at that time, it had been Vic they had been trying to intimidate. But instead, she had looked up at them from his bed and called them _adorable_ , not the least bit of fright on her face at seeing them. Bucky knew that with the look that Bassett was giving them, that he definitely did _not_ feel the same way.

"I have no idea what you are talking about! I'm supposed to be helping with the search for her," he managed to choke out, tugging at the cuffs a bit, almost trying to shrink into the chair a bit.

"We _know_ that you were involved in kidnapping Victoria for _Rumlow_ this morning," Steve informed him.

"I was at the dentist this morning, not kidnapping someone," Bassett tried to argue back, lying right to their faces.

Bucky was already tired of this.

Taking a few steps forward, Bucky grabbed a hold of the man's right forearm with his hand, lifting it up as much as he could with the cuffs in place. Using his left hand, he grabbed a hold of the shoulder seam of his shirt and ripped it downwards, shredding it open. There, on his now exposed bare forearm, were the teeth marks that Vic had left from when she had bitten down onto him during the altercation.

At seeing the unique mark that could not be argued away, Bucky could hear Steve grumbling angrily behind him. He, on the other hand, remained silent.

Changing his grasp to the man's hand, he took Bassett's right pinkie finger between his left index finger and thumb. Giving just a slight bit of pressure, he twisted it to the side, a direction that fingers were _never_ supposed to move in. Everyone watching would be able to hear the snapping of his bone in the small room just before Bassett's satisfying screams of pain began to echo off of the walls.

Bucky moved his fingers to take a hold of the ring finger on Bassett's hand while Steve calmly asked from behind him, "Now, as I was asking, _where_ did you take _Victoria_?"

"I'll tell! I'll tell! Just get him away from me!" Bassett pitifully screamed through his tears at Steve, trying to move as far away from Bucky as possible, but unable to break free from his grasp. "Get him away…" his pleas melted into whimpers.

"The pinky was for lying to us," Bucky coldly informed him. Before Bassett could comprehend what was about to happen, he twisted and broke his ring finger. "That was for kicking Vic in the head."

The screams were almost deafening in the small confined room, but Bucky saw that Steve just stood his ground, not complaining or even scowling at him for the action. Moving to stand right before the creep, Bucky placed his hands over the man's wrists, gripping them tightly, as he leaned in threateningly to talk with him, his mask and black eyes dominating his entire line of vision.

"I suggest you make sure that every question put your way is given a very thorough answer, with as much detail as possible," he harshly informed him, "because otherwise, I am going to enjoy _continuing_ to play my own version of _Ten Little Piggies_."

* * *

**Two Minutes Thirteen Seconds Later**

"Well, that didn't take long," Clint told everyone else, turning away from the monitor as Steve went to leave the room, having gotten the necessary information as to the location Bassett had delivered Vic to, along with an estimate of the number of HYDRA agents possibly there.

The man had begged for Bucky to be sent outside before he would actually talk, which he had reluctantly done only after Steve requested him to step out. He had not spoken much, but when he did Bucky's voice dripped with Russian accents, making him sound even more threatening.

"He's nothing more than a pawn, a low level crony," Tony responded typing away at the computer to look up the warehouse that Rumlow had been using across the city as a base, right under their noses. "Think of the henchmen who worked for the bad guys on the old Batman TV show years ago. Cannon fodder."

"Nice analogy," Sam replied slightly sarcastically from his chair.

Natasha and he then moved to hover right over Tony's shoulders, looking at the blueprint of the building's exterior. There was nothing special about it, a pretty standard design for that industrial area, not too far from the docks. Tony then began to pull up the structural plans submitted to the city during construction, showing them the layout of the interior.

"Looks like we have what we need," he commented after getting a good look at them. Clint glanced over at Nat, who just nodded her head in agreement. Speaking to the entire room, Clint said, "We'll grab our gear and head out now."

From the far corner, where Bucky had been quietly stewing since being kicked out of room by Steve, he only received a grunt. He could only imagine the turmoil that he was going through at having Vic taken that way. They had only just found her, after decades of having a cruel life forced upon him. Everyone in the room was determined to do their best to help get Vic home, safe and sound. Luckily, thanks to Fury, he had never had such an event with Laura, but Tony had with Pepper, so he knew that Tony could sympathize with him. It was a strange connection for the two of them to have, considering their background.

Natasha walked over to stand before Bucky and confidently told him,"We'll send back intel on everything you need to get inside, and to Victoria's cell quickly."

"I trust that you will, Spider," he replied, using an old code name for her. He could still hear a Russian accent pulling through his words, making Clint wonder how much he may have relapsed since this had all started a few hours ago. Nat then placed her hand on his shoulder, giving him a silent nod of understanding.

As he and Nat made their way to stock up on supplies in the mission prep room, well out of earshot of the super-soldier, he decided to ask her.

"Do you think that Bucky may have a full relapse during the incursion?"

Natasha was silent for a lot longer than he had hoped she would be before telling him, "If he does, at least he will be on our side this time. I think his love for Vic will keep him focused on the task, if not manageable."

Grabbing a fully loaded quiver and an upgraded bow courtesy of Tony, Clint guessed that was the best they were going to get.


	67. Incursion

**Rumlow's Hideout**  
**Main Warehouse Area**

Steve was having a hard time keeping track of Bucky as they moved through the warehouse due to the fact that Bucky was steadily moving forward without waiting for him. The HYDRA agents kept coming out of different locations, some from even behind them since they were pushing ahead so fast without fully clearing the area first.

More than once, he watched as an arrow stopped someone approaching Bucky from his rear that even Steve had not been able to get to, and if Bucky _did_ know about them, he must have anticipated they would be dealt with by one of his colleagues. At least Steve hoped so.

Clint and Natasha had gotten to the warehouse not long after leaving the Tower and set up surveillance. They had informed them that there was indeed a large number of agents inside, but they were never able to get to the point where they could get eyes on Victoria. There were too many guards wandering the hallways in the area where Bassett had told them that her cell was located in.

They never could confirm that Rumlow was at the location either, but they knew that he had been in one of the larger offices. It was possible that he was still inside, and unfortunately, not too far away from Victoria's cell.

Therefore, the group had agreed to split up and take different actions to deal with the warehouse and the agents inside.

Pietro, since he was the only one able to, was in charge of the entire exterior perimeter of the warehouse, preventing anyone from escaping or entering as backup. Clint had stayed in the roost he had found high up in the dark metal rafters, which gave him an excellent view of the entire open space used for the trucks to move about in for being loaded. Sam, along with Redwing, were going after agents mixed in with the numerous stacked containers and boxes.

Natasha, Tony, and Wanda had what Steve currently considered the second most important task of this mission: getting to the office where Rumlow had last been spotted and containing him. Bassett had informed them of both Victoria's and Rumlow's last known locations using the floor plans that Tony had been able pull from building records. Because of that, they knew the route to take to get to Victoria's cell, which was exactly where they were currently heading.

The most important task of this mission.

Neither one of them were going to leave this task for any of their other teammates. Not because they didn't trust them, but they had to see her, to know that Victoria was alright for themselves, even if it meant letting the others deal with Rumlow.

Now, as they were about to finally make it to the doorway into the hall that would lead them to her cell, the worry that he had from earlier started to creep in again.

Due to the closeness of Rumlow's last location and Victoria's cell, both he and Bucky had talked about the possibility of him being able to reach her _before_ they were able to, and use her as a hostage. He knew _that_ was why Bucky was so determined to keep moving, and not let _anything_ slow him down.

Unfortunately, he could not blame him.

As Bucky passed by the van which had taken Victoria, parked near the door leading to the halls, he obviously didn't bother to look to the side, because if he had, Bucky would have at least seen the gun now being aimed at his back. Steve swiftly threw his shield, hitting the exposed gun from the agent's hands and knocking it to the ground. The shield then bounced off of the wall, beelining towards Bucky, who just casually reached out, grabbing a hold of the edge with his left hand, then swinging it backwards while using it to bash the agent unconscious.

He finally turned back to look at Steve for the first time since entering the building. He could barely make out any of Bucky's eyes, he was so focused on the task at hand, his hair covering his face.

"Think you could _try_ and be a bit more careful?" Steve asked as he strode forward to where Bucky had actually stopped for a moment, retrieving his offered shield. "Victoria's going to be mad at you if you're injured again when we get to her."

That seemed to make Bucky take stock for just a moment. A few months back during a mission, an agent had gotten a shot off after Bucky was trying to clear an area he headed into alone, and the hit had gotten him on his back right shoulder. It had not been that bad of a wound, the bullet passed straight through and only required stitches, thanks to their healing factor.

But, when Victoria had arrived at medical and seen him injured, it was a sight to behold. She calmly listened to what had happened before laying in on him for not staying with his teammates, not paying attention to his surroundings, and then, _refused_ to kiss him for twenty-four hours, which, of course, turned out to be the most devastating part for Bucky.

Steve had barely been able contain a smile as he had watched the scene from the hallway. He had listened on the flight home at how Bucky had told him he was fine, and that Victoria would ' _kiss all the hurt away_ ', with a cheesy grin plastered on his face the entire time. So, before Victoria had gone inside of the room, he _may_ have let it _slip_ as to what Bucky had mentioned…on purpose.

Then, once Victoria learned that FRIDAY had a recording of the fight, the next day she had made Bucky run the scenario using LMD's while using proper clearing procedures, all the while with her sitting off to the side in _very skimpy_ shorts and her blue tank top with his red star on it...while sucking on a lollypop.

It had taken five runs for him to properly focus without being distracted by Victoria's presence. Once her twenty-four hour time limit was up later that day, Bucky had returned to the apartment after a long run around the park, lifted Victoria up off of the couch from behind and carried her off to his bedroom, disappearing with her for three hours.

But since then, he had always been much more on alert during missions, until now.

"Then move it, Punk," he heard Bucky growl out through his mask. If he had to guess, he would say that Bucky was more determined now than he had been back in D.C. But then again, so was he. He just wanted to make sure that they _both_ got to her in one piece.

Off to the far right, he heard a small explosion, which meant that Tony had reached his entrance point close to Rumlow. Past the door to the office Rumlow hopefully was still in, the hallway came to a dead end. So instead of following the hallway with them, Tony had just suggested making his own entrance. Steve gave his group a few seconds to make it inside before questioning him.

He and Bucky had just been about to enter before gunfire began to splinter through the open doorway from inside, forcing them to take shelter to the side of the door's frame, so Steve called over the earcom, "Tony, do you have eyes on Rumlow yet?"

" _Not yet, but the hallway here is clear. Have you reached Vic yet_?" Tony inquired.

"There's a bit of interference but they shouldn't take long," Steve answered as Bucky continued returning fire with his guns from up high while he ducked low with his shield in front, giving them cover as they passed through the doorway. Before they had even made it halfway down the hall, all of the agents had been eliminated.

Making the necessary turns at the intersections, they finally laid eyes on the door to Victoria's cell, down the hall on the left, at the end of another intersection. More gunfire came from the far end of the hallway, but they continued to move forward as they had been doing.

Bucky switched out his weapons, making quick work of the remaining agents trying to hold them down. Still moving forward with him and his shield in front, he noted that Bucky was now also focusing on their rear, protecting them.

As they were mere feet away from her door, Steve abruptly stopped in his tracks at what he saw on the ground, causing Bucky to actually bump into his backside. There was a _large_ pool of blood coming from underneath of a door…Victoria's door.

"Why aren't you moving?" he heard the voice behind him asking, but he didn't want to answer...no, he couldn't answer.

Bucky then moved to his right side, exposing himself to any agent that could appear from down the hall, but it also allowed him a clear view of the door…and what was there. Before he could say anything, Bucky took the final few steps forward to the door.

Grabbing hold of the handle with his left hand, and without even bothering to turn the knob, with a scream Bucky just ripped the entire door off of the hinges, tossing it behind him down the other hallway.

Steve waited, glued to the spot, for Bucky to tell him…to hear the phrase he had been dreading since seeing the blood…but it never came.

Instead, Bucky stood there looking into the room, silent, but not breaking down either.

"Steve…what the hell?" he simply asked, turning to look at him, sounding questioning as opposed to devastated.

Stepping forward, Bucky took a step to the side to allow him to get a better look into the cell.

The first thing he noticed was that the blood was coming from a dead guard's impaled neck lying on the floor next to the door, not from Victoria. There were the remnants of a simple metal bed frame ruined and scattered around the room, with the mattress off to the side. The only sign Victoria had been there were her shoes and socks, dark blue with little white stars…a pair he had recently gotten for her. She had been so thrilled to get them, saying they matched his uniform.

"Avengers, does _anyone_ have eyes on Victoria? She is _not_ in the cell," Steve asked into his comm, trying to figure out what happened in there. None of the others had gotten here first, and if they had, they would have informed them of retrieving Victoria over the earcoms.

" _Negative, Cap_ ," Hawkeye informed him, having a good view of the most of the warehouse.

" _No, only a few agents trying to escape_ ," Pietro replied from outside.

"Victoria!" Steve then called out as loud as he could, in case they had just moved her to one of the other rooms nearby. "Buck, start checking!" he demanded, pointing at a door behind him while Steve moved to the one closest to him.

* * *

**Warehouse's Office**

As the video ended, Wanda finally was able to step away from where she had been frozen while watching the activity in Victoria's cell. She had barely been able to contain herself from crying at seeing what Victoria was put through. None of them had expected to see that. They had expected Victoria to be scared and frightened.

But the behavior she showed was not the fun-loving person Wanda had gotten to know for the past few months.

Natasha had plugged FRIDAY into the security system as soon as they had reached the office, scanning for Victoria and Rumlow on the footage stored. And unfortunately, they had learned that Rumlow had not kept Vic here for long. Watching the video, Tony had been cursing the entire time, while Natasha decided to do her cursing in Russian.

"We have to let them know," Natasha then flatly stated.

"Do you realize what could possibly happen when they see _that_?" Tony asked, pointing at the monitor. "Not only are _they_ going to lose it…but we are going to lose _them!_ "

"And you think the best course of action is to _lie_ to them by omitting that the video even exist?" Wanda asked. "No. We have to let them see it, to know that she is still alive."

"You know we are right," Natasha said as she went to reset the video to when the van had arrived. She heard Tony sigh, knowing he actually agreed, but she saw that he was also genuinely worried about his two friends' emotional states after seeing that video.

"Why was Vic singing those two songs over and over?" Tony asked, more curious about that part of the video than she had been.

"Those were the songs Victoria was to use in case she had a problem while she moved around the country. _Jailhouse Rock_ means that she is somewhere she doesn't want to be, while _Hound Dog_ means that un-friendlies are in the area," Natasha informed them as they both looked at her curious as to why she knew that. She then added, "Wade told me about them."

"That's the strangest fatherly advice I've ever heard of," Tony then stated.

"We need to get them in here, before Rumlow can get any further away," Wanda pointed out, Natasha agreeing by nodding her head.

Tony sighed since he knew they were right. "Fine, but only because _they_ are _here_ and can trash this place and not my fabulous Tower," he joked before turning his earcom on to transmit again, sounding much more solemn when requesting, "Steve, Bucky…come to the office."

* * *

"If Vic's not here, then where is she?" Bucky asked him, the confusion evident on his face even with the mask. They had only checked a few rooms, but there was no sign of her. He was just standing there without answer before their earcoms sounded.

" _Steve, Bucky…come to the office_ ," Tony requested in a very calm, emotionless voice over the earcoms. They stared at each other for only a second before rapidly heading in his direction.

Stopping at the door, they found Tony, Nat, and Wanda inside, with no sign of Rumlow or Victoria. Tony was standing in front of a computer screen, a frozen shot on it. It seemed to be the main area of the warehouse, by the van they had just passed earlier.

"What do you have?" Steve asked taking a few steps forward, Bucky moving with him on his left flank.

"They moved her. They moved Vic…hours ago, before we arrived in New York…even before we knew she was missing," Tony explained flatly.

Steve looked down at the monitor again, seeing no sign of her on the screen.

"Where did they take her? What does the video show?" he asked taking another step forward towards the monitor, to which Tony stepped in front of to block them from getting a good look at.

"We don't know where they took her," Tony informed them while holding his hands up, indicating that he wanted them to stop moving, which made his chest grow tight with worry.

"What's on the video, Tony?" Bucky then growled at him. Glancing over, he saw that Wanda's face was pale, and her eyes looked slightly bloodshot, as if she were upset. Nat had even moved away from where she had been standing when they had entered the room, giving them a wider berth. "What is on that video?!"

Before anyone could say anything, Bucky stepped around him, grabbing Tony in his suit and tossing him out of the way. Tony would have landed on his back a few feet away if Wanda had not used her powers to ease his flight at the same time that Bucky hit the play button on the security system. Steve pensively stepped forward to see also.

Standing next to each other, they watched as Rumlow approached the van, looking inside for a bit before Victoria was roughly tossed on the ground. Hearing her deal with, no…antagonize…Rumlow in that sweet southern accent made a panic run through him, especially as he watched when Rumlow pulled the gun on her for the insult.

But instead of shooting Victoria, he had violently kicked her and then, as he walked away, she _laughed_ at him, _cursing_ at him. _Real cursing_. Not the adorable words or phrases she normally used.

This was not the same beautiful creature they had grown to love. This was the side of her that Wade had warned them about…the one who may deal with a situation in an unexpected way. Victoria was not frightened in the least at being kidnapped, the way they had thought she would be. Instead…she was angry.

As the image of Victoria then moved to one of her in the cell, they both stood before the monitor, their eyes never leaving her image. Once the guards had release her wrists from the cuffs, she ripped part of her shirt off, then wrapped it around her arm. He thought it strange, but he had too much going through his mind to question it.

After kicking at the door uselessly for a while, Victoria then proceeded to only lay on the ground, singing the songs they knew the hidden meaning to before the video began moving fast forward a bit to shorten the time.

"Why is she doing that?" Steve questioned out loud to nobody in particular.

" _Miss Victoria was having one of her panic attacks, Captain_ ," FRIDAY's voice then informed him through his earcom.

"What do you mean by ' _one'_ of her panic attacks?" Bucky asked before he could.

" _When Miss Victoria is upset, she likes to lay on the ground like that to help calm herself down_ ," she answered.

"When does this happen and why?" Steve's eyes never left her image.

" _She has them after the team leaves for a mission, like yesterday. Following her routine, she will soon feel the need to hit something_ ," the AI said, startling him a bit.

"Why weren't we informed of this?" Bucky angrily asked.

" _Miss Victoria pointed out, in her own words that, quote, '..if Steve or Bucky were distracted during a mission because of being worried about my well-being, their proficiency during battle would be compromised, and therefore one or both of them would be a liability to the team.' I agreed with her assessment, as well as her suggestion to not inform either of you_."

Bucky then swung out with his left arm, punching a nearby file cabinet and putting a hole right through it. Victoria had been trying to protect them from worrying about her, in her own strange way. Turning around, he stared at the other three occupants of the room.

"Did _any_ of you know about this?" he asked.

Two of the three of them vigorously shook their heads no, but Natasha stood static, her eyes locked on his.

"Nat?" he simply asked.

"I didn't know that it was a _normal_ occurrence," she admitted, looking at him. "That first night, when Vic got your message about meeting the two of you for the first time, she laid down in her apartment. I thought that she was just nervous. She then went to the gym, but I had _no_ idea about _any_ of the other times."

Then he started to remember the incident in the sugar cane field, the only other time he knew of Victoria being upset. When they had found her, she had smashed up the immediate area, but she'd also had dirt on her back. For those few quiet minutes before her scream, she had probably been lying on the ground.

They had seen…they had just not known!

Bucky then bumped him on his arm to get his attention as the video playback slowed back down. Steve turned back to the monitor where Victoria was now rolling toward the door, as if looking out from under the crack, listening to something. They intently watched as she made the cursing comment about not being taken from there. She must have heard the guards talking about moving her.

When she eventually got up and went into the corner of the room in the blind spot underneath of the camera, he and Bucky looked at each other, trying to figure out what she was doing. Then she returned to the floor. After a bit longer, they watched her stand up again, speak to the cot, and then proceeded to smash the thing into pieces, in a violent streak like they had never seen, just like FRIDAY had said she would have.

Until she finally picked up the rods she had dislodged from the frame, he had thought it was just random violence. But instead, she had improvised weapons the only way she could.

"FRIDAY, fast forward the video to the next section," Tony said from behind them. They watched as the minutes passed quickly, Victoria staying in her stance, testing her weapons, waiting for something to happen. Then the video returned to normal.

He and Bucky watched horrified as Victoria called out to Rumlow, taunting him.

Beyond knowing Rumlow's name and hearing a partial description of some of the attacks he had done, they did not talk about work or their enemies with her. When they were together, the rest of what they dealt with slipped away and did not matter. Maybe that had been a mistake on their part. If they had told Victoria of what Rumlow had done and was capable of, _maybe_ she would have been more cautious.

Then she started to do the strangest thing. Victoria began to sing as she bounced on her feet, eagerly anticipating the fight to come. Not worried at all about what may happen. She knew that they planned on moving her and that she had to stay here for them to be able to find her. She was prepared to fight Rumlow to delay him, giving them time to rescue her.

But they had been too late.

As the video continued and the guard then began entering the room, they both watched as Victoria defended herself. After the first guard went down, he actually heard an approving grunt from Bucky. Even with the situation she was in, they were proud and impressed with her taking out the guard. The next guard in riot gear entering the room worried him, especially when Victoria quickly dropped her weapons.

But as he watched her maneuver, Steve's eyes grew wide in recognition of her accomplishment.

"Vic just copied my move," Bucky quietly said.

The only time she would have seen that would have been at Thanksgiving, during the parade, before they had really known about how she learned to do new things. He had never considered her having copied Bucky's trick from seeing it the one time, even after they knew more about her.

Victoria then disposed of the guard by shoving him out the door and picked the metal rods back up. When the next two guards came in, Steve heard Wanda take a slight inhale, already knowing what they were about to see.

He knew the Taser Rods the moment the guards took them out. Rumlow and the others from the elevator at the Triskelion had used the same weapon on him, but it had not had a great effect thanks to his serum.

Neither of them expected what they next watched, after the first hit she took to the arm…Victoria's spinning move and toss, killing the guard they had found. His head dropped for only a moment, his heart stricken at the fact that Victoria had been put into a situation where she had to do that.

By the time he looked up at hearing her scream, she was still being struck in the chest with the Taser Rod. Unfortunately, Victoria did not fare as well against it as he had. They watched her gasping for air while stumbling against the wall, as Rumlow finally came into view, Bucky's arm going off again as he formed a fist.

But when Victoria was head-butted and fell to the ground, Bucky finally lost it.

The damaged file cabinet next to him went flying across the room and embedded itself into the wall close to where the others were standing. Luckily Wanda put up a barrier to keep them from getting hit with debris from the impact.

Steve watched horrified as the guards then began to place the straitjacket on her, Rumlow straddling her prone body to sit on her, running his hands over her face and hair.

She was so still…Victoria was unconscious.

There was no way she would allow Rumlow to touch her like that without fighting. Bucky could barely manage to look at the video now.

"FRIDAY, pause the video," Tony instructed, to which the AI automatically responded.

Quickly turning to face him, "Why did you do that!?" Steve angrily asked.

"It may be best if you did not watch the next part," Natasha answered for Tony, looking and sounding like the calm, cold Spider she had been trained to be. If she were saying that, then there had to be something even worse about to happen than they had already seen.

Turning to look at Bucky first, who gave him a silent nod of approval, his blacken eyes moved to the video screen as Steve commanded, "FRIDAY, resume playback."

Bucky and him stood there, sickened as Rumlow reached between her legs, intimately touching her before finishing with the straps. They then watched the next interaction between Victoria and Rumlow…

 _"…show of yours got me hard, whore…"_  
"…bruises on your face, you're still very sexy…"  
"…what would happen if I put you into the Chair…"  
"…a blank slate, I can start _**your** _ _reprogramming…"_  
"…Doing whatever I tell you to…"  
"…Letting me do whatever I want to you. Willingly…"  
"…look at _**too many** _ _bruises while I_ _**fuck** _ _you later…"_

…before the playback ended with him forcibly dragging her from the room. He watched as Victoria turned one final time to face the camera, her eyes seeming to focus on it as the video paused.

The entire room was silent. Even Bucky's arm was silent as he stood frozen next to him, contemplating the harrowing threats Rumlow had made.

Steve calmly stood up straight, casting his head down at the floor, his entire body having grown numb. Now he understood why they had not wanted them to watch the video.

A part of him wished that he hadn't.

Taking a step away from the desk, Steve walked towards the door, stopping to pick his shield up off of the floor where he had absentmindedly dropped it after entering the room and questioning the video. Slinging it over his back into place, he walked through the door without a word.

No one said a thing, or even tried to stop him.

Not even Bucky, who had not moved from in front of the screen, his head down, hair hiding his face, and his hands on the desk for support.

Walking out of that room, leaving his other soulmate to deal with this alone...it was the hardest decision he'd ever had to make. He knew exactly what he was emotionally going through. But there was no way to help him, to console Bucky, since Steve was feeling the exact same thing.

Utter heartbreaking loss.

Heading back down the hallway without a plan, Steve found himself outside of Victoria's cell, staring down at the pool of blood again. From the man that she had killed trying to get back to them. From the human life she'd taken in hopes of escaping. And it had been for nothing.

Stepping inside past the dead guard, Steve stood in the exact same spot that she had waited in, hoping they would show up and rescue her. Where she waited for him as he failed her...just as he had failed Bucky. Placing his hands on the wall for support, he finally allowed himself to lose it. His body slumped kneeling on the floor in defeat…his eyes filled with unshed tears.

Victoria was gone.

He picked up her socks, remembering her smile at seeing them for the first time, and he began to wring them in his hands absently.

They had been trying to catch up with Rumlow for years, and as usual, they were once again too late. And this time it would be Victoria who paid the price, not an innocent civilian that they had no connection to. There was no telling where he would have taken her or how far away she might be by now. Had Rumlow possibly made good of his threat and already put Victoria in the Chair? It turned his stomach thinking that she may have been inflicted with that kind of torture.

For Bucky, it was probably worse, since he knew _exactly_ what it would feel like.

Then his stomach began to churn as he thought of Rumlow's other threat…of raping Victoria. Rumlow had touched her, groped her, kissed her. Victoria was now helpless to stop him from doing anything he wanted to her. There was not a doubt in his mind that Rumlow would go through with his threat. Rumlow hated him and wanted revenge so badly for what had happened to him in D.C.…and he would do anything to get it…including raping Victoria. It had already been hours since he had taken her away from them...

Had Rumlow already…?

Victoria…!

Steve then felt the first warm tear roll down his cheek.

He had been worried about Rumlow only wanting to have control over Bucky…of the Winter Soldier. He…they…had not even considered the possibility that Rumlow would want more. That he would want control of _him_ also. For the first time, Steve truly understood how Bucky felt when he had said on the Quinjet that he would agree to _any demand_ that Rumlow made for Victoria's safe return.

Because at that moment, there was no doubt in Steve's mind that he would do _exactly_ the same thing to know that she was unharmed…and untouched.

Steve wasn't sure how long he knelt there on the floor of the cell, but eventually the tears stopped falling and his face was once again dry. The voices on his earcom had been buzzing about agent cleanup, and searching the warehouse for any clue as to where Victoria had been taken as his teammates did their jobs without him, and most likely Bucky too since he had not heard his voice at all.

Eventually, Steve became aware of a pair of black leather boots standing at the door, a form leaning casually on the frame, staring down at him and not bothering to speak. Turning his head away, he did a quick wipe to make sure the streaks of tears were gone. He gave a shape inhale to clear his stuffy nose. A single deep cough cleared his throat. He was once again composed...as well as he could be right now.

Finally, he looked up at Natasha, whose face was still blank. If she were coming with good news, like the discovery of where Rumlow had taken Victoria, she would have said something. Instead, he recognized that Nat was waiting for him. That she, and the rest of the team, expected more from him…from Captain American, than to just be kneeling on the floor crying.

But since viewing that video, he felt like he was nothing more than the same helpless, weak Steve Rogers that he had grown up being.

All he wanted to do was stay there, but instead, Steve took a deep breath, and casually stood up, shoving Victoria's socks into a side pocket of his pants. Natasha moved back a bit from the door, silently indicating that she wanted him to follow, so he absently started to move. Steve knew that she could tell how broken up he was, but Nat never spoke of it…giving him that privacy.

As he was leaving the cell, Steve looked up at the camera, the same as Victoria had done as she was being led away.

Stepping into the hallway...Steve froze.

Natasha must have heard his footsteps cease since she also stopped and turned around towards him. Taking a step backwards into the cell, he turned his head to look up towards the camera again…more specifically, the area of wall right under it. Moving closer to it for inspection, his eyes grew wide as understanding hit him.

"BUCK! Get in here!" Steve yelled as loud as he could, not sure where he was, or if he were even still on comms.

Natasha stepped inside of the cell but stayed near the door. It was only a moment before he heard the pounding of heavy footfalls coming down the hallway fast. The dark menacing shadow that appeared in the door brought a smile to Steve's face.

Without a word, he pointed up at the wall. Bucky took the final necessary steps to end up next to him.

"What is it?" Natasha finally asked, just as he heard a lot more footsteps right outside of the door.

As Bucky looked at the markings, Steve turned with a smile towards her and everyone else who had come running after a scream like that, "It's Morse code! Victoria left it as a message!"

"Penthouse!" Bucky declared firmly while turning back around to face everyone.

"That's it? Penthouse?" Tony asked throwing his arms up in the air annoyed. "Do you realize how many penthouses there are in New York? Hell…I own three myself."

" _It's more than what we had a few minutes ago_ ," Sam voice chimed in over the earcom, sounding a bit more hopeful.

"It may have been the only useful piece of information that Vic heard," Clint's voice was coming from somewhere out of sight in the hallway.

"Gather up any agents still alive! We need to question them as to _any_ penthouse location that they know about!" Steve announced to everyone, taking a hard breath and starting to feel more like his old self. "Victoria left us a clue and I'll be damned if we don't try and figure it out!"

Bucky then gave him a firm pat on the back as the others began to file away from the cell, following his orders.

" _That's_ what Vic was doing in the video…when she disappeared into the corner for a bit. Vic is trying to get back to us, Steve!" Bucky firmly stated, turning back around to look at the message once again.

"Did you ever have a doubt? But, _how_ did she leave it?" Steve then thought to ask, not having considered that before, being too excited at the actual discovery.

Both of them looked at it carefully.

"Blood!" Bucky avowed, "Vic used her own _blood_!"


	68. Victoria's Secrets

**Rumlow Warehouse Hideout**

Watching the rest of the team horde the remaining living HYDRA agents into the open warehouse, Tony kept thinking back to what FRIDAY had revealed to Steve and Bucky about Vic. For months, his AI had not revealed a possible medical secret that his programming should have registered. The system was set up to keep tabs on the medical vitals of the team, and immediate companions, which included Pepper and Victoria. So, how had Vic managed to work around it?

Stepping away from the rest of the group for a bit of privacy, he asked, "FRIDAY, when was the first time that Vic had one of her panic attacks?"

" _A few days after she moved in with the Captain and Sergeant, Tony_ ," she responded.

"And why didn't an alert go out then?" he questioned.

" _I questioned Miss Victoria at the time of the incident and she explained that laying down helped to calm her. I monitored her vitals and found that she was correct. The second time it occurred, I monitored her vitals again, receiving the same result so therefore no alert was sent out_ ," she informed him.

There was a subsystem of the program to override silly accidents, like a simple trip or falling down, or hitting the funny bone, and with Vic's explanation and no permanent bodily injury, it must have fallen into those parameters.

"Is there by any chance any other information that you and Vic agreed to keep secret from me?" he asked curious now.

" _Yes, there is just one, Boss_ ," he heard, shocking him a bit. " _Miss Victoria did not want you to know that she does not mind making the deep-dish pizza that you actually do like_."

Hearing that, Tony burst out laughing, catching the attention of everyone, his team and HYDRA agents alike.

Putting on his most regal expression and waving his hand authoritatively, he announced, "Carry on."

Natasha shook her head scoldingly at him before walking over to where he was.

"Care to explain?" she quietly demanded with a scowl.

"I was just questioning FRIDAY as to whether there were any other secrets that Vic was keeping from me," he told her with a smile, looking over at the small group of agents secured with zip-ties securing their wrists. He spotted the first one that he wanted questioned.

"And?"

"Turns out that Vic is going to be making me pizza _a lot more_ once we get her back," he announced triumphantly.

"That's it? Her other secret was about _food_?" Nat asked astonished.

"Yep, it seems so," he said nodding to the injured agent, "We starting with Broken Nose?"

"Yes, we found him in the make-shift infirmary. He's still a bit out of it due to the med's they gave him for pain. But we know that he at least had direct _interaction_ with Vic," Nat was smiling, probably at the remembering the video of Vic breaking his nose. "His present condition may actually work to our advantage."

The agents were spread out so that they were not able to communicate with each other. Tony watched as Steve went over to Nose and roughly picked him up by the collar of his shirt, a choking sound emanated from him as he was forcefully drug over to the far end of the warehouse where Bucky and Clint were waiting next to a chair to interrogate him. It had to be difficult for him to breathe to begin with and Steve was not helping.

Tony could not remember ever seeing Steve in the state that he was currently in, but he could understand why he was. He hoped that they were able to get the information they needed quickly, before Rumlow could…Tony hated to even _think_ of what Vic could be going through right now.

Pietro and Wanda were standing guard over the others while Sam went through the paper files. FRIDAY was currently going through the entire computer system looking for anything on the penthouse. So far nothing had been found, with the system being a closed one so there was no network linking the locations. It seemed that the different areas of operation were kept separate just in case of an incidence like this.

"How long do you think it will take once the Winter Soldier starts in on him?" Nat asked making him give her a strange look at the name, which she then explained, "Do _you_ really think that Bucky is all there right now?"

Tony looked over to where Bucky was watching Steve drag the man over, standing rigidly straight, wearing his full face mask and goggles which helped to hide his emotions. But Tony had a feeling that his face would have been a blank slate without them thanks to his HYDRA training. Nat may be right, though. He was probably as close to being the full-on Winter Soldier right now than he had been since D.C.

After Steve had somberly left the room, they had all patiently watched and waited for Bucky's breakdown, especially after the incident with the flying file cabinet.

But none had come as the minutes crept by. Not a single cry of agony, not a tear shed, not a single sign of movement. Tony could only imagine what he was feeling after hearing Rumlow's threats.

Wanda left right after Steve to go help with agent cleanup so Nat had told him to stay with Bucky since he had his suit while she went to check on Steve. Bucky had stayed frozen standing at the desk until Steve had called out for him. It had been scary to see him that way. It would have made _him_ feel better if Bucky had thrown a fit, smashing the place up like Bruce would have.

Tony knew that it had probably been the longest period of time that he had been quiet in quite a while, thinking that Pepper would have been proud of him not antagonizing the possible homicidal assassin.

"You may be right. With Bucky trying to process what happened to Vic, and the possible outcomes there are, he may be falling back into some of his conditioning to cope with the stress," Tony admitted as he watched the three men began questioning the agent. "But, I think that he will hold it together for Vic. Besides, Steve is there to keep him in check."

That was the moment that he and Nat watched as Steve then punched the Broken Nose agent hard in the face, knocking him off the chair to the ground.

Tony heavily sighed as he dropped his head, "Or maybe not..."

* * *

**Moments Earlier**

Clint found himself standing next to Bucky, with Steve flanking on Bucky's right side, worried that he may decide that beating the agent to pulp may get answers quicker. In his opinion, Bassett had gotten off easy. He could still hear the sound of fingers snapping.

As an archer, it was the stuff of nightmares.

They knew that this was the agent that had helped to take Vic in the first place, thanks to the broken nose, so there was a chance he may have some answers for them. But so far, he kept repeating over and over saying that he had no idea where the penthouse was and that he wouldn't tell them anything even if he did know.

"She must mean a lot to you," Nosy told them with a very nasally voice thanks to the cotton bandage wrapped around his face. "Let me guess...you had more than one tracker placed inside of her, right? That's how you found us?"

Steve looked over accusingly at Bucky, trying to make sense of what the agent was saying. Bucky returned his gaze, shaking his head in full denial.

"It wasn't me!" Bucky told him defensively. "Maybe when we get Vic back…"

Steve sighed then turned and asked the agent, "What tracker?"

"The one you had implanted in her arm," the HYDRA scum answered, with the statement becoming a bit clearer. "We found that fucker and cut it out before we got anywhere near here."

"You cut out the implant in her arm?" Steve then asked, fairly calmly in Clint's opinion considering he just admitted to taking a knife to Vic.

"Yeah, we…"

That was when the fist impacted with the agent's face, knocking him from the chair to the floor. But it had not come from Bucky, which he had been expecting...instead it had come from Steve.

"What's this idiot talking about?" Clint calmly asked as the agent began to spit out blood onto the concrete.

Bucky then took a step forward towards the man, placing his boot down hard over his forearm, pinning him to the floor screaming and preventing him from moving anywhere.

"That was _not_ a _tracker_!" Steve firmly stated, looking down at the man while answering his question. "Victoria had a birth control implant in her arm. _That_ was what you cut out."

"You mean the bitch was telling the truth?" the agent commented as he began to laugh, until Bucky applied even more pressure on his wrist, causing the laugh to become another scream.

"What kind of meds is this idiot on?" Clint could see his hand already turning a darker shade from the loss of blood pressure. Shaking his head like a scolding father, Clint told the agent, "I can't believe that with the _position_ you are in, that you felt calling Vic _that name_ was a good idea."

"So, how is everybody? Having a good time?" he heard Tony casually ask from behind as if he were at a party instead of an interrogation.

Nat was quietly walking next to him, taking in their group, trying to judge the mood...besides the obvious.

"We are doing well, but I don't know for how much longer this idiot will be," Clint answered, watching the man try and lift Bucky's boot but being _very_ unsuccessful. He reminded Clint of a flopping fish out of water the way he was thrashing his legs wildly trying to get traction. "Turns out that they cut some kind of birth control thing out of Vic's arm."

"Of course _you'd_ have _no idea_ what _that_ was," Natasha smirked at him, so he gave her one back. "But that does explain why she ripped her shirt and wrapped it around her upper arm."

Clint then thought about Rumlow's threat in relation to this news. His stomach sank painfully quick.

"That was where Vic got the blood from," Bucky then supplied to the conversation, looking at Steve.

"What blood?" Tony asked warily.

"That's how she left the coded message on the wall. Victoria used her blood," Steve told them reaching down to pick the man up, tossing him so hard back onto the chair that his ass was probably going to be bruised.

"Very resourceful," Natasha nodded approvingly, but receiving stern looks from Steve and Bucky. "It is, and you both know it! Fashioning weapons from a bed frame, leaving message to be found, Morse code…what have the two of you been teaching her?"

"That was not us," Bucky told them, "that was all Vic's doing. I'm sure it was also Wade's influence."

"We should have warned her about Rumlow, though. But, we _never_ thought it would come to _this_ ," Steve solemnly stated, looking back over at the other agents.

Clint figured that if this guy didn't know anything then they needed to move on to the next one.

"How about we split up and get one of these guys talking?" Clint supplied anxious to start doing something besides standing around.

"It won't matter," the agent then sneered at them. "Weiss made sure that the penthouse location was secured, so no one from the warehouse ever went there."

"Weiss?" Tony asked.

Clint saw the dread come over the man's face as he realized that he had slipped up. Thanks, medication!

Bucky grabbed the agent around his throat with his metal hand, squeezing just a bit before asking, "What's his _full name_?"

"Jonathan...Weiss," he managed to rasp out as his fingers scraped uselessly against the metal arm. Bucky then release him once his face was red.

"FRIDAY, please add a search parameter for the name Jonathan Weiss into the penthouse's location."

" _Alright Tony, and I have finished running the analysis of the rest of the security videos. I have found one additional image of Miss Victoria being loaded into a brown UPS package delivery truck near the far entrance_ ," everyone heard the AI say. He saw a glance pass between Steve and Bucky, but neither said anything.

"Run a search on the truck, license plate matching, traffic camera tracking, anything else you may have," Tony instructed with him hoping that video didn't show anything else bad happening to Vic.

" _I will do that, Tony_ ," FRIDAY answered.

"Unless FRIDAY finds something, there is no way to track that truck. Do you realized how many of them there are in New York?" Clint pointed out, knowing that he didn't sound too hopeful.

"Let's split up and question the agents," Steve instructed, moving away from them to choose the next guy for questioning. "Maybe one of them overheard something that might help."

" _Tony, Miss Pepper and Wade have arrived at the Tower_ ," FRIDAY chimed in, stopping Steve from his walk. Clint knew that they all had hoped to walk out of here with Vic, not having to go back to the Tower empty handed. Now they were going to have to probably go back home and face the man they considered to be Vic's surrogate father probably without any more useful information than they already had.

"Buck, walk towards the agents and choose the one that looks the most scared of you...if you can spot a difference," Steve turned around and told him. Looking over, Clint could swear that he saw him smiling behind that creepy mask of his.

For the next hour, they all questioned the agents or helped with the search of the offices, hoping to find something more. But they could not find any connection to the penthouse or Weiss. The entire computer system was clean. Eventually, they had let Steve call off the search in lieu of heading back to the Tower. Sam, Wanda and Pietro had volunteered to stay until the local law enforcement authorities were able to finish processing the agents into custody.

"Eventually," Clint said to Nat as the four of them were headed out of the warehouse to their vehicles down the way, "Rumlow will be sending some kind of demand to them."

"At least they partially know what to expect," she voiced her answer a bit low, hoping to not get the attention of the two soldiers walking steadily towards the SUV at a firm pace. "Their reactions may have been much worse without knowing what had already transpired."

"And the Tower would have taken the brunt of their anger, not that file cabinet and office," Clint said removing his quiver and bow from his back, then opening the gate of the vehicle to put them inside. Steve and Bucky got into the front of the vehicle, Steve starting the engine, ready to get out of there.

Nat told him once the gate was down, making sure that they couldn't hear her, "Wade told us while we were on the way back over the ocean to keep an eye on Bucky and to not let him do anything foolish. But I have a feeling that we may need to watch _both_ of them now."

"When we get back to the Tower, have FRIDAY start tracking the two of them. Any time that they leave an area alone, or together without a third person to keep an eye on them, we need to be informed. I'll give the others a heads-up," Clint instructed, looking toward the front of the vehicle, knowing they were waiting on him and Nat. "Also make sure that they _cannot_ override that command."

"I'll set it up while you keep an eye on them," she agreed, moving towards the back passenger door.

* * *

They had nothing.

No tracking on the brown truck yet.

No information on who Jonathan Weiss was.

No address for the penthouse.

No Vic.

Bucky didn't know how Steve could seem as calm as he was while he drove them towards the Tower.

Without Vic being back with them.

After the video had finished playing, he had been unable to move, as if his entire body was betraying him by forcing him to stand still. The last time he had felt anything close to that was when he was being put into the cryostasis. Bucky would always remember those last few moments when his mind was still active while his body froze in place.

His first thoughts after Steve had left had been part of the calming techniques HYDRA had used on him so that his emotions would not interfere with what he had to do on missions. It had been the only thing keeping him from destroying the office...the warehouse...and killing everyone alive inside of it...foe or friend. That meant that Steve would have to deal with the burden of what they saw by himself until his own raging emotions were under control. He couldn't loose it...not when Vic's life was on the line.

He didn't even blame Steve for leaving. There had been nothing that he, or anyone, could have said to make him feel any better at that moment. Any sympathy would have only been to placate him, to try and give false hope. He probably would have snapped anyone's neck who had tried.

Arriving at the cell, he knew Steve well enough that even with time having passed, Bucky could tell that he had broken down and cried. Something that his own training would not allow anymore. Maybe once they got Vic back...maybe once he was safely held in her arms, hidden away from where anyone could see this weakness...maybe then he could cry.

But for now, he could only watch the people walking down the street, shopping, getting something to eat, looking happy, as they kept moving forward with their lives. He didn't want to move forward though. He wanted to turn around, march right back into that warehouse and torture every single HYDRA agent in there for even _agreeing_ to help Rumlow take Vic from them. But instead, he was allowing Steve to dictate this mission.

And right now, they needed to regroup and wait for FRIDAY to finish running the analysis and tracking programs Tony had set up to find Vic.

What would happen if they didn't find her? Did he believe that Rumlow would go through with what he had threatened to do to Vic, by putting her into the Chair and wiping them from her memories?

Yes.

He would not even allow himself to dwell on the other threat Rumlow had made. If he started to consider what Vic may be going through, there was a good chance he would fall too far into his conditioning to come back from. And he needed to be here for Vic and Steve. Thinking of Rumlow touching Vic in _any_ way… He had already kissed her, so the first part of his plan included using a knife to slice off Rumlow's lips. He had also touched her...so there went his fingers.

And, if he dared to rape Vic…then he would _truly_ regret _that_ decision.

Considering the actions and terrorist acts that he had been doing for the past few years, he had no doubt that Rumlow would do that to her. He had even stood by in D.C. and watched as they wiped him. If only that damn Helicarrier had taken him out instead of just burning him into a Freddie Kruger look-alike.

He allowed a small smile to form on the side of his lip as he remembered watching that movie with Vic one night. Steve could only take so much of the excessive gore, as he called it, before deciding to head to his bedroom and sketch for a while. So he and Vic had continued to watch, with her finding the scenes of the teenagers dying funny and laughing while Freddie got his revenge.

Seeing her laugh like that had made him curious at the time, so he had questioned her afterwards. Vic had explained that since it was only a movie, and nobody was actually getting hurt, sometimes it was fun to root for the bad guy, because sometimes there were _worse_ bad guys, hence why she had named her motorcycle Riddick. To her, the ideal anti-hero. He had just smiled at the time and accepted her answer.

But this was one time that Vic was definitely _not_ rooting for the bad guy to win.

Wade had tried to tell them about how Vic sometimes responded with the exact opposite emotion that you would expect in a situation. He had told them about how one drunk had pulled a knife while he and Vic were trying to escort him out of the club. Instead of backing away, Vic had scoffed at him before moving in and taking him down. It seemed that right now, she was running on that same type of emotion.

But Rumlow and his henchmen were not the same as a single drunk guy. There was a real chance of Vic being not only injured, or having her memory wiped, or even being sexually violated, but Rumlow would not hesitate to kill her if that was what the situation called for. If anything, she was antagonizing Rumlow to what he considered a dangerous level.

"How are you holding up?" he heard from his left. Bucky found that question funny considering the way _he_ had quietly broken down after seeing the video. Not that he could blame Steve though.

"I'll be ready when the time comes," he simply stated, not wanting to go into an emotional tangent with Steve while Clint and Nat quietly listened in.

"That's not what I asked," Steve sighed.

"That's all that you're getting," he responded firmly.

It was quiet in the vehicle for about a minute before Natasha spoke up.

"Tony asked FRIDAY if there was anything else that Vic was keeping secret from him," she started off, making him already dreading where this conversation might be headed.

"And?" he growled out.

"Vic asked that FRIDAY not to let Tony know that she didn't mind making the pizzas for him," she informed them sounding amused.

He heard Steve give a quiet chuckle at such a simple strange request. They had _known_ that after being with her. Vic had even made it specifically for them…without letting Tony know.

But then, Nat's comment gave him an idea.

Activating the SUV's comm, he asked, "FRIDAY, is there any other secrets from Vic that she did not want Steve or me to know about specifically?"

" _Yes, Sergeant, there is one_ ," the AI responded, sending his chest tight with pain at hearing that there was.

Steve on the other hand, handled that information a bit differently by pulling the vehicle over quickly onto a side street and coming to a stop in the middle of it suddenly. He could hear the sound of the two spy's hands grabbing onto areas of the seats to stop them from being thrown around.

Natasha suddenly burst in by saying, "Are you sure that want to do this? Vic may have a good reason for keeping something from the two of you!"

"That's the type of advice that a Spider would give!" Bucky responded harshly while turning to look at her. He couldn't _believe_ that Vic had more secrets. "FRIDAY, what is it?"

" _Miss Victoria has been working on planning a trip for the three of you to St. Augustine, Florida for a week's vacation to correspond with the Captain's birthday next month_ ," the AI calm voice informed them.

At hearing that, he looked over at Steve to make sure that he had heard correctly. Out of all the different possible horrible scenario's that had suddenly flown through his mind at hearing that there was something Vic was hiding, it had never occurred to him that it might be something good.

"A surprise birthday trip? That's Victoria's secret?" Steve asked resting his head on the steering wheel, his face showing the same relief that he too felt.

" _Yes, Captain. Miss Victoria said that it might be better if you and the Sergeant did not know in case your work interfered with her planning. She said that she would just move it if a mission arose, but she did not want either of you to feel guilty if that became a necessity_."

Suddenly, the two of them were laughing. Not very much, considering everything that was going on, but they could both probably feel the actual relief easing through them. He also realized something else.

"Natasha, I'm sorry for what I said just now," he quietly said with his eyes not being able to make contact with his teammate. "It's just...everything…"

"I understand, Bucky. Thanks," Nat cut him off, sounding sincere with accepting his clumsy apology. This was definitely not his best day.

"You do realize how mad Victoria is going to be at us when she finds out that we spoiled her surprise?" Steve asked, turning to him as he started the vehicle moving again.

"Right now, I don't care how mad she is as long as we get her home," Bucky pointed out, taking a deep breath and wondering how long that was actually going to take. All they could do was wait and hope that Rumlow contacted them soon with his demands, and that somehow they were able to find Vic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, ready to see what Vic's been up to while the others searched for her?


	69. Waiting Until Lunchtime

Victoria was not sure how long she had been waiting in her new cell for anything to happen, but it had to have been hours and she was getting _very_ bored. How many other kidnapped people had that feeling, she wondered. On the way here, Vic understood that depending on exactly where the team was, they may not even realize that she was missing for a few more hours.

Would FRIDAY even think to inform them that she was running late from her bike ride? Probably not.

After being tossed into the back of the delivery truck, the guards had forced her to lay on the floor face down surrounded by them on crude benches. Rumlow had then placed a hood over her head for some reason. It wasn't like there were windows for her to look out of anyways. Maybe it just made him feel better, having that _little tiny bit_ more control over her. For a final power show, Rumlow propped his foot onto her back to hold her in place. They had driven for a while, usually slow so she guessed that it was due to the normal street traffic.

But eventually they pulled into a building, the truck tilting as they went up a ramp slightly. After stopping, the guards had lifted her out of the truck, mostly dragging her the short distance to an elevator. Once they were inside with the doors closed, Rumlow had pulled the hood off, allowing her to watch as he inserted a keycard into a slot which made the elevator finally start to head up.

"Private elevator for the top floor only, so we don't have to worry about anyone seeing you," he informed Vic while moving right in front of her. She had tried to move back, towards the wall but the two guards held her arms tight, preventing her from doing so. Rumlow then reached out and pulled what remained of her messy braid towards the front, seeming to examine the color of her hair once again. As he then began to run his hand over her face, she jerked her head away, causing him to slightly chuckle.

Tapping his fingertip on the ball of the gag, he smugly asked, "What? Can't tell me to stop?"

Rumlow then shoved her hard against the close elevator wall, causing the back of her head to slam into the dark wood paneling. The guards still held on to her but moved with his attack, not preventing any of it. Vic then felt a pressure on her ankles, as well as something moving between her knees. Trying to lift one of her legs, she realized that Rumlow had placed his foot over the chain to hold her in place. He then shoved his knee between her own, forcing her bare legs apart. Reaching down with his other hand, he began to slide it over her exposed thigh.

Due to how the straitjacket was secured to her, it had forced her biking shorts to ride high up on her thighs, to almost being non-existent. But she soon found that there was a slight benefit to having the device on her. The two thick straps that ran from the front side and buckled in the back covered the entire area pubic between her legs. As Rumlow's hand began to move upwards, Vic realized that the straps were preventing him from molesting her anywhere beyond having his hand touch the outside of the strap and her clothing.

It was the only comfort she could find right then, but she would take it.

"Don't worry," Rumlow was trying to find a grip somehow between her legs but being unable to thanks to how tight he had made the device, "This will come off soon enough and then we can have some fun. Or at least I will."

Finally the elevator doors opened, revealing a nicely furnished Midtown penthouse. The foyer was all marble with a grand staircase on the left side heading to an upper level. She barely got a glance at the living room through an open doorway across from the elevator. Rumlow began to walk down a hallway to the left past the stairs, the guards dragging her along behind him even as she continued to struggle. Every time she had done so, their grips would increase by digging their fingers into her skin, making her sure that her upper arms were going to be covered in bruises.

Passing through a set of doors further down the hall, the upscale style quickly became industrial. Here the walls here were made of concrete, security cameras along the ceiling, heavy metal doors leading off the hall. Stopping at a nondescript door without a handle, Rumlow inserted the keycard and punched in a code, making the door slide open.

Stepping aside, the guards hauled her into the small room, tossing her onto the concrete floor roughly enough so that she could not keep her balance as she fell down onto her side. Rolling onto her back, she watched the two guards walk out while Rumlow leaned on the door's frame, sinisterly smiling down at her.

"Too bad the room is not padded," he smirked, well, as much as he could with skin that needed every ounce of moisturizer it could get, Vic thought. "But then, we are not going to be here long enough to make you comfortable. I _am_ going to let them suffer for a bit. I haven't decided if I should wait a day or two, maybe even a week. But either way, once I send my demands, I expect the two of them to quickly be complying, which means that we will be heading to the Chair's location to watch the show."

Vic found some of the tension she was feeling dissipate with that comment. So the Chair was not here. That was at least one piece of good news. She had figured that Rumlow may follow through with his threat immediately upon arriving here, but it seemed that she had a bit more time.

Using her legs, she pushed her way back towards the wall away from him, then lifted her body so that she was in a sitting position. And if they stayed here for longer than a few hours, there was a good chance they may find her recording about the Tower guard who would lead them to the warehouse and her next message. Hopefully there would be something more there to lead them to wherever they were now.

A guard then stopped outside of the cell, getting Rumlow's attention.

"Sir, we have the information you requested on the possible targets," he informed him, making Rumlow actually smile.

"I'll take a look at it now, that way the rest of the day will be free for me to enjoy my bonus prize," he turned back to look at her, giving her another kissing motion with his lips, making sure she knew exactly what he meant. "Have fun anticipating how you'll be enjoying your evening."

With that final taunt, he had simply pressed a button and let the metal door slide closed, locking her inside. Vic noticed before it had closed that there was not even a panel on the inside to open the door with. Good security measure, but bad for her. This time there was absolutely nothing inside of the cell. No bed, no chair.

And, probably because Rumlow had felt like being an ass, there was not even a light on in the entire 8'x8' room.

Vic had been sitting in pitch black for quite some time now.

At one point she had laid back down onto the floor and stared at the ceiling she could only imagine was above her head. To give herself something to do, she had moved so that her feet were propped up on the wall while she laid down. Running through different songs in her head, she tapped out a beat with her foot, mentally singing lyrics while waiting for something, anything, to happen...like a rescue.

Maybe it was time to give her warriors their new summer nicknames…

* * *

"Brock, we just received confirmation that the warehouse has indeed been compromised," Jonathan informed Rumlow a few hours after arriving as he walked out onto the balcony where Rumlow was sitting still going through the electronic files, taking a chair near the man. He would think that he would be more cautious about being out in the open like he was but he didn't seem to care right now. Rumlow had informed him earlier that sitting out here and looking across the short distance to Stark Tower _amused_ him.

Thanks to HYDRA's many hidden properties, this penthouse was one of the few locations in the general New York area that had not been leaked or discovered with the fall of SHIELD. Pierce had quite often used this location upon trips to the city when he needed to deal with more secure matters out of prying eyes. Luckily, Jonathan also knew that the Asset had never been to this location so he had no fear of it being found out by him.

"One of our men returning from a delivery run saw them and left the area before he was discovered. I sent out another small team to set up surveillance and they sent word that Rogers and the Asset _are_ at the location. Leaving there turned out to be a good idea," Jonathan told him wondering if he had known or if he had just been overly cautious. He had never heard from his man inside of the Tower once they had seen the Quinjet landing, so he had assumed that he had somehow been discovered and been forced to give up the location.

"That was fairly quick. I had hoped for at least a few days to let them suffer," Rumlow grumbled, taking a sip of his drink. Then he saw a slight smile, "I watched them land and wondered how they liked finding my new toy missing."

"I've sent over someone to watch the Tower, that way we will know if they leave again," Jonathan commented. "If we had done that earlier, we could have defended the warehouse much better."

Now, Jonathan knew he was going to be impatient until Rumlow decided that it was time to record his demands message and send it to them. He had offered up a way to have it delivered and Rumlow had found his suggestion funny so now he just waited to put it into action. Waiting days as Rumlow wanted to made Jonathan think it would give the Avengers too much time to possibly find them.

Since beginning to handle the corporations not closed down by the government after HYDRA fell, he had become extremely wealthy running them and supplying Rumlow with the funding necessary to continue his terrorist acts around the world. But having him come here, bringing this female hostage into his home, gave Jonathan a bad feeling. The fact that his contact inside of the Tower had probably been discovered, revealing the location of the warehouse, so quickly, made him doubt Rumlow's ability to see past his own hatred of the Captain and the Asset.

Everyone who worked for him knew that he blamed the two of them for what happened in D.C., and he wanted them to pay in the worst possible way. At first, he had settled for just trying to kill the two of them. But at the revelation of a soulmate for the two of them being found, that had been too much for him to handle. Rumlow instead turned his plans from death to torturing them. Which was how he had gotten the current plan on how to take back control of the Asset, but this time along, Rogers would be coming with him.

"I heard about what you told Victoria in the cell at the warehouse, but I would like the chance to question her before you mess with her mind too much. I want to find out where our intel gathering on her went wrong, so that I can correct the problem for any future incidences."

"Question her? Do you actually believe that bitch will tell you anything?" Rumlow snickered out between sips of his best whiskey. He may have to answer to Rumlow, but that did not mean that he enjoyed having him in the place he had been calling home for the past few years. The sooner he had sent his demands and left for the upstate location, the better. He had real business to conduct.

"If anything, she has been locked up for a couple of hours and will no doubt need to use the facilities soon. I'm sure that you could at least appreciate the idea of keeping her cell clean," Jonathan pointed out, standing to head inside. "Besides, it is past lunchtime and after the strenuous morning that she has had, a bit of bribery with food may loosen her tongue a bit."

" _Now_ you want to feed her?" Rumlow then lost it, laughing so loud he could hear it echoing off the surrounding buildings. He glanced over at the Tower, a small part of him fearing they had heard the sound and were coming at them. Jonathan knew they were still at the warehouse, but it helped his nerves to see no sign of movement. "Give her another hour to suffer first. Have your fun with the hellion, but just remember, that she's _mine_! Neither _you_ nor your _guards_ are to _touch_ her or _move_ her from here _without me_! That _bitch_ is my key to controlling two of the most powerful pieces of property out there, and if you think I won't kill you if you try anything, then you are _sorely_ mistaken!"

Jonathan looked down at Rumlow, his eyes trying to not look at the horrible burn marks shining in the bright sunlight, almost glistening with disgust. Instead of answering, Jonathan simply nodded his head before stepping back inside the coolness of the living area.

Now he was being threatened inside of his own home.

He couldn't wait for them _both_ to be gone.

* * *

Victoria tilted her head to the side, away from the door, as light from the hallway flooded the dark room. Using her feet to twist around, she expected to see Rumlow standing at the door, ready to make good on his threats, but the shadow outlined by the blinding light was too small of a frame, unless he had removed all of his armor.

But then, the figure stepped inside, and then she heard the familiar sound of his shoes. Glance at them, she recognized the Oxfords from earlier. This was the one who had informed her guards about moving her, giving her the single clue she was able to leave behind in the cell. As her eyes adjusted to the light, Vic watched as he stepped close, but not right up to her. He looked like an older businessman or lawyer.

"If you will conduct yourself properly, you will be permitted to use the facilities," Oxford's pompous voice stated while standing over her waiting for a response.

Victoria considered his words, knowing that unfortunately, she had needed to go to the bathroom for some time now. This would also be a chance to get a better idea of the layout of the place, maybe finding some weakness to help with an escape. Besides, they'd have to remove the straitjacket for her to use the bathroom. Nodding in agreement, the man stepped back outside of the cell as two different guards entered. They were dressed in nice black suits, not unlike the ones from the Tower, just slightly different. Taking her upper arms in their hands, they helped her to stand, a bit nicer than the one who worked for Rumlow.

Once in the hallway walking of her own accord, be it yet small steps due to the cuffs on her ankles, they nicely escorted her down the hall further into the place. They reached another metal door, but this one had a long thin vertical panel that could be opened independently, positioned in the center of the door.

"Once inside, you will stand with your back to the door. The straitjacket will be removed, as well as the gag. You will be given a few minutes to straighten yourself up and look presentable. When I return, you will once again be restrained. Depending on your behavior right now, will determine exactly how you will be restrained. Displease me and the straitjacket goes back on. Do you understand and agree?"

Vic narrowed her eyes at the man, wanting to shove her fist down his haughty throat, but instead she just nodded in agreement. There would be time for that later.

The _nerve_ of him requesting her to make herself ' _look presentable'_ after being kidnapped!

Moving inside the small room once he had unlocked the secure door, Vic stayed with her back near where the panel was. After the door was once again locked closed, the small panel was opened up by one of the guards. She then felt fingers working on the ball-gag. Her jaw had been aching for some time already and having it out would be nice. Stepping back so that she was closer to the door, Vic waited patiently as the guard began to release all of the buckles. Once he was done, he pulled the straitjacket through the narrow panel out into the hallway.

"You have five minutes," she heard Oxford say before the panel closed.

Turning around, Vic tried to check to see if there was a way to open it from the inside, but there was not. Just like the other cell, there was no access pad to open this door from the inside either. Looking up and around the entire space, she searched for security cameras but found none. The ceiling was once again the locking metal panels to restrict access. The room was about the same size as the other but it consisted of a sink, toilet, as well as a shower head with a simple floor drain. Very utilitarian in its plainness. This place was prepared to hold prisoners.

Checking her arms she found that they were already starting to bruise all over. Cleaning the dried blood from her wound, Vic left the bandage on the sink since it had stopped bleeding some time ago, smiling at imagining Steve or Bucky finding her message. There was no mirror, but she figured her face had quite a few bruises from the punches at the park, as well as the hit Rumlow had given her. Maybe it was better that she _didn't_ have a chance to see herself.

They had not bothered to remove her ankles cuffs since they had probably seen the video and knew that she would be able to attack them with kicks. There were small red marks from where the metal was rubbing on her skin from walking. Vic then sighed and figured she may as well hurry before the five minutes were up.

After using the bathroom, Vic was finishing up the braids in her hair when there was a knock on the door. Securing the round elastic holder over the ends she took the few steps towards the door as the small panel opened.

"Put your arms behind your back," Oxfords snobbishly informed her from somewhere out of sight.

Turning around, Vic hoped that by playing along with this idiot that she may get something useful out of it. Rumlow would have probably left her locked in the cell which would have been useless. She felt the end of a pair handcuffs being placed over her left wrist, which started to make her worry. They were not as tight as last time, so hopefully they did not irritate her too much. Hopefully she wouldn't be here for very long.

Her left arm was then pulled behind her firmly before the other end was of the cuff was snapped closed just above her right elbow. They didn't feel like they had a lot of give, so she figured they had to be hinged handcuffs. The guard then repeated the binding with her other arm, making them secured behind her back forming an x pattern. Oxfords must have not been as stupid as she had imagined, or the guard knew what he was doing. The door then opened behind her, so Vic turned to stare at the arrogant man.

"Follow me, while the guards escort you. Try anything and you will not leave that cell until Rumlow is ready to _deal_ with you. This is your _only_ chance," he haughtily informed her, staring like she was a bug to be squashed.

"After you," she responded in a sweet southern accent. How would this jackass look with two black eyes? But she just gave a cutesy smile before he turned and walked back down the hall towards where she had been brought in.

As they walked, Vic let her eyes dart around quickly, taking in every detail of the place, making sure to remember it. Entering another set of mahogany door, she found herself in a large formal living room, dining room off to the side, surrounded on two sides by massive floor to ceiling windows looking out over the city. Following the man, he continued to walk to where a large glass door opened up onto a large terrace patio. Stepping outside, she stared daggers at Rumlow, who was casually lounging in a chair at a table for four that had been set up for a light meal for the three of them.

Finishing off his drink, he smiled up at her.

"Someone here thinks that you are _domesticated_ , and can sit at a table to eat like a proper lady. _I_ still have my doubts," Rumlow told her, leering over her body that was much more visible now that the straitjacket was gone. Vic hadn't felt uneasy in her shirt and shorts until now. The position her arms were in also made her chest protrude a bit more than she would have liked.

"If one of you gentleman would care to pull the chair out for me?" she sweetly asked with a heavy accent, turning to look at the two guard escorts. One of them then grabbed a hold of the chair in front of her, so she was on Rumlow's right, and pulled it back enough so that she could sit down. Vic then swept around in front of it, taking her seat as Oxfords pulled his own chair out and sat on her other side.

"Don't let that hick accent fool you, Weiss," Rumlow told the other man while standing up and going over to a cart with an assortment of liquors set up on it. He poured himself a large glass of whiskey before heading back over. "You watched how she fought in the cell. The bitch is not the scared creature that your damn background check made her out to be."

"That is exactly why she is here," Weiss answered him, lifting up his wine glass to sip from. "Unless Victoria decides to cooperate, for the rest of her stay she will not see anything but that cell...along with your bedroom."

While the two of them jabbered, Vic took a good look around at where they were. Off in the distance were taller buildings, but right up close to this one there was only one higher. She wondered if anyone was sitting at one of those windows looking down at them. Even if they had, with her arms behind her towards the penthouse's door, there was no real sign that she was a captive.

Turning her head to the right, she looked past Weiss and gave a slight gasp. The Tower was only a few blocks away from here, within easy walking distance for her. She was closer to home now than she had been at the warehouse. Concentrating on the layout of the buildings, she used her knowledge of the streets from working at the messenger service to mentally calculate out what street was running next to the building. Turning in the other direction, past Rumlow, she found a familiar building to help her get the cross-street. Thanks to this idiot, Weiss, Vic knew what street corner she was at, but now she needed to…what?

How could she use the information?

"So close, yet so far," Rumlow taunted taking another drink after seeing her eyeing the Tower. Weiss on the other hand, snapped his fingers and a guard behind her released her left wrist from the cuff, allowing her a bit of free movement. If she moved her arm too far forward though, it pulled her right tighter behind her, but it was enough movement to eat with.

"As long as you answer my questions, you will be permitted to eat. Be uncooperative, and I'm sure Rumlow can find some way to make you regret that decision," Weiss stated, staring at her.

Playing along with his highbrow ass, Victoria just picked up the linen napkin and placed it in her lap very properly. She needed time to figure some way out, or at least stall them long enough for hopefully Steve and Bucky to get here.

 _Please let them find her audio message..._ she thought _.  
_

Taking the cut-crystal decanter of dressing, she poured some over the salad, not caring what kind it was. Looking at the formal silverware setting with numerous options, Victoria reached over and picked up the salad fork to begin eating the mixed greens in front of her. Vic noted how Weiss' eyebrows went slightly up at her correct use of utensils. Luckily, after coming to the Tower, since Pepper would throw formal dinners sometimes, she had studied up on proper etiquette, including the many different silverware pieces and their correct usage. Using such a formal setting right now for lunch was just pompous, Vic decided. Weiss then picked up his own and began to eat, while Rumlow just stared at her while drinking.

Weiss asked after a few bites, "Care to tell us who trained you?"

"No, I would not, but why would that matter," she answered finding it annoying to have to use her left hand. They had to have done it on purpose knowing that she was right handed. "I could have just picked up moves from everyone in the Tower."

"You do not just _pick up_ some of _those_ moves," Rumlow growled out, pushing his untouched salad plate away.

She smiled, knowing _exactly_ how _wrong_ he was about that. He had no idea what she could do.

"Not a fan of salads?" she asked placing her fork down and reaching for the dressing, pouring some more on her salad. They were all quiet as they ate a few bites. Turning to Weiss, she asked, "This is delicious. A custom made lemon-saffron dressing, right?"

"Yes, it is," Weiss was now looking at her curiously.

"Tell ya chef that next time to go lighter on the garlic. It almost overpowers the saffron," she told him eating a couple of more bites. She'd worked in enough kitchens to be able to tell the difference. Weiss then took another bite and she could see him considering her comment before nodding in agreement.

"What the _fuck_ are you babbling about, _bitch_?" Rumlow then interjected, slamming his fist down on the marble-topped table.

" _Now_ who is the _undomesticated_ one?" Vic asked putting on her own haughty southern accent before taking another bite as Rumlow stood up so fast that his metal chair flew back and fell over. Reaching over, he grabbed a hold of her wrist, squeezing so hard that she had to drop the fork as it also pulled her other arm further behind her back. Victoria saw what he was _about_ to do, so she threw out, "Careful…ya want me at least _recognizable_ for proof of life!"

Hearing that, Weiss began to clear his throat, trying to get Rumlow's attention, which she was surprised actually worked. Lowering his balled fist that he had been preparing to hit her in the face with, Rumlow released her wrist and grabbed his glass, stalking into the penthouse. Vic stared at her wrist which was red from how hard he had grabbed it. Finger imprints were sure to be there later.

Weiss tried to question her a couple of more times while they continued to eat, but she would just turn her answers around to be useless to him. She was not about to tell him anything of her abilities, or the inner workings of the Tower. He was getting frustrated, but at least he was still letting her eat. So much for his threat.

After they were finished with the salads a few minutes later, sitting at the table like normal people would, Weiss commented, "You enjoy antagonizing Rumlow too much."

"What do you _expect_? The bastard had me _kidnapped_ to use as blackmail against my soulmates, so that they would agree to be brainwashed into mindless _assassins_ , for him to use to _terrorize_ the world. _Fuck him_!" Vic firmly stated, having enjoyed the simple meal. If she were truly going to have to deal with Rumlow being in charge of her, at least until she was rescued, then she needed to eat now because she doubted he would care about feeding her.

"Yes, that is all true. But…"

Weiss started to say as the glass doors slammed open behind her and Rumlow stormed out, startling both of them and heading right for her. Vic didn't have time to do anything as his right arm went around her neck in a chokehold, while his other hand grabbed her free wrist, using it as a grapple to control her movements. Lifting her straight up roughly over the back of the chair so that it fell over, Rumlow stood her up, barely giving her chained ankles time to find a foothold. Rumlow then pulled her arm back behind her.

"Cuff her!" he yelled to the guards still standing near the doors, just watching. One of them moved, taking the cuff and securing it around her left wrist as Rumlow held it in place for him. She was sure that his next move was going to be hitting her…but unfortunately, it was not.

"So…I just looked through that damn background check that Weiss was so proud of up until this morning. Want to guess what I found?" Rumlow harshly whispered into her ear while adjusting his hold so he was now pressing her hard against his chest, one hand tight on her throat, the other equally tight around her waist. His whiskey breath had a retched stench as he asked, "Do you remember the _fire tower_?"

Hearing that phrase, Vic began to struggle hard in his arms. How had he found out about that? She had not even told Bucky and Steve about that particular incident, knowing how upset they would have gotten. Not even any of the stories that the reporters published told about that horrible day.

During the last months of high school, her group of bullies somehow realized that she didn't like high places. Getting the cruelest idea in their combined heads and led by Stacy and Travis, they had ganged up on her in the school bathroom on a Friday afternoon just as school was letting out. Then they had used duct tape on her wrists, wrapping it painfully tight. Driving her out to one of the forest fire watch towers that littered the landscape, they had put a blindfold over her eyes and forced her up the long flight of stairs.

Reaching the very top, they had removed the tape and blindfold, allowing her to actually see the view of where she had been brought. They laughed at her cowering in the corner before they began the long walk down, as she screamed for them to not leave her there. But they had just kept walking, leaving her behind.

Hours later, once it was fully dark, she had been able to blindly make her way down the metal frame stairs with open bar railings since it was pitch black and she could not see anything. When she had walked miles to her home, arriving well after midnight, she had been beaten for missing afternoon chores. Her parents had not cared what had been done to her, caring more about how her disappearance had interfered with their plans.

Rumlow was turning the two of them around with a sinister laugh, Victoria now facing towards the Tower in the distance. He then began to walk her forward, forcing Vic towards the wall surrounding the terrace, toward the high edge of the building. She kicked uselessly with her chained feet, trying to stop him as she screamed panicked words, but it didn't even faze Rumlow's movements.

Vic could hear Weiss calling out to Rumlow, who was probably thinking that he was going to throw her over the edge...but she knew it was going to be _much worse_ than that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the reviews! I'm glad that you are still enjoying the story. As you can probably guess, there is going to be something a bit surprising and upsetting for the guys in the next chapter.


	70. Fear

**Avengers Tower -** **Mission Workroom  
Minutes Earlier**

"There has to be some way to track that damn truck, FRIDAY!" Tony was angrily yelling into thin air as he continued to swipe at the screen hovering before him as the elevator doors opened up. That sentence alone did not sound good. He and Bucky had gotten back to the Tower not long ago, heading up to the main workroom where Tony had set himself up with all the data they had found now scattered on the different floating screens.

They both immediately stopped when walking in as they saw Wade sitting off to the side of the lab with his own handheld pad, watching something very intently. There was only one thing that would make Wade scowl like that: the video of Victoria from the warehouse.

Giving Wade time to finish watching it, they waited off to the side for him to acknowledge that he was ready to confront them. Bucky had pointed out on the ride up that they were going to get scolded, if not a beating, for not protecting Victoria. Steve knew that he was right, and that they deserved it, but it had been decades since they had anything like that happen to them.

In fact, technically, they were probably old enough to be Wade's grandfathers, but seeing him quietly concentrating on the tablet in his hands, inside Steve felt like the same thirteen year old who got in trouble for going outside without his hat and gloves and then catching a cold.

Bucky instead watched Tony moving about the lab with Natasha working on a computer doing something else. He wasn't sure what it was, but he knew that it had to do with finding Victoria. Sam was not anywhere to be found, but he had also flown back to the Tower with Tony earlier. Leaning on the edge of the desk, with Bucky doing a matching stance next to him, Steve saw Wade finally put the tablet down. Using his elbow, he nudged Bucky to get his attention. To say that Wade looked ready to hit something would be the understatement of the decade. They both stood up straighter as Wade then turned to face the two of them.

"I think I would rather be facing you one-on-one right now," Bucky mumbled after leaning over slightly so that only Steve could hear the comment. Steve gently nodded in agreement as Wade stood up and walked over to stand right before the two of them. He seemed to be taking his time to consider his words carefully.

"How are the two of you doing?"

Steve looked over at Bucky who was staring right back at him. That was _not_ what either of them were expecting to hear. They had been ready to be yelled at, definitely a few punches headed their way. Reprimanded and punished for not protecting Victoria. But instead, it seemed Wade knew that they had already badgered themselves for allowing this to happen. Steve let a small smile creep over his face before answering.

"We've both been much better, Sir."

"Tony filled me in about what happened at the warehouse. I just saw the damn video, too. Remember when we first met that I mentioned that Vic doesn't handle some things like you would expect someone to? Well, what I saw back then was _nothing_ compared to the damn _foolishness_ that was on that video," Wade told them shaking his head.

"Rumlow is not someone to antagonize," Bucky softly said, probably remembering times he had dealt with him back when he was under HYDRA's control. "We should have warned her of him."

"After what I saw, I don't think that it would have mattered," Wade said crossing his arms. "But Vic is a survivor. I always knew that she had it in her to properly curse, but I sure as hell wish it had been under different circumstances. I believe she will do whatever is necessary to get back to the two of you. So, what the fuck do we do on this end to accomplish that?"

For the next few minutes, they went over the different tracing programs, trying to find where Victoria had been taken. No camera had been able to pick up the delivery truck's license plate. It had then entered an area of the city where traffic cameras were not as abundant and corresponding videos shows multiple trucks emerging towards Midtown at the same time. There were no distinct markings to know which had been the one Victoria was inside of. They also learned that Sam had headed to the Quinjet landing platform to release Redwing so that he could scan as much of Midtown's penthouses as possible for any facial recognition of Victoria. It was a long shot but it was better than nothing.

It was about that time when the feeling started.

Steve felt his chest suddenly becoming tight, the feeling of panicking vertigo quickly spreading in mere seconds throughout his entire body, almost making him fall down onto his left side. Tossing his body over to his right, he grabbed at the desk top to help steady himself. Looking over at Bucky, who was somehow still standing, he saw the horror cross over his face at recognition of the feeling.

"Vic!" Bucky stated with panic dripping in his voice, his blackened eyes also now wide with fear as Bucky looked over at him.

"What's going on?" Tony asked as Steve continued to feel his chest tightening, his breath becoming ragged. Still barely standing, his body began to sway before he then felt hands on his shoulders, supporting him as he felt himself being sat down into a chair now behind him.

"Steve! Bury it!" he heard Bucky's voice telling him. "It's nothing more than an echo of the past. Bury it, now!"

Steve took a couple of deep breaths, closing his eyes as he concentrated on thinking of Victoria. He needed to find her. They both did, and that was not going to happen unless he took control of this panic. The vertigo was _so strong_ this time, _so_ much stronger. Turning his eyes towards Bucky's own, he knew that he was experiencing the same emotion that he was, only holding it together much better than he was. But the fear that was on Bucky's face reminded him that he had actually lived through this feeling once already. For Steve, it was nothing more than a reiteration of the worst day of his life, only now he was experiencing it now from the other side.

The day he had failed Bucky.

Would he fail Victoria, too?

"Will someone please explain to me what is happening!?" Tony began to yell.

" _The Captain and the Sergeant are experiencing a joint anxiety attack, Boss_ ," FRIDAY finally chimed in as an explanation for him.

"What do you mean?" Natasha asked coming over to stand next to him. There was no mistaking the worry on her face, which was something not many people ever got to see.

" _Due to the strong connection of their soulmarks, they experience the same feeling of fear as Miss Victoria does when she is in distress due to her fear of heights_ ," they were all informed.

"Steve, look at me," Bucky had stepped over to him using the table to help guide him and was rocking his hand on Steve's shoulder to get his attention. Taking a breath, he reached up so that his hand laid on top of Bucky's, grabbing on tightly while hoping that it gave him a bit of strength. Making eye contact, Bucky pointed out, "If you can face off against HYDRA, aliens, and Ultron, you can sure as hell beat this."

But all that he could do was shake his head. He couldn't even sit up straight in the chair, his body leaning slightly to his left, still wanting to fall to the ground.

"Vic..." Steve managed to barely get out and he concentrated on his shallow breathing for a bit longer before asking, "Why isn't…it stopping?"

Bucky only looked down at him, and seeing the sorrowful look from him, the answer came to Steve.

Rumlow had found out about Victoria's fear of heights somehow and was using it to torture her.

Taking the last step forward, Bucky leveled Steve's body upright then protectively encircled his arms around him, pulling him into an embrace. Steve's head rested against Bucky's chest as he wrapped his own arms around his soulmate's waist, and not only for physical support. Steve could hear the erratic pounding of Bucky's heart from his own experience. His would probably sound the same.

Steve doubted that Rumlow knew of the connection, otherwise he probably would have done this much sooner. He was probably testing her fear, and unfortunately, until either Rumlow stopped it, or Victoria passed out, they would continue to feel her torture. The swirling vertigo he was experiencing was so much _stronger_ than _any time_ before when Victoria had tried to overcome her fear, either before they knew her, or that night in their…her room, her first night with them. His lungs felt like they wanted to burst through his chest from taking such shallow breaths but he couldn't help it and now he felt like he was about to pass out.

The only thing keeping him upright was Bucky's comforting arms.

Why was it so much worse? Was it because they were not there with Victoria this time? How high was this penthouse she may be in?

Then, after about a minute, as suddenly as it had come on, the feeling left, just like turning off a light switch. Steve felt his entire body ease and quickly return to normal, but his mind was reeling with the thought of what had just happened. Bucky released his firm grip, taking a partial step back so that he could look him in the eyes. Steve could see the bloodshot redness surrounded by eye-black as he had been holding in tears and his forehead was beaded with sweat.

"Are you telling us that if _Vic_ gets _scared_ , the two of you _feel it_?" Tony finally blurted out, after being silent for longer than Steve had ever thought possible.

Bucky turned from the others as he began wiping the sweat away with his sleeve and patting the unshed tears from his blackened eyes before answering.

"No, it's not normal fear. It's only when Vic's fear of _heights_ gets _too_ strong. During the past few months, being around us at the time it wouldn't be a problem for her, our presence would lessen her fear, usually to nothing. Rumlow must have found out about it somehow and been… _testing_ it," Bucky supplied as he tried to imagine what he had done to her. He would have used the word _torture_ instead of testing, but neither of them wanted to say it aloud. They now definitely knew Victoria was in a penthouse somewhere.

"Then what stopped it?" Wade asked stepping from behind him and looking between the two of them.

Steve realized that he had been the one to move the chair and guide him into it.

"It stopped because Victoria passed out from her fear," he told them, seeing Bucky's face grow dark with actually hearing it spoken aloud. There were mumbled curses from Wade to match the Russian ones from Bucky.

" _This_ may have been information that the team would _like_ to have known," Natasha scolded the two of them, shaking her head like a disappointed mother.

"Technically, Bruce knows about it. We told him months ago when we talked with him about the connections we all had," Steve told them. "We didn't want all of our personal, private information to get out, even to the team."

"And Vic would _never_ get close to any edges that would bring this on while we were out on missions. As she tries to get over this fear, we were there with her and it was _never_ this bad. Being around us helped her, a lot," Bucky informed them, moving towards one of the walls, leaning back on it.

"I don't think Rumlow knows of our connection. Victoria would _never_ tell him. She must have somehow gotten under his skin again, and he decided to use it against her. But, now we know that she probably is in this penthouse, very high up, so let's find it," Steve said, standing up and trying to take back control of the situation. " _Before_ Victoria wakes up and starts mouthing off to him again."

Bucky rumbled out a low string of more Russian curses knowing it was at the thought of Rumlow even touching Vic. Just like Victoria had said on the video, Rumlow was a dead man when they finally found him.

* * *

"What the hell did you do to her?" Jonathan yelled as he stood up from his chair, looking down at Victoria's unconscious form lying next to the wall of the terrace.

She had struggled uselessly as Rumlow had pushed her towards the chest-high wall that protected the area so that nobody could fall from up here. Her screams had died down when they finally reached the edge, not what he had been expecting to happen. Rumlow had taken a hold of her head using her hair, pushing it out and over the edge so that she was looking straight down almost sixty floors. He watched as her body stopped struggling, to almost freezing in place as Rumlow held her against the edge.

Almost a minute passed by before there was a change. Victoria's body then went from frozen to completely limp. Rumlow then realized that she had passed out from the fear and Jonathan watched as he began to laugh at this discovery. Pulling her head and shoulders back from over the ledge, he casually dropped her limp form next to the wall onto the hard tile floor.

"There we go! _Now_ I know how to _shut_ the bitch _up_!" Rumlow triumphantly announced.

"That was low, Rumlow. Even for you," Jonathan stated firmly, not liking what he had just witnessed.

He had no problem helping with the kidnapping of others, or helping supply the weapons for one of Rumlow's attacks on civilians, but having to be a first-hand witness that type of torture was another thing. He knew that her file had mentioned a fear of exposed heights, but he had no idea it would cause her to faint. He barely recalled the story of the fire tower that his man had learned of from working at the gas station. He had only likened it to any other person's fear of heights.

"I initially thought that you were about to toss her over the edge."

That was when he heard the sound of something mechanical getting close. Looking through the glass walls surrounding the den to the other side of the building, he spotted it.

"Get down!" he yelled at Rumlow, pointing in the direction the drone was coming from.

Jonathan watched as Rumlow ducked behind the wall, sitting almost on top of Victoria's prone form. Sitting casually back down at the table, he picked up his wine glass, taking a sip, hoping to seem casual. It was the same drone that Falcon was known to use that was attached to his suit as a form of backup support. The drone then rounded the corner of the building at a bit of a distance, before turning to face the terrace. From its current position, Rumlow was now blocked by the wall from its view. Jonathan watched as it continued on down the street, not seeming interested in him in the slightest.

"It's gone," he said once the drone had moved behind the building across the street. "They must have it on a search pattern, looking for her. For it to be up this high, they may have learned about here from one of the agents at the warehouse but I made sure none of those agents knew the penthouse's exact location."

Rumlow then reached over and grabbed onto her braid, lifting her head slightly off of the floor. Jonathan could see that Victoria was still unconscious, and she may be for some time.

"Take her back to the cell! Fuck waiting! Inform me when she wakes up. I want that damn video filmed and delivered as soon as possible. They don't need any more time to be able to continue searching for her if they've already gotten this close," Rumlow instructed, standing up as the two guards came over and picked Victoria up. He watched as they hauled her back inside out of sight, while her bare feet drug over the floor.

Rumlow then went over and fixed himself another glass of whiskey.

"Sending the video with you drunk may not be the best idea," Jonathan casually told him, knowing that it was probably foolish to do so, but Jonathan knew that he was right.

Rumlow looked over at him with hate in his eyes, took the entire glass in a long swallow and then threw the glass at the wall he had just been hiding against, smashing it to pieces. He stood there for a bit longer, looking out over the city towards the Tower with a creepy smile spreading over his face.

"You may be right. Because later, once I have confirmation that my Asset and Rogers have both been confined in their new home, I want to remember everything that happens with what I have planned to do to that bitch," Rumlow snidely remarked, opening up the glass door and walking inside.

Jonathan had hoped that Rumlow would have been away from here before engaging in any type of deviant behavior as he was alluding to. He could do anything about it though, except for maybe suggesting that Rumlow head to the Chair's location with Victoria once they knew that Rogers and the Asset had left the Tower.

* * *

Vic wasn't sure if her eyes were open or not since no matter what she did her vision remained black. Her entire body ached, sore as if she had been working out for hours. Her arms which she was lying on were the worst, still being pinned behind her back as the metal from the cuffs dug harshly into her skin, but with the weight of her body cutting off blood circulation even more.

Rolling over onto her side, it eased some of the pain off her arms. Sitting up finally, she tried to stretch her legs to get rid of the aches, but found that they were, of course, still connected with the ankles cuffs and chain. At least Rumlow had left that damn gag out. It wasn't much fun with him around, and not her warriors.

Thinking back to the last thing she remembered, a shiver went through her at recalling having her head thrust over the edge of the wall and being forced to look straight down over the open drop to the street so far below. Rumlow had not let her go, opting instead for holding her there until she passed out. Compared to the other times when she had looked through high windows, or even crossed the suspension bridge, none of them came close to the feeling she had from the sheer drop below her.

The worst part was that Bucky and Steve would have felt that _entire ordeal_ , until she finally went unconscious. Hopefully they had been together and didn't have to go through that alone. The only benefit would be that they would know she was high up and still alive.

Only a few minutes after waking up, the overhead light turned on, blinding her partially, as the door then slid open as two masked guards quickly moved in, taking a hold of her upper arms and lifting her roughly against the concrete wall. She felt the cuffs digging into her skin as they held her there.

"What the fuck is going on?" she yelled at them trying to struggle, but knowing it was useless.

Another masked guard then brought in a simple metal chair with a back and no arms, placing it close to the center of the room, facing the door. He then moved out the way as the other two guards then dragged her around to the front of the chair, harshly sitting her down onto it. A guard pushed her head and body forward some, allowing him to lift her secured arms over the back of the chair before pulling her against the chair's back.

Vic watched as one of the other guards unclasp the cuff from her left ankle while the other kept a hold of her right leg. Pulling hard on the chain, he painfully forced her right ankle back all the way behind the back leg of the chair, causing her leg to move outward.

"Let me go, you tentacle-up-the-ass-loving motherfuckers!" she cursed at them trying to struggle, but between the three of them, it was pointless. They were able to hold her in place, one of them pressing down on her shoulders to keep her on the seat.

The guard then passed the chain behind the chair's legs towards the other guy holding tightly onto her left leg. Taking her left ankle, he pulled it behind the chair also, allowing him to re-cuff them to hold her into place. Her legs were now spread wide with her feet trapped at a painful angle far behind her, the metal feeling like it was cutting into her bare skin.

Vic then felt something rest against the middle of her lower arms, maybe a piece of rope. A moment later, her arms were pulled further downward, making her chest slightly protrude outward at the motion of being bent backwards. She then saw the guard move away, but her body did not slacken from the strained position it was now in. He had probably secured the rope around her arms to the back support bar of the chair.

"My, my," she heard from the doorway.

Looking over, she already knew that it was Rumlow by the sleaziness of his voice. Behind him was another guard holding up a small recording device of some kind, that looked like a bit older technology. There was a small red light on, which she figured to mean it was currently recording, and probably had been since the door opened.

The guards then checked their work before filing out past Rumlow, without a glance back at her. "I expected better behavior from you after your little nap."

The cuffs on her wrists were getting very painful but she was more concerned with everything else going on to let it get to her right now. This was something new, which was probably going to be bad, even without the insult she was about to give him.

"Then you're not very bright, crater face!" Vic harshly spit out at him, pulling to test the bonds just to make sure.

Rumlow took the three steps forward and Vic braced herself as he slapped her face hard. She felt the chair slightly tip to the side from the impact but she quickly recovered. If they were recording this to show Steve and Bucky that she was still alive, then it may be her only chance to get a message out to them. But how? Rumlow would erase anything she said aloud.

So how do you send a message without saying it outright?

Rumlow then walked around to the back of the chair where she could not see him. His hand then reached around and grabbed a hold of her jaw again, forcing her teeth apart. Vic felt the ball gag slip back into place before he tightened it down. The filming guard then moved into the cell, making sure to keep the camera focused on the two of them.

Rumlow then rested both of his hands onto her shoulders, rubbing firmly, making her squirm to try and get them off. Instead he pressed his lower abs against the back of her head, while she could feel his firm shaft against her back, making her feel sicken at his touch. His hands then began to move down over her breast, but Vic realized that she couldn't think about him right now.

But watching the asshole with the camera, Victoria remembered a tale from Wade and realized there _was_ something that she could do.

Rumlow then began talking to the camera as his clammy hands ran over her body. He listed his demands that he expected Bucky and Steve to obey to keep her safe. She knew that this was going to be difficult for them to watch, but how Vic hoped they did and that they noticed…specifically Bucky.

The entire time that he was touching her, talking, Vic solely focused on the camera on front of her. She made sure to keep her face blank, as much as she could with fingers exploring from her breasts to her crotch. Vic had to force herself to keep concentrating. Eventually, the guard turned the camera off, exiting the cell, leaving her alone with Rumlow.

"I would have thought that you would have put up a bit more fight, bitch," he said allowing his hands to keep traveling down across her chest. "Does that mean you like this? That you want me to touch you?"

At that point, Vic leaned her head forward as much as she could before throwing it backwards into his gut as her answer. She knew that it probably didn't hurt him, and if he had been wearing his armor, she never would have done that move, but it was all she was capable of with the way he had her bound. His response was to laugh at her, before walking around to her front.

"Pathetic," he said crouching down in front of the chair, right between her spread legs. She tried pulling her knees in tight, but they didn't move more than a half an inch. "I hope those bastards of yours like the show I gave them. It will probably be the last time they see you…while knowing who you are. I figured they would need some _incentive_ to obey my demands, as soon as possible. I had hoped to make them suffer for a few days, but they found the warehouse _too quick_ for my liking."

So the group was back in town _and_ it sounded like they found her message. Rumlow then placed his hands on her knees, and began to slowly run them up her legs. With the struggling she had already done, Vic knew that it was pointless to do anything else. The metal cuffs were already cutting into her four limbs, digging rut lines into her skin. Fighting him would only make them worse, or possibly, make him more eager. So instead, Vic decided to try another avenue with Rumlow…boredom.

As his hands began to wander over her crotch area, she made as much of a yawn sound that she could from behind the ball gag. His hands continued to rub and touch her between her legs but luckily staying on the outside of her shorts, but she just stared off at the concrete walls as if they were more interesting. She would not let this asshole get to her.

Suddenly, Vic felt a slap across her face. Rumlow had finally noticed.

"Don't worry, bitch. I'm sure that you will find what I plan to do to you in a little while _much more_ interesting than this. In a matter of hours, both the Asset and the Captain will have been wiped clean by the Chair. They won't remember anything about you. And if they do, I'll have them wiped again and again. Now, I need to go make sure that little video gets sent to them, and then, you're all mine. Have fun sitting there."

Rumlow then stood up and walked out of the room, turning the light off once again, not bothering to release her from the painful position she was sitting in on the chair. At least this was more fun that having his disgusting thin-crust pizza hands all over her.


	71. Demands and Secret Messages

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, but the holidays were a bit hectic since I flew half way across the country for a few days. I should be able to start posting two chapters a day by next week.

" _Boss, there is a bicycle delivery messenger in the lobby with an envelope. It is listed as a special delivery using the names: The Captain and The Asset_ ," FRIDAY's voice informed him as well as the three others remaining in the room while they were continuing to work on how to track Vic. Hearing those two names, especially HYDRA's nickname for Bucky, everyone stopped what they were doing.

"Put that messenger on the elevator to us with two guards on him," he announced swiveling on his stool to face the elevator doors.

"This should be Rumlow's demands," Natasha said coming around the desk to stand next to him.

Wade, Sam, Clint, and Pepper had disappeared to find sustenance for everybody saying they needed something to do. Bucky and Steve were quietly standing off to the side next to another monitor with the video that Redwing had transmitted back after Sam had sent it off to scan the top levels of the building in the Midtown area. They were running it while using facial recognition hoping that somehow Vic showed up on it, but so far there was no trace of her or Rumlow. The third man from the video, the nicely dressed one they figured was Jonathan Weiss, had kept his face turned away from all cameras in the warehouse, so the program was not able to track him at all. FRIDAY had found listings for 83 different men with that name in the greater New York area so that didn't help much at all.

When the doors opened up, the bike messenger stepped out onto the floor, staring with wide eyes at the partial Avengers' group before him. Tony was actually amused at seeing the look. In his hand was a small plain manila envelope.

"And here I was expecting a bouquet of flowers to help soften the blow," he sounded disappointed while standing up from his stool and walking over to the guy. He noticed that Bucky also moved towards him swiftly. When he got close enough, Bucky grabbed the hat off of the man's head, staring intently at it. Turning towards Steve, he tossed the item at him, Steve catching it in mid-air.

"Hey, that's mine!" the messenger said before Bucky turned back to look at him, a menacing scowl on his face. "Never mind."

"What do you have?" Tony asked again, finally pulling the man's attention away from the looming assassin.

"I have direct orders to personally hand this to someone called Captain or Asset," he told them holding out the envelope in his hand for someone to take. Of course Bucky snatched it from him, ripping the end off and letting the cheap memory stick drop into the palm of his hand.

"How barbaric!" Tony cried out in mock horror at seeing the device before taking the stick from Bucky, pretty sure that he probably didn't know what to do with it. As he headed over to a terminal to see what information was on it, Steve moved over to question the messenger.

"How did you get the envelope?" he asked the man, handing him back the hat. Taking a better quick glance at it, Tony then realized that the messenger worked for the same company that Vic had last year. He chuckled remember how they had teased Cap with the ' _silly hat with wings'_ comment for weeks.

"A kid came into the messenger office with the envelope and two-hundred dollars cash to pay for it to be personally delivered immediately to Stark Tower to the names on the front," he told them slowing inching back away from where Bucky was staring down at him.

"A kid?" Natasha asked stepping next to Steve.

"Yeah, about high school age. He said a guy stopped him on the street and paid him to deliver it to us," he explained.

"So not even a henchman on video making the drop," Nat said moving away to now come and stand by him to easier view the screen.

At that point, Steve asked a few more questions but Tony was no longer interested in the messenger. The screen told him there was only one video on the entire stick. It was time stamped about twenty minutes after Steve and Bucky's panic attack. If Vic had indeed passed out for a bit, then this was probably recorded minutes after she woke up.

"Do you think that we need to view it once without them?" Nat quietly asked casually glancing back at the two men as they led the messenger the few steps to the guarded elevator to leave.

"I would rather take them back to the warehouse to view it so they could smash _it_ up instead of my Tower," he said looking at the data to see if there was any useful information that could lead them to Vic. They must have used some older device without a GPS or other tracking program so _that_ was a bust.

As the two menacing soulmates turned to face him before striding over, Tony held up a single hand indicating for them to stop. He was slightly tickled that they both actually did.

"Before I play this video, I want a pinky swear from _both of you_ that you will _not_ lay a hand on _any_ of my equipment and pretend that you are Bruce. No ' _Steve smash_ '. No ' _Bucky smash_ '. This is non-negotiable," he informed them, sitting there on his stool staring at them, extending his right pinky out for them to take. Bucky glared at him with the scowl Tony had expected, while Steve seemed to be _considering_ his comment.

"Maybe we _should_ let them watch it once, just so someone is prepared for whatever is on the video," Steve calmly pointed out, turning to Bucky for a response.

Bucky turned towards Steve, his face tight with emotion. "We already know what Rumlow wants. If it was just demands, he could have written them down. Instead, he sent a video. _Vic_ is _on_ that video!"

The moment that Steve's head dropped, Tony knew to get his insurance agent's number ready on his cellphone.

"Do you want to wait for Wade and the others?" Natasha asked.

"No, they might be a while. Let's watch it so we know exactly what we are dealing with," Steve answered as the four of them moved so they could all stand in front of the larger screen.

Tony took a final sigh, looked around his beautiful undamaged lab, and hit play.

The first few moments were the sounds of feet scuffling in an empty hall outside of a metal door. The door then opened and two guards in hoods went inside. The cameraman moved to the doorway, aiming inside.

" _What the fuck is going on_?" they all heard Vic yell as the video showed her being lifted from the ground and held against the wall by the guards.

Tony first noticed that the straitjacket and ball gag were gone, which may or may not be a good thing. But now, Vic was wearing nothing but her biking outfit again. He couldn't tell why but her arms were not visible. Another body appeared with a metal chair and they watched as Vic was tossed around roughly and was being secured uncomfortably down to it. The video was shaky so he clicked a few buttons to have FRIDAY steady the shot.

" _Let me go, you tentacle-up-the-ass loving motherfuckers!_ " Vic's creative cursing causing him to laugh, which earned him a glare from all three of them. _They had **no** sense of humor_, he thought. Vic would like that he enjoyed her comment.

As Rumlow made his appearance, both Steve and Bucky froze in place. Again Vic insulted him and received a hard slap for her effort, seeing the chair slightly tilt from it. Bucky's arm then started to go off as he formed his fist. After securing the gag back into place, Rumlow began to run his hands all over Vic's body while he just kept looking into the camera to taunt them, making _him_ feel sick to his stomach. How could _they_ both watch this? That was when he noticed that Bucky was barely watching the screen and that Steve had placed his arm on his back to comfort him. It must have helped because the calibrating sound eased off, leaving the room silent.

Rumlow continued his groping of Vic as he began to inform Steve and Bucky that they were to head to a set of coordinates which he then supplied. FRIDAY instantly popped up a smaller screen showing an area associated with western upstate New York. Only less than an hour trip by Quinjet, but in the opposite direction from the Avengers training facility. As Rumlow talked about how the two of them would both be wiped and become his own personal Assets, Tony wondered how Vic could stand to sit there. She almost looked bored as she calmly sat, pointedly stared straight ahead, and blinked at the camera, even as Rumlow's hands fondled between her legs. Tony really felt like an older brother wanting to beat up the guy who dared to touch his little sister. They were given two hours as the deadline before arriving otherwise he threatened to put Vic into the Chair in place of them. The video then dropped off.

Now they were working inside of a deadline, Tony thought. If time started running out, what would the two of them do to make sure Vic was safe? He may have to tell FRIDAY to have a Level Red room prepared for the two of them if they tried complying with the demands. Tony was positive that the entire team and Wade would agree with the action. Setting the Winter Solider back out into the world with Rumlow in control of him was not an option. Adding a brainwashed Captain America to that, then there was no chance of anyone stopping Rumlow.

Everyone was standing there quite for a few moments processing what they had just seen along with the demand. It was Natasha who finally spoke.

"Was it just me, or did Vic almost seem…blasé with Rumlow touching her?"

Bucky then turned the scowl he been wearing most of the day on her, needing to direct his anger somewhere, but then Steve chimed in, "There _was_ something off with Victoria."

"Vic has been fighting every single time we've seen her, but yet, this time, she's quiet once Rumlow starts in with his demands," Natasha responded. "It was slightly creepy how she was just staring at the camera, just letting him touch her without even struggling."

"If it wasn't for the beginning of the video, I would say that Vic seemed resigned to her fate," Tony replied, dragging the video back to the first frames again. The hallway was pretty plain and standard, concrete and metal doors, nothing useful, and not exactly _penthouse_ material. Even the room she was in was more like a plain industrial cell, with not even a bed this time. Could it be the penthouse of an office building?

"I don't think that Rumlow is going to be at the location he gave," Steve finally said taking a few steps around as he thought. "He would never just give his location away knowing that we could send the team in and take him down."

"Maybe he figures that he could use Vic as a hostage if we did that," Nat said following his logic.

"Still…it would be too sloppy for him. Too much of a chance for him to be captured," Steve mused.

Muting the video so he didn't have to listen to Rumlow's annoying voice, Tony began to do another playback, hoping to find something in the room to help them. Vic had left a message on a wall once, so he wanted to scan the background to see if she had done it again.

As Steve and Natasha moved off to the side to discuss what they needed to do, Bucky took up residence behind him to the side a few feet away. Great...nothing like a _looming assassin_ to make concentrating easier, Tony thought as the video continued. Trying to scan the walls behind her, his eyes kept coming back to Vic's, which were staring right at him blinking erratically, as if she had something in her eyes.

He found it very distracting...not to mention creepy.

Mumbling to himself, he said, "I wish she'd stop doing that…"

"What?" he heard from much closer.

Turning his head slightly, Bucky was right next to him, the closest he had been since being tossed like a lawn dart at a wall earlier today. And here he was without a suit on.

"Staring and blinking. It's creepy, like...china-doll-blinking-eyes-creepy," Tony answered, adding parameters to search the video for anything he may have missed.

A few moments later, Bucky's left hand planted itself on his chest, firmly pushing him back away from the screen, rolling him across the room on his stool towards where Nat and Steve were talking.

"You could have asked me to move, Bucky!" he yelled back at him as Steve caught the stool, ending his quick trip.

"Buck, what is it?" Steve asked noticing how intently he was staring at the screen he was now standing at.

Reaching up, Bucky rewound the video again. Playing it for only a few seconds more, he stopped it again.

"Vic did it," Bucky mumbled while running his hands all over his desk scattering everything on it. Finally he ended up with a pencil in his hands and a notepad on the desk below the screen. Hitting play again from the beginning of the video, he began to write down letters and number on the paper as the rest of them moved to surround him, trying to figure out what he was doing.

When the video had finished, Bucky picked the notepad up triumphantly with a smile.

"Here's the address of where Vic is!" he announced. "FRIDAY, pull up a map of Midtown!"

As Bucky then turned and began to scroll the map to the cross-streets, Steve asked, "How do you know?"

"Vic gave it to me," Bucky was smiling as he worked. "Tony mentioned her eyes. Without the sound, and ignoring Rumlow, I realized that the reason she seemed to be acting strange was because she was concentrating on blinking out a Morse code message."

"Are you _kidding_ me?" Tony said using his feet to roll back over to the screen. He played a few more seconds during the time she stared at the camera and realized now that he knew what to look for that Vic was in fact doing just that...even if he didn't know how to decipher it.

"Here," Bucky stated, pointing at the corner of two intersecting streets, which were surprisingly close. Taking in the position of the buildings, Tony stood up and walked to the far end of the room, looking out of the large window. There, off in the short distance, were the four tall buildings that made up that corner.

"She's right there," Tony said pointing at the area, Natasha coming up next to him.

"But which building?" Nat pointed out.

"All of them would have a penthouse, so what else do we have?" Steve asked.

"FRIDAY, run all traffic camera footage from the streets surrounding those buildings today. Find the brown UPS truck," Tony instructed the AI before walking back over to the screen.

Steve then moved back over to the station he and Bucky had been at earlier with Redwings flight pattern on it. Typing away, Steve worked on something for a few moments. Tony then noticed that Natasha was at another terminal working also, doing what, he did not know.

After a minute, FRIDAY played two different videos of UPS trucks pulling off of the street into the two different garage areas to make deliveries. That narrowed the possibilities down from four to two buildings. Tony told them which two to concentrate on. He noticed that Bucky was now standing before the paused video showing Vic sitting on the floor, before the guards had entered the screen, all by herself.

"Here," Nat called out to get their attention while pointing to her screen, "These are the records of ownership for those two penthouses. This one _here_ happens to be owned by the Condax Company. Blackzim is the name of the company which owns the warehouse. _Both_ of them are _subsidiaries_ owned by Statholding Incorporated."

Steve then began typing away again, this time pulling up the video of Redwing's searches from earlier focusing on the time-frame of when it was passing by the building with Condax's penthouse. They saw a well dressed man sitting at an outdoor table on a terrace with two other men in suits standing guard near the glass doors for some reason. The table he sat at was set with place setting for three people, but two of the chairs were knocked over onto the ground.

"FRIDAY, scan for facial recognition during the flight around this address," Steve requested, letting the AI take over this part.

" _Captain, I have confirmed three of the five identities from the video_ ," FRIDAY announced.

"But there are only three people visible in the shot," Nat replied, having moved over to watch the fly-by for herself.

" _My scans recognize five bodies on the screen. The man sitting at the table is Jonathan Weiss, listed as Chief Executive Officer of the Statholding Inc. which owns the subsidiary for the penthouse. The other two men standing are listed as security guards for the Condax Company. The other two faces are too distorted by the glass for identity confirmation_ ," the AI told them.

"Where on the glass?" Steve asked as Bucky finally moved to stand by his side.

" _The bottom left corner_ , _Captain_ ," they were told.

Everyone then focused on the screen as Tony moved the still frame around to see what they had missed. Until he enlarged the mentioned area they still didn't see anything. But there, in the reflection of the glass wall, they realized there were two human forms lying behind the terrace's wall far away from the table, out of sight from Redwing's initial scans. One was sitting upright, wearing all black. The other was lying prone on the ground, bare skin showing on their legs with light hair on their head.

"That's Victoria!" Steve exclaimed as Tony then looked at the timestamp of the shot.

"This was less than a minute after the panic attack stopped," Tony carefully told them pointing at the time display.

"Rumlow didn't just hold Vic up against a _window_! That _bastard_ held her over the _open ledge_!" Bucky yelled, his arm whirling as he raised his fist to hit something.

Tony, quickly reached out and grabbed a hold of the metal limb, stopping him from smashing down on the computer console that he had personally built.

"Please…not my equipment! Remember…pinky swear!" he smiled playfully while holding Bucky's arm in place with both of his hands, trying to calm the assassin down. Hopefully when he did swing, Bucky wouldn't aim for his gorgeous face, Tony thought. "Take it out on Rumlow, cold and deadly! Hell, I'm going help you beat that man to a pulp for messing with my little drummer girl!"

Watching, he noticed that Bucky's stance slightly eased as hearing his playful words, which Tony was a bit startled to find that they actually worked in calming him down. Bucky's arm was just going down, and his expression easing up a bit, as the elevator doors opened back up. This allowed Pepper, Clint, Wade, and Sam, back from getting food, as well as Wanda and Pietro, just arriving back from the warehouse, to get a view of the two men seeming to hold hands. Fantastic...the entire team got a great view of the sight.

"Well... _there's_ something I never thought I would see," Sam commented, stepping in with his arms full of bags of food and a drink carrier.

Pepper just shook her head at them, explaining, "Tony can't help but get under _everyone's_ skin. Usually it's in a bad way, but with that _annoying charm_ of his, it will _eventually_ break you down. Luckily I'm not the jealous type," while moving over to a desk that had enough empty space to put her own food pile on to.

The two men then broke contact and took a step apart, _knowing_ that they would be hearing about _this_ again.

"We found Vic's location!" Steve then stated, informing everyone with a smile but looking directly at Wade.

"Where's my girl?" Wade anxiously asked, putting down more food containers. Natasha went over and took a hold of his hand, leading him over to the same window he had gone to a little while ago. Clint followed right behind them to get his own view.

"See that building right there?" Nat was pointing at the location. "That's where Vic is."

"How do you know?" Sam asked pulling out the burgers and fries that they had gotten for everyone.

As they began to explain how the messenger showed up with the video, they pointed out all of the other leads that led them to the penthouse at that address.

"I can't believe Vic thought of doing that," Clint commented at hearing about how she blinked out the message.

"Commander Denton," Wade firmly stated, getting everyone's attention.

"Who?" Steve asked.

"Back in 1965, Commander Denton's plane was shot down over North Korea. During an interview they forced him to do, he blinked out in Morse Code the word 'torture' for the camera. One of my specialty instructors told us about it so that if we ever got caught we could use the same technique. I told Vic about it years ago. Of course she remembered."

"You have the _strangest_ bedtime stories," Clint grinned at the man, which actually made Wade give a slight smile.

Tony went over and grabbed a burger while everyone else went through the material, starting to eat it while thinking of what they would need now. Moving to another terminal, he began to pull up construction documents filed with the city at construction time as well as an additional file about a renovation that happened a few years ago, right after the outing of HYDRA. Sam informed them that he was sending Redwing back to the penthouse and having it give scans from the exterior out of sight of the windows which was quickly agreed to. Redirecting the drone, it would only be a few minutes before they hopefully had useful information.

Eating while scrolling through blueprints, Tony didn't notice that someone was standing behind him until a familiar silver arm passed over his shoulder to point at a hallway on the screen.

"There. One of these doors is where Vic is," Bucky informed him, pointing out a collection of smaller rooms whose dimensions matched the video they had shown.

"The doors show wiring for electronic locks, but they are also connected to a generator backup, located here," Tony told him, pointing to a mechanical room on the edge of the building away from the living area. "Even if we cut the power to the penthouse, Rumlow would still be able to access Vic's cell," he informed him, not actually wanting to say the word hostage.

"We are going to have to somehow get eyes on the inside of that place," Steve said, appearing on his other side, eating his own burger. He heard a rustling behind him as Steve passed Bucky a burger to eat. "Eat it. We're not going in with your stomach growling to give away our advantage."

FRIDAY then chimed in saying that tactical readings of the penthouse were ready for access. Tony then pulled up a 3D floor plan of the two level penthouse on a holo-image in the center of the so that everyone was able to view it. Clint requested the building surrounding it be included so that he could find a good vantage point to set up in. Pulling up Redwing's scans of the immediate area, he included the other nearby buildings in the 3D scan.

Tony mentioned that he could easily get inside using his suit to fly in, but he would only be able to take one of the very anxious super-soldiers with him. Wanda pointed out that she would have problems flying up the outside the tall building due to the wind shear. Examining the plans, they all saw that there were no longer stairs accessing the penthouse. There had been a door for emergencies due to fire, but thanks to Redwings scans it looked like they had used concrete blocks to prevent it from being used.

"Nat, Wanda, Pietro, and I can use the elevator shaft for entry from that direction. Wanda can levitate us up the shaft with no problem getting us to here," Steve said pointing to the front hallway. "Pietro can then get to the mechanical room and turn off primary power as well as take out the generator. That will lock Victoria's cell so Rumlow can't get to her. He can then move on to the guards. Wanda and Nat can handle any other guards wandering around while I push for the cell."

"Assuming that Vic is still in it when we get there," Bucky harshly pointed out. Tony realized what was disturbing him by just remembering the video from the warehouse. He had threatened to sexually assault her and now he was at a location with bedrooms. He could easily make good on his threat… _have_ made good. He wasn't going to think like that.

"I can take Bucky in with me through the terrace where Vic was," Tony said hoping to get Bucky's mind off of the disturbing topic. "Sam could access the upper bedroom level."

"I'll head out now and keep watch from this point with a bug device from my new gun in place," Clint told them, indicating a roost he could use on the building across the street. He would be able to see into the living room through the terrace with no problem. "I'll let you know if I see any movement on Vic or Rumlow. When Sam moves in, he can grab me along the way."

"Have you taken into account that from where they are, they have a good view of this metal monstrosity?" Wade then interrupted. "They could have eyes on this place waiting to see that jet of yours taking off, supposedly with the two of you on board. Or even at the garage looking for vehicles to leave."

"He's right," Nat then agreed, crossing her arms, considering his words carefully. "We had surprise when it came to the warehouse. If they are watching to see if the two of you are going to meet Rumlow's demands and we try to leave from here for them, they could easily hurt Vic before we get there and get inside."

"We'll need a distraction," Steve said looking out of the lab down towards where the Quinjet was sitting. "Wade, with FRIDAY's help, do you think you can handle the Quinjet, taking it out and towards the direction that Rumlow's expecting?"

"That shouldn't be a problem. It couldn't be any harder to fly than the stuff that I used to," Wade agreed nodding approvingly. "But that still leaves the problem of getting out of here and over to there."

Tony came up with perfect solution, bringing a smile to his face.

"Oh, Clint! Where exactly _is_ that _hidden passage_ of yours?"

"Aww, man..." Clint whined brokenheartedly. "Now I'm going to have to find a new one."

"What about transportation?" Natasha then asked. "I don't really feel like walking all that way."

Bucky then suggested, "Nat, think you can head out with Clint right now and find us a delivery truck to use? We might as well use their own play against them."

Tony considered the suggestion a good one.

"Sure. With it, we can drive right into their building," she nodded in agreement.

Steve then informed the group, "Alright, then. Once we are all in position, we'll let Wade know so that he can have the Quinjet leave. This should have any guards focus on the Tower and maybe give us a bit more of a surprise on them. We'll move in at almost the same time. Using the elevator shaft will take a bit longer than the exterior flight time, but if we move in too soon it could activate an alarm on it."

All of them were in agreement and broke into the different groups to converse before heading out. Tony noticed that Steve and Bucky moved off to the side a bit, talking privately. He knew the topic was Victoria. After a moment, Bucky nodded at whatever Steve said, gave each other a tight hug, and they split up, Bucky heading right for him.

"So, exactly how are you getting me up to the penthouse?" he asked to which Tony could only smile.

"Have you ever seen a trapeze act at a circus?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you figure out how the message was sent? Commander Denton's tale is true. You can view the actual footage on Youtube, but you'll find it under Admiral Denton since he was promoted before retiring. 
> 
> Thanks to everyone for the reviews and kudos! I'm glad that I've been able to keep you excited with the story.


	72. Horrible Meditations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter starts just before the flash drive leaves the penthouse to be delivered to the guys and covers just about an hours time.  
> Brace yourselves...

**Hydra Penthouse  
A Short Time Earlier**

Rumlow watched as the guard left in the elevator to get the package with his demands delivered to the Tower. He chuckled as he pictured a messenger from the very company that bitch had worked at handing off the envelope to his two new Assets. They would recognize the company logo and know that he had been watching her for some time, studying her.

That should _really_ make them mad...and just wait until they _watched_ the video.

He found himself rubbing his rough, scarred hands together as he recalled touching Victoria's warm body just a few minutes ago. She had fought the guards when they first entered the room, but with how he had ordered her painfully secured for the video, along with the gag to prevent her from talking, she had not been able to stop his advances.

Walking back into the large living area, he picked up a glass and poured himself another whiskey, taking a seat while he reminisced about the how everything was working out. Damn Weiss and his suggestion, but the demands had been sent and he really didn't give a fuck how much he drank anymore.

It had been just over three years now since he had been disfigured by that Helicarrier crashing into the building where he had been beating the shit out of Falcon. Once the burns had healed into the tough scars, he found that his resistance to a lot of different types of damage had been minimized.

Testing out different weapons, he also found that electrical shocks didn't work anymore either. It had made him an even more formidable opponent in the field. The nerves on his skin had been so damaged that he no longer felt any real sensation to normal touches, improving his overall stamina.

Unfortunately, that also meant that when he had been touching Victoria during the video, it had been the _pressure_ of the touch, not the smooth feeling of her skin, which he could only guess was as soft as it looked.

But another downside that he found out later was that when it came to being intimate, finding a female willing to be with him was problematic. Even the paying ones sometimes turned him down. There had even been a few that had commented about his appearance, giving him ample reason to hurt them…sometimes permanently.

But it seemed that he had been handed a second chance.

Victoria was the key to claiming his new Assets. Even with wiping them, the soulmark that they all possessed would help keep them in line when they saw it. All he had to do was decide if he really wanted to have _her_ wiped or not.

After threatening Victoria with it as a possibility, she had finally seemed frightened at how she was now at his mercy, calming down long enough for the ride to the penthouse. But her attitude had once again grown defiant after getting here. The thought of not wiping her, keeping her as his own playtoy while she watched her two soulmates obey his every commands made his blood start to pump. His hatred and need for revenge against Cap had only steadily grown for the past few years.

Knowing that she would fully understand what was being done to Cap and the Asset would only make her captivity even sweeter. Thinking of her fighting him every single time he fucked her, Victoria's firm body struggling underneath of his as he took her over and over was already making him hard again. If he had her wiped, yes, she would be compliant and do whatever he wanted, but for some reason it just didn't excite him as much as he had let on to her in the cell.

Rumlow wasn't sure how long he had been staring out of the large window looking out at Stark Tower while he had finished off his drink. He had been too focused on imagining what Victoria would feel like under him, screaming for, not one but two soulmates to rescue her, which was never going to happen. Having her scream would mean he'd have to listen to her damn insults, but it may be totally worth it.

Just another reason to beat her.

Weiss had disappeared earlier from the balcony and he wasn't even sure if he was still in the penthouse, but he doubted that he would leave with him here. He saw the looks that Weiss had given him since he had arrived yesterday to finally put this plan into action.

But as long as Weiss continued to keep the companies running so that he had the money he needed, as well as obeying every command that he gave him, let him give disappointing looks behind his back.

He eventually heard footsteps behind him as one of his guys entered the room. He turned to face the man.

"Sir, did you want the prisoner left bound to the chair, or do you want her free to move about?"

Rumlow considered his options for a moment as he walked over to refill his glass. He had needed her still for the video and he had also instructed his men to make sure the position he wanted her in was not only tight but painful.

With her legs being pulled apart and then her feet forced back behind the seat, her legs would be aching in no time at all. Her arms were already secured in that uncomfortable up position, but he had then had her arms harshly secured by pulling them down behind her back. This would not only hurt her arms more but it forced her chest to arch unnaturally outward, exposing her for him to touch.

Sitting back down in one of the oversized comfortable chairs, he smiled as he considered the difference between how they were seated.

"Leave her like that for now. I might move her in a little while, once the pain finally gets to the bitch," he decided swishing the brown liquid around in the glass.

The guard nodded his agreement and left him alone. Maybe Victoria would be a bit more compliant if he used releasing her from the chair as a reward for obeying him, or at least not talk as much as she usually did.

Rumlow was finishing off his drink when Weiss strode into the room, looking pleased with himself.

"I have been monitoring the Tower for activity and our man out front watched as the delivery messenger went into the building. He was then escorted to the private elevator reserved for Stark and the Avengers to use. A short time later, he reappeared and left. The package was delivered and by now, they have had some time to watch it and consider their options," Weiss said filling his own glass with the last of the whiskey he had been eyeing for the past few minutes.

"I don't think that it will take them too long to decide. The Captain is much too wholesome for his own good. He would never let the Asset turn only himself over in exchange for the safety of the girl," he said putting down the empty glass he had been thoughtlessly holding for some time onto the table next to his chair.

"Then I have no doubt that once they convince their companions to allow them to leave, we should have a fine view from here," Weiss said taking the chair next to his.

Hearing Weiss say that gave him an idea. With an evil grin, Rumlow stood up and resolutely walked from the room.

Arriving at the door to Victoria's cell, he opened it and turned on the light, grinning as the brightness fell over her. She had been sealed in the darkness since arriving here hours ago, with lunch and the filming of the video being her only reprieve so far.

She squinted towards the door where he stood and he saw the moment she realized that it was him. Her face looked strained, as if she were trying to hold back the pain she was feeling from registering on it.

Walking inside of the cell, he began by gently touching her bare upper arm with his hand. Slowly he started to circle behind her chair, dragging his fingertips across her shoulders then moving to the front of her collarbone. He observed how the cuffs had formed red rings around her wrists and above her elbows.

He also noticed that Victoria didn't even try to struggle, making him hope that it meant her muscles had been strained so they were beginning to lose feeling. It would help to keep control over the bitch.

Reaching the spot right above her soulmark, he used his fingertips to pull her shirt down to view the damn item again. He had seen the Asset's quite a few times while they had been stationed at the Vault, but nobody had even _joked_ about Captain America as a possible match. He had know the Asset had been around for a while, but he had not put the timing together to even conceive that they had known each other.

When the Asset had talked about knowing the 'man on the bridge', he had just assumed that what Pierce had told him was the truth. Had Pierce known that the Asset had been Barnes all those years ago? Even if he had, he had not considered their connection through their soulmark.

Moving his fingers, he let them drift off to the side, caressing the tops of her breast that was not trapped in the tight damn sports bra that she wore underneath her tank top. Lifting his other hand, he mirrored the touch with it as she began squirming her body nicely in the chair trying to evade his wanderings. He then pressed down enough so that his hands were finally able to slide underneath the taut material, the sound of stitches ripping as he did so.

Feeling her large round breasts finally in his hands, he began squeezing hard. _That_ got a response out of her, as Victoria tried yelling at him from behind the lovely red ball gag.

"What's that? Touch you _more_?" he taunted her as he let his fingers find their way to her nipples. It only took a couple of strokes before he felt them harden at his touches, bringing a smile to his face, and an angry scream from his new toy.

With a quick move, Rumlow planted his knee onto the chair seat between legs, slamming it forward swiftly until it impacted hard with her open exposed crotch, the chair scooting back a bit from the force he put behind the action. Victoria howled at the painful strike that there was no way for her to avoid.

Another smile crossed his face as he watched her eyes start to show the fear he now realize he was longing for. His hands then began to wander over the to the sides of her breasts, trying to cup them the best that he could.

Once he had the bitch moved upstairs and her body tightly bound to the bed, then he could have the infernal bra keeping the voluptuous items from him removed. Picturing himself slicing her minuscule clothes away with one of his knives gave him such a rush that he gripped both of her breast as hard as he could, digging his fingers into the sensitive tissue. Victoria could only scream at him, so he slammed his knee hard into her groin again to get her attention, the chair moving back yet again.

"I'm going to have _so much fun_ with you," he provocatively declared, taking her nipples between his fingers and twisting them hard as Victoria continually cried out from the pain. He kept applying more and more pressure until he finally saw the tears forming in the corner of her eyes. Remembering her earlier comment, he told her, "Trust me when I say that _right now_ , I'm _definitely_ hard enough to make sure that you _will feel_ it."

Leaning down, he pressed the left side of his face, the one that he knew was the worst burnt, against her cheek, rubbing it around knowing how it would disgust her. Some of the loose strands of her exquisite white hair were now touching his own face and he noticed a lovely tropical scent coming off of her, which he recognized as coconut. "You smell delicious enough to eat. Definitely to fuck! All you have to do is tell me not to."

Victoria then began mumbling behind the gag and figured that she _might_ be begging for him to not violate her, or _maybe_ to let her go, but more than likely…she was cursing at him yet again.

Giving him a reason to hurt her.

Oh, yes, he decided, _not_ wiping her would _positively_ be more fun for him.

His fingers continued to knead at her breasts, between squeezing as hard as he could and pinching anything graspable while she squirmed and cried, not to mention giving a few more solid strikes to her pelvis with his knee as at least _he_ enjoyed this brief time together.

Seeing a tear finally slide from her eye, he began to laugh, keeping his face close to hers, almost touching. Seeing her like this, with a bit of help from the alcohol coursing through him, was such a rush to his system, being even more enjoyable than when he was killing. Freeing his hands from the inside of her clothing, Rumlow supported himself with one knee resting on the seat while his hands caressed down the sides of her warm, hard body.

"Once my two Assets are wiped, they will be mindless creatures doing my bidding, killing whoever I want, obeying my every command. And then, as a reward, I will have them beaten _over_ and _over_ again, only having my men stop torturing them once _you_ get down naked on your _knees_ at my feet and _beg_ me to _fuck you_ in front of them. With their serum-infused bodies, I know they can take _a lot_ of pain, but how long will _you_ allow it to continue before giving in to me?"

Her face had now reddened while showing the agony that she felt at hearing that threat, with tears freely running down her rosy cheeks. Tiling his head over, Rumlow ran his tongue up her cheek, moaning as he licked up the salty tears off of her velvety skin. Victoria tried to turn away from him, but he roughly grabbed the leather strap that crossed her right cheek, his fingernails raking into her skin, leaving his nails' scratch marks.

Now in control of her head's movements, he pulled it hard to the right, exposing the soft flesh of her neck. He ran his tongue from the base all the way up to her ear, tasting a bit of saltiness from her dried sweat, but he found it delightful.

As she began to struggle against him, he clamped down painfully with his teeth right in the center of her neck. Hearing her scream from the pain, he dug in a bit more, making sure that he left a lasting impression...literally.

Finally releasing the soft flesh once he tasted blood, he already missed the feeling of her body jerking against his. He knew that there would be plenty of bruises and marks later, but seeing those already made, Rumlow smiled at the idea of giving her something more right now, maybe by marking her body as now being _his_ , and not his Assets'.

Pulling back from her a bit, he roughly grabbed Victoria's shirt with his left hand, exposing her soulmark again. Glaring up at him with fright in her eyes, Rumlow gave her a wicked smile as well as a kissing motion with his lips. Then, with his right hand, he cruelly dug his nails into her skin, dragging them painfully across her chest area, giving the entire smooth area four distinct deep slash marks going straight over her soulmark.

Victoria was screaming for him to stop while doing jerking hard movements in the chair, no doubt injuring her wrists and ankles even more. Smiling, Rumlow glared at the red areas of raw flesh and blood that now existed where he had removed the top layers of her skin with his jagged nails.

"It seems like you now have a couple of large ' _Do Not'_ slashes over your precious soulmark. Looks like _they_ aren't welcomed _here_ ," driving his knee hard into her groin area one final time, "anymore!"

Now, he was ready to do what he had originally come in here to do. Hopefully he hadn't missed the show.

He released her shirt, allowing it to fall back into place covering the permanently damaged item. Maybe later on he would carve himself a new one into her skin.

Stepping a foot back from Victoria, who looked utterly distraught, he smiled down at her, hoping he hadn't broken her too much. He wanted her still in a fighting mood in a little while. That way, he could punish her as Victoria's sweet body squirmed underneath of his as he roughly fucked her.

"I think that a change of scenery is in order," he informed her then called out loudly, "Guards!"

Within seconds, three of his men had appeared at the doorway.

"Leave her in the chair, but carry it into the living room," he instructed as two of them filed in, taking places at the front and back of her chair to move the crying bitch.

* * *

Victoria could hardly care that she was being moved from the cell as the two guards picked her chair up and carried her down the hallway. The heat from the scratches on her chest and the bite mark on her neck were radiating strongly.

With how her arms were being pulled back behind her, she was unable to actually see what Rumlow had done to her soulmark, but she had no reason to doubt his words at what he claimed to see. Vic wondered how bad it really was…if it was bleeding…if it would leave permanent marks…

Steve would probably never want run his fingers over it again as he liked to do. It would always be a reminder of Rumlow now.

Her crotch area was throbbing with pain from where Rumlow kept hitting her with his knee. With the first hit, she had tried to close her legs, but the cuffs had no give to them and Vic was sure they had cut into her skin with the effort. They kept her completely exposed for him to abuse. Vic had never had an injury down there, but after those hits, she guessed that her entire pelvis area was going to be a solid bruise. It had hurt more than when she had taken a knee to the stomach during practice with Wade. Probably because Rumlow was striking down right onto her bone.

But, she had no doubts that when Steve and Bucky got here, that Rumlow was a dead man, even without knowing what he had just said and done to her. Hell, if given the chance, she would happily pull the trigger herself, without hesitation. There was no way that a maniac like Rumlow needed to let back out into the world.

If he was willing to hurt her the way he already had, making the kind of threats that he did, what else would he do if given the chance. The Avengers had already been hunting this hobnocker for a long while, and hopefully, he had now messed up by taking her and then hanging around their back yard.

Please let Bucky have watched that video and figure out what she had done, she thought.

As they entered the den area, Rumlow walked over to where there was an open area right in front of the large glass wall, stopping to watch her being carried in.

"Put her right here," he told the guards pointing at a spot only a few feet away from the glass. She could feel herself start to panic from just thinking about being so close to the glass after the earlier incident. Out of every single time she had ever been scared due to a height, none of them even compared to that instant.

Vic started to feel horrible again at thinking of how Bucky and Steve would have felt that. Did they feel the different intensities of fear or just the overall sensation? She really hoped that they hadn't since they had never gotten around to checking on how much fear transferred between them.

But now Vic found herself being carried towards another bad spot, with a great view of Avengers Tower. The guards then put the chair down, leaving her as she focused on her home.

A quiet voice was suddenly at her ear, breathing on her, "Don't worry. I want you awake right now. Any minute now, my Assets should be leaving to make the deadline on my demands. I thought that you might like to see them leaving you behind to become mine."

Vic heard Rumlow walk from being right behind her to do something, getting her answer when she heard the sounds of liquor bottles and glasses chinking together. She had already smelled the whiskey on his breath earlier, wondering how much of his courage torturing her was supported by the stuff. The fact that he was going back for more troubled her.

He had already physically hurt her a couple of times before he had been drinking. What could he do to her if he had not inhibitions to stop him the next time? He had already told her that he planned on taking her upstairs to a bedroom later. Somehow she doubted that he would drink too much and just pass out.

"I take it that there was no movement while I was gone?" she heard Rumlow ask.

Turning her head, she spotted the man Weiss sitting in a plush chair off to the side, facing the Tower as she was, but definitely more comfortable than she was.

"No, nothing yet. But with the flight time to the coordinates, they will have to leave soon to make it," he commented, taking a sip from his own drink as he looked at her, his expression making her feel like a piece of garbage. Did Weiss know what had just been done to her? Vic was sure that he probably didn't care either way.

Rumlow appeared in her peripheral as he sat down in a matching chair next to Weiss. Since it hurt her neck too much to look at them, Vic turned back to stare at the Tower. There was _no way_ Steve and Bucky were ever going to give into his demands.

Rumlow was a fucking idiot.

"Her arms at not looking too good. Victoria may have been in that position for a bit too long. I'm sure you don't want any _permanent_ damage," Weiss told Rumlow, which she was a bit grateful for. Her arms had long ago passed the pins and needles stage. Now they just had an all-over pain radiating through them.

"And you think that she will just _sit_ there all nice and quiet?" Rumlow snidely remarked.

"I thought that was what the gag was for," Weiss dryly stated, sipping his own drink.

A few moments passed before she heard movement behind her. Even as hands then began to caress her arms, she could have told anyone it was Rumlow by his whiskey stench. But he did finally release the rope his man had tied to keep her arms pulled downward. As her body straightened up, she hadn't realized just how much pain her spine had also been receiving from sitting like that. Her body slumped forward on its own, trying to undo the awkward stretch it had been forced into. Vic then felt and heard the hinged cuffs around her upper arms being released from behind her back.

Rumlow held onto her wrists, pulling them around to her front, using one set of the cuffs on her wrists. If she had any feeling in her arms, Vic would have tried to fight him, but all she could feel was the agony of pins-and-needles from the nerves waking up with the blood being allowed to flow once again. It was a radiating pain all the way from her shoulders to her finger tips.

Surprisingly, Rumlow then released her legs allowing her to close them as he cuffed them back to how they had been for the trip here. He then took the second pair of cuffs from her arms and used it to link her wrists and ankles restraints.

Just as she was starting to enjoy the little freedom she had, Vic felt the chair she was sitting on yanked out from underneath her, depositing her roughly onto the floor, much too close to the window now. Vic quickly shut her eyes to make sure that the panic did not start.

Before she could even move away from the window, Rumlow grabbed a tight hold of her hair and used it to drag her towards the chair that he had been sitting in. Between the pain on her scalp and the carpet burn forming on her right thigh, she had plenty to scream about. Rumlow then sat back down, not releasing her hair. Instead, he used it to pull her head between his spread legs, making her sit on the floor between them as he peered down at her.

"Now, I want you on your knees, facing the Tower. I want you watching, waiting in _anticipation_ at them leaving. Knowing that they are _not_ coming for you," Rumlow gave a quick yank to her hair. Vic only glared at him, hating to do as he requested even though she did desperately wanted to see what happened. Vic didn't move, so Rumlow then pulled her head even closer to his body, specifically his groin area. "If you _don't_ , I'll remove that gag and give you _something_ _else_ to choke on!"

Loosening his grip a bit, she then rotated her body away from him so she could see the Tower, getting up onto her knees as he had requested. Due to how her arms were secured, she had to separate her knees a bit for her arms to rest between her legs thanks to the short length of chain. She took the opportunity to pull her shorts back down to cover as much of her legs as she could with the little material available.

"Don't bother trying to cover up, honey. Once they're gone, we get to head upstairs for some fun," Rumlow then told her before he punched the center of her back with his fist. As she screamed from the sudden pain, her body fell forward, her head resting on the floor for a moment to try and steady her nerves so she could figure out a plan of attack.

All she could do was hope that at least Bucky watched the video and figured her message out as she sat back up. If Bucky hadn't, then it was up to her to make sure that there was no way Rumlow was getting away with even _thinking_ he was going to fuck her.

Keeling there, Rumlow kept his legs pressed up against her as if trying to hold her in place. His hand kept playing with her hair that was now too easy for him to access. She knew that if she fought, that he would just punch her back again so she calmly sat, trying to figure a way to get out of here. If not, the moment Rumlow tried to take her from this room, he was in for a hell of a hard time.

Vic had only been sitting there like that for a few short minutes before Weiss' phone began to ring. She looked over at him, curious as to who would be calling.

"Hello…good…hold on," he instructed before taking the phone from his ear and holding it in his palm, hitting the speaker button. "Repeat what you just told me."

" _Sir, we have movement at the Tower. The hanger door just opened_ ," the male voice said.

Vic then turned her head back towards the Tower. From their position, they could make out the end of the platform, but not the doors themselves. She then realized that from where they were, if they could somehow see through the windows, they would have been able to see into Steve's bedroom.

"Here we go," Rumlow sounded too happy while giving her hip a hard nudging kick with his foot, as if he wanted to make sure that she was looking.

" _The Quinjet is starting to be rolled out_ ," she heard from the phone.

When it finally reached the end of the landing platform and began to unfold its wings, Vic began to scream at it, trying to get it to stop.

Bucky and Steve!

Those idiots!

They were actually going to give into this asshole's demands!

Why the hell would they do that for her? She was not worth the misery they would be put through. He was not actually going to release her. Rumlow had already stated that he needed her to keep them in line. The Chair could only do so much and when their memories started to come back, her _presence_ would guarantee that they obeyed Rumlow.

They had to know this!

Which was why she needed to remove herself from the equation, she firmly decided. She needed to make sure that her warriors were safe.

Rumlow then leaned over so he was much closer…

"Scream all you want, bitch, but they are _mine_!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...how badly were you screaming at the screen...compared to screaming at me? I told you that I wanted an evil Rumlow, and I think I accomplished that. Don't worry, everything happens for a reason...


	73. The Rescue

**A Bit Earlier**

* * *

Clint had an excellent view slightly down into the penthouse's den from his perch across the street in a cubbyhole created by the architecture of the building. Unless someone was actively trying to look for him, he seriously doubted that he would be spotted. He had shown Falcon exactly where he was going to be, and with a few steps to the side, Sam would have easy access to pick him up when it came time to make their move.

The moment he finished setting himself up in the spot, he had pulled out his Bug Gun, a nice little device he had Tony make up for him. After watching _The Dark Knight_ movie, he had loved the concept of the sticky bomb gun that Batman had used, but he had an idea that had taken it another direction. Instead of an explosive, wireless listening devices were attached to a substance that Tony created that would stick to almost anything. Taking aim at a corner of the large den window that he was facing, he shot one at the upper corner so that it was not easily spotted by someone on the inside. Linking it up to his earcom, he would be able to hear any conversations that would happen inside of the den.

"Alright, I'm set up and the bug is in place but so far it's pretty quiet," he said into his earcom, knowing that at least Nat was listening. He then activated the sticky bug to open on all channels so that the entire team could listen to any conversation it picked up.

" _We're about to head out once we finish reloading and gearing up. I swear, Bucky used every gun and bullet he had on him at the warehouse_ ," Nat responded. " _I have a delivery van waiting at your old secret entrance for us_."

"Gee, thanks for the reminder," Clint's voice dripping with sarcasm while pulling out his binoculars to get a better look inside of the place. It was very high-end from what he could tell of the furnishings. He could just make out the marble flooring of the foyer and the bottom of the elevator door. He may not be able to make out who was in it, but he would be able to see it opening and closing. Glancing back to the den, he spotted a target that brought a smile to his face. "I now have eyes on Rumlow, in the den area off the terrace. He's sitting in a chair drinking while facing the Tower, just watching it."

A few moments later, a guard appeared.

 _"_ _Sir, did you want the prisoner left bound to the chair, or do you want her free to move about?"_ the guard asked.

 _"_ _Leave her like that for now. I might move her in a little while, once_ _the pain finally gets to the bitch,"_ Rumlow told him.

At least now they had confirmation that Vic was still inside of the penthouse and had not been moved to another location. He had seen how strained her body had been during the video and knew from his own past experiences that she was definitely hurting.

" _Hopefully he keeps Vic locked in the cell. That would be the best place for her once the shooting starts_ ," Nat told him as he heard the familiar sounds of her checking and holstering her weapons.

Bucky's voice then sounded in his ear, " _Tell us the moment you have eyes on Vic_."

"Not a problem, Frosty," he humorously agreed.

" _You are no Tony_ ," was all he got back as a mumble.

"That's a good thing, right?" he smiled as he continued to scan all the visible rooms that he could see from here.

There was a large solid wall that he knew housed the security area as well as where Vic's probable cell was. There was no way for him to get eyes or ears in that general area. The bedrooms upstairs that he could see were also empty, but he did make out at least two guards up there, talking in the hallway as they walked around. There was no sign of other guards but if they had two just for empty bedrooms, there had to be much more. "Falcon, we will have at least two guys to deal with on our way in."

" _Not a problem_ ," Sam told him.

"Do you still have Redwing running scans?" he asked watching a pair of feet move across the foyer. Male, military boots. Maybe another guard on rounds. Suddenly, the metal bird appeared from below the edge of the building a few feet away, startling him with its presence. "Damn it, Sam!"

" _Aw, did the scary bird frighten the Hawk_?" he was taunted with. " _I have him there in case you need him. Just let me know_."

" _Alright, we're geared up and heading for the van now_ ," Cap's voice sounded in his ear.

It was at that same time that Weiss came into the den, pouring himself his own drink and sitting down. "Weiss just made an appearance."

" _Still no Vic_?" Bucky asked him, sounding anxious. Both men had been with her the last time they had visual confirmation of her at the warehouse.

"No, sorry, but at least we know she's in there," Clint said. Weiss then confirmed that they did indeed have eyes on the Tower, watching for them to make a move. It gave him a smile at knowing they wouldn't see a thing. Wade had made the right call about that. After the two men had talked for a bit, Rumlow then got up from the chair, leaving Weiss alone, heading for the security area where he would be blind. "Guys, Rumlow just left the room. I no longer have eyes on him."

He heard a string of Russian curses coming from Bucky, as well as echoing footsteps quickening their pace. Even though they didn't know exactly where he was headed, everyone probably thought the same thing: to wherever Vic was. They were still in the tunnel heading for the van, but now they were definitely moving much faster.

"Sam, can you put Redwing on the outside of the security area and have him run through all possible scans that he can do? See if there is _anything_ he has that can penetrate those walls," Clint asked looking at Redwing as if it were Sam. The device then disappeared down the side of the building. After a moment, he watched as it flew in from a low spot, keeping out of the view from the windows.

" _Alright, I have him running through everything_ ," Sam told him as he went back to watching the den and Weiss. The next few minutes seemed to drag by as he listened to the team chat while checking weapons as they filed into the waiting van and began their drive to the building.

But then his attention was fully drawn back to the penthouse, as Rumlow reappeared, with two guards carrying Vic in to the den while still bound helpless to the chair.

"Guys, I have eyes on Vic! She's still in the chair from the video and they've moved her to the den off the terrace," he told them watching as they put her down near the window overlooking the direction to the Tower at Rumlow's instructions.

The entire group hear Rumlow then talk with Weiss, but he was the only one who could see how Vic looked. Magnifying his binoculars, Clint could see that her hair was sloppy, similar to how it had been in the video. But as Victoria looked around, he could easily tell that she had been crying _very_ recently. Her face was red and covered with what he knew to be the look of agony brought on by pain. He somehow doubted that it was all from the way she was bound. There was also the bruising already forming from previous hits she had received. On her neck was something dark but he couldn't tell what it was from here. If only he could get an arrow through Rumlow's eye for touching Vic at all.

The entire group then listened quietly as the two men discussed how Vic was bound, before Rumlow actually got up and began to remove some of her bonds. The bug was able to pick up the sound of handcuffs being removed.

" _Clint, what's happening_?" Steve then firmly asked.

He described for them how Rumlow was cuffing her wrists together, then her ankles, and then connecting the two sets with a third pair. If she tried to walk, Vic would be very hunched over.

Clint then watched as Vic seemed to relax for only a moment before Rumlow grabbed the chair's back and lifted it, dumping her hard onto the floor right next to the window. There was no mistaking the yelping sound she made from the impact. But before he could explain what had happened, Rumlow grabbed Vic's hair and was dragging her across the room towards the chair he had been sitting in. Vic was screaming through the gag the entire way.

" _Clint_!" Bucky then yelled through the earcoms, wanting to know why Vic was screaming, but he didn't bother answering as Rumlow began speaking.

" _Now, I want you on your knees, facing the Tower. I want you watching, waiting_ _in **anticipation** at them leaving. Knowing that they are **not** coming for you," _Rumlow told her as the entire group listened. He watched as Vic stared at him for moment, not moving before Rumlow used her hair to pull her face further between his legs. " _If you **don't** , I'll remove that gag and give you **something else** to choke on."_

With that, he heard the sound of metal being smashed over the earcom, not sure if it was Bucky or Steve, maybe even both of them.

But he observed as Vic then complied, kneeling on the floor between his legs, turning to watch the Tower with the two men, not realizing that they were not actually there but right down the street on the way to rescue her. At least they had not been spotted thanks to his old entrance.

 _"_ _Don't bother trying to cover up, honey. Once they're gone, we_ _get to head upstairs for some fun,"_ Rumlow then told Vic before Clint watched him punch her back extremely hard, doubling Vic over, as they listened to her scream from it. Clint saw that Vic had done nothing to deserve that bit of anger. He heard what anyone else may think was an animal of some kind growling, but he knew that it was probably Bucky from hearing Rumlow's comment. Clint didn't think he knew about the strike to her back which was why she had screamed.

" _We are four minutes out_ ," Nat calmly told him as he watched the three of them silently sitting and waiting.

Clint began to realize that when their diversion of the Quinjet started, that Vic was going to believe that Steve and Bucky were inside of it. He hated to think of how Vic was going to feel at that moment. But they would be in position and ready to begin their assault.

Looking down the street, he could see the delivery van that Nat had ' _borrowed_ ' now almost at the garage's entrance. As it finally disappeared into the garage, he felt his body tense up slightly knowing that it was about time to go. He felt better now that he was about to have something to do, instead of just having to watch and wait.

" _Alright, we are parked at the elevator_ ," Steve announced.

He knew that Tony and Bucky were heading out of the garage with Sam to the street and heading right up the side of the building, with Sam detouring to pick him up. The others were primed to take out the elevator door as they reached the terrace to use the shaft, but it would still be a short time before they reached the top.

"Guys, Vic is right next to Rumlow. Is it a go, or do we hold?" he informed them, not sure which they were going to do. Vic would be in the middle of a firefight. If only Rumlow had left her in the cell…

" _I don't believe from his comments that he will be leaving Victoria from this point forward. It's a go. Buck, Tony, I want you two to head up first. Tony, the moment that you reach the top floor let us know so we can move. Sam and Clint will be right behind you. You all will have the best chance of getting to the top without alarms going off. The rest of us will be as quick as we can from the elevator shaft_ ," Steve sounded very commanding, more than on a normal mission. They were going to have to go in and hope for the best. At least Bucky and Tony would be mere feet away from Vic once they arrived.

" _Wade, you are a go_."

Looking out towards the Tower, he watched for movement, but he didn't have a clear view yet. Fortunately, he got confirmation from inside of the penthouse as he listened in on the phone call. Watching as Rumlow taunted Vic and kicked her, he wished that he could just shoot the bastard now. But he would not get through the glass and then to Rumlow without Vic possibly getting hurt. Glancing over he could now see the Quinjet at the end of the platform, Wade ready to take off once the wings were down. They could all hear Vic's muffled yells as she believed the two of them were leaving.

Turning his binoculars back to the den, Rumlow was now leaning over towards Vic's head.

 _"_ _Scream all you want, bitch, but they are_ _ **mine**_! _"_

Clint's eyes grew wide as he watched in horror as Vic then quickly pushed herself up off of the floor, the best that she could, and slammed the top of her head into Rumlow's face. The loud shriek of pain echoed throughout the room, _easily_ catching the entire group's attention.

" _What the **hell** was that_?" Tony requested sounding like really didn't want to know the answer, the noise of him walking in his suit apparent.

"Aw, _fuck_! Guys, you need to _hurry_! Vic is _attacking_ Rumlow!" Clint yelled at them as he couldn't take his eyes off the ensuing struggle.

He ignored the Russian curses that had started once again, Nat joining in also this time.

The first thing that he noticed was all the blood, and he knew that Rumlow's nose was broken. After the initial strike, Vic had managed to push herself up onto the chair, kneeling sideways in Rumlow's lap as she kept jabbing the point of her elbow repeatedly into his upper chest and neck area. The blood from Rumlow's injury was pouring down his face and splashing onto Vic's arms as she struck him over and over. He didn't fight back, probably knocked a bit senseless from the head strike.

After a few hits, Vic reached over and grabbed the empty glass next to his chair and with as much force as she could, smashed it against the side of Rumlow's head, shattering it. Clint wasn't sure, but it almost looked like Vic was also kneeing him in the groin. During her entire frenzy, he could hear Victoria screaming in anger from behind the gag. He had never seen anything like the spectacle before him.

Weiss, originally shocked into immobility, finally stood up screaming for guards as he grabbed Victoria by the shoulder, pushing her backwards so she fell onto the ground. Rumlow seemed to recover a bit as he dizzily stood up while using his shirt sleeve to wipe away at some of the blood that Clint saw was still flowing freely from his nose.

The guards appeared and immediately headed over to latch onto Vic, who had been doing her best to kick Rumlow's legs out from under him. He saw Vic keeping her right hand open and figured that she had most likely cut it on the fragments of the glass. From below over the street, he heard the unmistakable sound of Tony's suit, telling him that they were moments away.

" _Clint, be ready_ ," Sam told him in his ear, as he moved to stand at the very edge of the building.

" _Clint, can you open up a hole for us_?" Tony asked, to which he quickly pulled his bow out, opened it up as he programmed for a smaller explosive arrow. It would be just enough to knock out the glass wall area without injuring the room's occupants, and hopefully drawing Rumlow's attention away from Vic, who was now struggling with the guards that were holding her as Rumlow began wobbly stepping toward her.

Releasing the arrow, he watched as Tony, with Bucky's latched wrist to wrist, were mere floors below the terrace. By the time the explosion happened, he was storing his bow for transport across the street. Watching the fragmented glass fall like rain, Sam appeared at his side just as Tony and Bucky reached the top of the terrace wall.

* * *

Vic fought as much as she could against the two guards who held onto her upper arms, tightening their grip with every useless kick in Rumlow's direction she gave. He was clumsily walking towards her, blood flowing freely from his nose, as well as the numerous cuts on the side of his head from the glass, of which she could still see a few fragments sticking out of his scalp. There was no mistaking the burning anger pouring from his eyes.

Drawing his arm back over his shoulder to give her a full, hard punch, a deafening noise encased the entire room as flames engulfed the glass terrace wall behind Rumlow, shattering the entire fragile structure.

As Rumlow turned towards the terrace, Vic watched as a large mass appeared through the smoke from the other side of the balcony wall. It took her a moment to realize that it was Bucky, with his arms above his head, holding onto Tony's wrists while in his Iron Man suit.

Being released, Bucky dropped towards the terrace floor, weapons appearing in his hands even before his feet made contact with the ground.

Rumlow had spotted him at the same time, so before Bucky could even fire at him, Rumlow reached over for her with one hand while the other grabbed a gun from the closest guard's holder. The two guards helped Rumlow out by lifting her directly into his grasp, with him taking hold of the front of her shirt. In a quick movement, Vic found herself pressed firmly against his chest, with a revolver pressed against the side of her neck as she heard the hammer being drawn back. Bucky was in his full Winter Solider suit, his cold blue eyes peered through the eye-black, never straying from his target's form. Tony landed next to him and lifted his arms, one hand aimed at each of the two guards who had been holding her.

"Asset!" Rumlow happily greeted him as if saying hello to an old friend.

"Release her!" Bucky demanded with the most frightening voice she had ever heard him use.

It was then that fighting sounds started coming from above them on the bedroom floor. Vic figured that it had to be other team members, but she was not sure who. That was when she felt the warm blood start to streak down from her hairline and over her face thanks to Rumlow's broken nose.

"Oh, I don't _think_ so!" Rumlow stated a bit nasally, moving his hand from her collar slightly upward so he could now wrap it around her neck, holding her even tighter to him. Due to how he had her cuffed, her arms were pulled downward by the weight of her legs, and with the cuff attached to the ankle ones her feet were left dangling in the air, not touching the ground. This meant that her entire body's weight was now being supported by the hand around her neck. Rumlow's grip was now effectively choking her, cutting off her airway to prevent her from breathing...as if the gag wasn't already enough of a problem.

The burning in her chest had already started as her eyes began to water.

Bucky knew what was happening and raised one of his guns to better aim at Rumlow's head, so he just lifted her higher to block his shot, like the human shield she now was.

That was when the elevator door behind them in the foyer exploded into the room, and the gunshots began. Rumlow turned them just enough so that he could see into the foyer, allowing her a glimpse of familiar blue as Steve appeared, heading for the den. Natasha and Wanda moved into view while Nat fired her guns down the hall in the direction of the cell she had been in, Wanda putting up a force shield to protect them.

"Let her go, Rumlow!" Steve yell as she struggled to breathe.

Getting minimal air through her nose, it was definitely not enough as her ears popped as she tried to inhale, but the burning was too much…she needed air!

Opening her mouth as much as she could, there was a loud sucking sound as she gasped hard for any oxygen available.

As Tony glanced worriedly over at her, the two guards took that distraction as an opportunity to draw their weapons, firing at everyone who was not Rumlow.

* * *

Steve held his shield up, deflecting any bullets that might ricochet towards the ceiling, making sure none of them headed in Victoria's direction. Knowing what they were going up against, as well as the high stake of Victoria's life, he had strapped on a couple of Bucky's guns. Pulling one out, he fired as the guards separated, falling back towards the dining area off to the side of the living room. The man, Weiss, ran over towards the bar area, but the look on his face was fear, not anger…he would not fight.

Tony fired at the guard aiming at him, taking him down with the blast. More guards then appeared from a doorway on the other side of the dining room that led to the kitchen. They must have used it since Natasha was moving down the hallway from the other end. Pietro was trying to clear the security area the best he could but they had gone in without a guard count to know how long that would take.

He watched as Bucky ducked shots taken at him from the extra guards, trying to keep his sights on Rumlow, but more importantly, Victoria.

Finally, with too many guards swarming in from the kitchen area, they both had to redirect their attentions, otherwise none of them would make it out. At least eleven guards were now firing at them, with a few more trickling through the door ever so often.

As the gunfight continued, Clint and Sam appeared from the foyer's staircase. They helped to try and take out the guards still standing, taking up high-and-low firing positions while using the door frame as partial cover. With them now occupying and helping to eliminate the numerous agents, Steve chanced a quick glanced over to where Rumlow had been with Victoria to check on her.

They were not there!

Turning the other direction, towards the terrace, he watched with horror as Victoria was lugged through the broken glass door, her knees and bare feet slightly dragging on the ground through the shattered remains. Rumlow had at least changed his grip on her, releasing her windpipe so that she could breathe, but he had wrapped his arm around her torso, looping it under her arms so he could carry her anywhere.

"Buck!" he yelled, pointing at the pair getting closer to the terrace's wall with every step.

Bucky turned his attention back to Victoria and began moving swiftly towards them. With a toss of his shield, he was able to take down two more of the guards that turned their attention on Bucky's moving form. Suddenly, a blur appeared, circling the four final remaining standing agents. Steve watched as the guns in their hands disappeared, along with the confused expressions on the guard's faces as they looked to each other for answers.

"Rumlow!" Bucky screamed as Steve saw that they had reached the wall surrounding the drop off of the building. Rumlow had his back leaning against it, while his front cover was made up of Victoria.

Tony then appeared at the left edge of the open wall area while he moved to the right side leaving Bucking in the middle, the three of them lining up, all wanting to take Rumlow down.

"Keep moving forward and I'll send us _both_ over the edge!" he angrily growled out as Victoria's eyes kept going between him and Bucky, waiting for someone to do something.

But Bucky actually did stop his forward movement at the threat of Victoria being tossed over. Neither one of them would endanger her any more.

The only good part was the fact that the wall reached Rumlow's chest, and it would take a lot of effort and a few extra seconds for him to try and accomplish his threat. Enough time for them to hopefully reach Victoria if he felt it was his only course of action. If Rumlow did somehow managed to get them over, Steve could only hope that Tony would be able to reach her in time. If she fell, the two of them would probably become incapacitated from her fear, unable to do anything.

Unfortunately, Rumlow had the gun in his hand, still jammed up against Victoria's neck, which looked to have already taken some kind of injury. Steve felt disgusted while he watched as Rumlow's blood continued to pour from his broken nose over the top of her head, staining her beautiful hair and running all over her face. Her arms and chest area were already covered in blood somehow. Had she been injured before they arrived?

"You're _not_ getting out of here," he calmly told Rumlow, waiting for the opportunity for one of them to get to Victoria.

"Oh, I think that with _this_ ," he jammed the revolver painfully into Victoria's neck as he jerked her body hard against his, "that I can walk right out of here! So, how about you call that _Quinjet_ over and tell it to come pick _me_ and this _bitch_ up?"

There was an audible growl from Bucky at the derogatory term.

"That's _not_ happening! We got a _great_ jail cell all picked out for you," Tony told him, holding his hands slightly downward, not wanting to aim at Victoria either.

Steve could hear movement behind him, but in his earcom Natasha informed them that the rest of the penthouse was secured and clear. The rest of the group was now gathering in the living room, watching the exchange.

Knowing that he was outnumbered as the rest of the group gathering behind them, to solidify his point Rumlow yelled out loud enough for all of them to hear, "I'm _leaving_ here, and my new _toy_ is coming _with me_!"

Steve then saw something change in Victoria's eyes at hearing that phrase, with them narrowing in anger but he wasn't sure what it meant, but then he saw her move.

They all watched as she lifted her legs higher up in front of her, closer to her chest. With the way Rumlow was holding her, he already had Victoria's entire body's weight supported with his left arm, and he was so occupied watching _them_ that Rumlow did not even noticed her change position.

Closing her eyes for only a second, Victoria opened them, focused her attention downward and gave them their old hand sign for ' _Be Ready_ '.

Victoria then suddenly brought both of her feet down together onto Rumlow's left knee, impacting it with as much force as she could gather. Everyone nearby gasped as they watched as Rumlow's leg became hyper-extended, his knee bending backwards in a way that legs were _not made_ to do.

Rumlow screamed out in pain as he involuntarily shifted his body, which included the gun jammed into Victoria's neck being pulled away just a bit, luckily not going off. Watching as the gun began to be pointed upward, it suddenly disappeared from Rumlow's hand. Pietro then appeared next to him, tossing the empty revolver behind him into the den and casually dropping the bullets to the ground on the patio.

Realizing their opportunity, both he and Bucky then moved at the same time. Bucky seized Victoria in his arms, holding her from falling to the glass covered ground, while he grasped Rumlow's arm which was still wrapped around her chest. Gripping it tightly, Steve had to force it to release her as Rumlow seemed to have instinctively clenched tighter from the pain he was in, but he finally managed to get Victoria free.

Watching as Bucky took a step away from Rumlow, he dropped Rumlow's arm who then finished crumbling to the ground against the wall, screaming in pain. Turning, he fixated on Victoria now cradled in Bucky's arm, her head resting against his chest, as she was carried through the gaping hole into the living room. He simply nodded to Tony who had folded back his face mask and was staring down at Rumlow, the shock of witnessing the strange incident evident on his face.

Steve followed as Bucky carried Victoria over to the large couch, carefully setting her down onto it so that her back was against the arm with her legs resting on the seat's cushion. The first thing Bucky did was reach around and start to release the ball gag that she had probably been forced to wear since the filming of the video.

"Victoria, are you alright?" he asked coming to stand right next to them, examining the blood splattered all over different areas of her body, her face, arms and legs. With all the blood coming from Rumlow's nose and the side of his head, it was hard to tell if she was injured beyond the obvious split lip and bruises that covered all the parts of her body that they could see.

Victoria then held out her bloody right hand, palm up and he saw the numerous cuts it had on it. Taking it carefully in his hand, he lifted it up and was able to see pieces of glass embedded in her skin. How had she even gotten that injury? Feeling a nudge on his shoulder, he looked over to find Natasha holding up a key, obviously for the handcuffs.

"Thanks," he said taking it and crouching down so that he could remove the foul items, starting with her wrists. Bucky continued by inspecting the different areas of her body where larger amounts of blood were located, making sure that none of it was hers. Steve dropped the entire mess of metal items onto the floor next to the couch. "Victoria, we need you to tell us if you are injured?"

"That's a loaded question if I _ever_ heard one," she finally spoke in a hoarse voice, examining her own wrists which were covered with harsh red ruts from the cuffs that he wasn't surprised to see had cut into her skin. Bucky's hands did hold onto her legs as he examined the matching ones on her ankles. But they could both see fresh red blood on them, probably from the final maneuver that she had done.

"Still…but there _is_ glass stuck in your hand. We need to get you to medical," he informed her, eliciting a groan of dislike. They knew of her dislike of doctors thanks to her youth.

"It looks like her feet and knees only have scratches, nothing embedded," Bucky calmly stated as he tried to wipe away some of the blood from her face with a throw blanket off of the couch. Steve was now able to see that the injury on her neck looked like a bite mark. That had not been there in the video. What had Rumlow managed to do to Victoria before they arrived?

They were then distracted by Tony and Clint carrying Rumlow in from the terrace to the foyer while walking close behind the couch. Steve had never seen such cold hatred in Victoria's eyes before as she had while looking at Rumlow...and he didn't like seeing it there. Natasha stopped to pick up one of the sets of handcuffs that had been on Victoria and used it to secure Rumlow to the staircase's banister in the foyer. Everyone in the den could still keep an eye on him from here. The screaming from the injured terrorist had finally died down to a constant moaning cry of pain.

"The authorities have been notified, but we do have a _little_ problem," Tony announced to the entire room. "With the elevator currently closed for repairs, they are unable to escort our friends to their new home."

"I will assist them to get up here," Wanda volunteering, Pietro also agreeing to stay since he would not leave his sister's side most of the time. Tony, Sam and Clint also agreed to stay to do agent cleanup after he told them that Victoria needed to be checked over by a doctor.

Natasha then turned her head, as if she had heard something, towards the bar area. She walked over to the end to glance behind it, a smug smile crossing her face. Reaching down, he watched as she reemerged with Weiss' shirt collar in her hand, lifting him up from the hiding spot he had used since the gunfight had first broken out. Steve had forgotten about him ducking there for cover.

"You people have _no right_ to be here!" Weiss then apprised them in his haughtiest voice while straightening out his suit and tie.

"Accessory to kidnapping _happens_ to be a crime," Tony smartly told him coming over in his armor to rest his arm casually on the bar to lean on, as if he were at home having a normal conversation. "Oh, and _then_ there's the fact that you are HYDRA!"

"I have _no idea_ what you are _talking_ about!" Weiss firmly stated.

Steve noticed Victoria reposition herself on the couch, her feet going to the floor. As she went to stand, Bucky reached out to try and keep her down, but she just batted his hand away from her. With her rising up, Weiss' attention became focused on her, his eyes going wide, knowing that no matter what he said, it would be a lie. Victoria walked over and stopped right in front of him.

" _I_ am a victim here, as much as _she_ is!"

With those words, Victoria swung a left hook, catching Weiss in the face. The power of it knocked him to the ground semi-conscious.

"I'd hoped to give you _two_ black eyes, but _one_ will suffice," she looked down at him, then stepped away from the downed man.

He could hear the sound of the entire team giggling at the spectacle they had just witnessed. They had audio and video evidence of his involvement with Victoria's kidnapping from the warehouse, not to mention whatever support he was supplying Rumlow with. Besides, he wondered if anyone here would retell the story of the punch _outside_ of their group, but he knew that it would be repeated many times _inside_ of it.

By the time that Steve turned to look back at Victoria, whom he thought was heading to sit back down, she was rounding the couch and heading for the foyer. He glanced at Bucky who was intently scrutinizing her and had probably not let his gaze wander from Victoria since he had held her in his arms. Bucky slowly followed Victoria, keeping himself between her and the entire group, as if guarding _her_ from _them_ for some reason.

Steve watched as she moved at a steady pace towards the man who had beaten, threatened, and groped her repeatedly since this morning.

Once she stopped in the foyer, looking down at him on the floor to the right, Rumlow came to his senses long enough for him to see Victoria only a few feet away now.

"Fucking _bitch_! What the _fuck_ did you do to me?" he yelled at her while Victoria calmly stood there looking down towards Rumlow. "When I get my hands on you, I'll give you _fucking_ lessons in pain like you've never known! I'll make good every _fucking_ threat and more! I'll _cut_ that _fucking_ soulmark off of your chest next time! I'll wipe your _fucking_ mind _clean_! I'll break every _fucking_ _limb_ you have!"

Steve couldn't understand how Victoria was just standing there so calm looking while letting Rumlow verbally abuse her…then _she_ spoke.

"I don't _fucking_ think so!"

With that, Steve's eyes grew wide as he watched Victoria lift her left hand, which had been hidden behind her body from her stance, aiming the revolver square at Rumlow's chest. Steve went to make a move to stop her, but Bucky stood at the foyer entrance facing the entire group and lifted his hands into a sign of halt without a word, stopping all of them from moving...some maybe not actually _wanting_ to stop her.

Steve couldn't believe what he was seeing...Bucky was going to allow her to shoot him?

The rest of the room grew quiet, Rumlow included as he stared up at Victoria, his eyes bursting with fear.

Steve wondered for a moment if this scene would be like some of the movies they had watched, where the good guy can't go through with the intended action, letting the bad guy live. Unfortunately, he also remembered that sometimes that came back to bite them in the ass.

But then Steve watched, and heard, the sound of the hammer being drawn back.

A second later, they all heard the sound of a click as the hammer fell into place...but there was no sound of a shot being fired.

They all gawked as Victoria kept pulling the trigger of the revolver five more times, waiting for a round to fire, but none never came. Rumlow's body jerked with each click, waiting for a fatal shot to strike him, with him giving out six pitiful cries of fear.

"Son of a biscuit!" Victoria cursed while now comically shaking the gun in her hand, as if _that_ would somehow help to make it work, then dropping her head and shoulders in annoyance. Turning back towards the team in the den, she sighed and sounded exasperated as she calmly asked all of them while displaying the gun for them, "Does anyone have any _bullets_ for this thing?"

Bucky then began to move towards her, so Steve took that as his own cue that he was now allowed to do so also. Bucky held out his hand to her, and Victoria, looking very disappointed, planted the gun into his palm. Bucky then tossed the gun over his shoulder to Clint, whose eyes were still sizeable after witnessing _that_.

Rumlow was now quietly staring up at Victoria, knowing how close to death he had actually been.

"Can we go home now? I _really_ want a shower," Victoria told the two of them, her eyes focusing on her bloody hands. She then dropped her arms at her sides, making sure to keep her right hand with the glass faced outward so that it didn't hit her body. "And sushi. _Lots_ of sushi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...I hope that these past two chapters not only shocked you but entertained you as well. I know that a lot of you were worried about Vic's injury to her soulmark. You'll be learning a bit about that over the next few chapters.


	74. Aftermath

**Avengers Tower**

Standing right outside of the medical bay area, Bucky would not take his eyes off of Vic sitting on the bed as the doctor, who was wearing strange glasses to help him, carefully picked at the glass pieces in her right palm to remove them. The bruising over the rest of her body was starting to form, and it was pissing him off something fierce. Thanks to her tank top he could see that there were bruises on Vic's arms, from shoulders to wrists, as well as her legs. Even her knuckles were dark thanks to her punching the guys in the park. After wiping away most of the dried blood covering her face, it was showing the different places where Rumlow had most likely struck her, and not just the one they had seen on the warehouse video. He had realized at the penthouse that the injury on her neck was a bite mark.

Maybe tonight, he might have to make a visit to Rumlow's cell and get to test out his skills at dental extraction after all.

They had brought Vic straight here using a police vehicle for a ride, not willing to leave her alone again. Not wanting to crowd Vic in the backseat with all three of them, he had sat in front where he could more better guard them overall. There was also the benefit of not being able to see the disappointed look that Steve would toss his way every so often at allowing Vic to have her final moment with Rumlow.

How long until Steve finally brought _that_ topic up?

Steve was off to the side still examining Vic's medical scans. The doctor had initially done a full body scan at their request, knowing that she had taken some strong hits. But they had been informed after he examine them that Vic had no signs of broken or even cracked bones, which kind of surprised them both. They were sure that the kick she had taken on the warehouse floor would have at least damaged her ribs in some way, but the doctor showed them that the area on the scan they saw that it was indeed fine. Even her skull showed no signs of a concussion from when Rumlow had head-butted her, which was a huge relief.

Vic was calmly sitting there, after refusing to allow the doctor to numb her hand so that he could work, stating that she didn't like needles, which they understood considering the injections forced on her when she was younger. With each piece of glass that was removed, Vic never flinched. A nurse was examining her other wrist and ankles to see what type of care needed to be done for the abrasions that she had received from the cuffs.

At one point, he watched as Vic gently smacked the nurse's hand away as she tried to reach up to do something maybe near her sternum, but with the doctor's body in the way, he was not sure what she had tried to do, but he could see that Vic was not happy.

"You were going to let Victoria kill Rumlow."

"You let Vic punch that guy," he calmly retorted guessing that his short reprieve was up.

"That's different," Steve responded, standing next to him now.

"I don't think so," he said.

"Do you realize the mental trauma that Victoria may have had later on from killing Rumlow like that?" Steve asked him firmly, turning to face him, not the medical bay window.

"I think that Vic needed that moment," he replied, not bothering to look over at him. He could feel Steve's righteous eyes glaring at him. "Vic needed to end today feeling like she was the victor over Rumlow."

"What do you mean?" Steve then asked sounding calmer, but also a bit cooler with his words.

"I gave Vic the chance to do what I regretted not doing every single day for over two years: getting revenge on all the people who hurt me."

Steve was now staring at him, processing the events and his words together. Finally, Steve turned to look at Vic, talking with the doctor who was now applying the liquid bandage on her skin over her numerous cuts to help keep them protected. How had they not needed stitches? Taking a breath, he began to explain his reasoning.

"Once my memories really started to come back to me those first few weeks of finally being free, I wanted nothing more than to go back to the Vault then Siberia and find every single scientist, medical doctor, and guard that was there every single time they put me in that Chair to wipe me. I wanted to kill them all. But it was too late, they were already gone. I don't even know if they were ever punished for their involvement with HYDRA. Vic's been hurt, Steve. Not just physically. She needed that release, that victory, a way to get rid of the anger that took years for me to get rid of. Think of it as my own version of what happened at the gas station earlier this year."

Steve stood there quiet for a few moments contemplating his words, so Bucky decided to let him know.

"Besides…that was the gun that Pietro took the bullets out of."

Steve then accused him, but finally sounding amused with his tone,"You knew?"

"Of course! I watched her pick it up."

"Jerk."

They watched as the doctor then began to question Vic about something, with her quickly becoming defensive. She then talked with him for a few moments, her expression not liking whatever the doctor's response was. Standing up from the bed, Vic was walking right for the door, and them.

"Can we go now?" she asked throwing the door open and sweeping past them for the elevator.

They followed behind her, catching up with her as she pressed the button for the elevator. She then leaned on the wall, with her arms folded over her chest, looking like she was mad.

"What did the doctor say?" Steve was bold enough to ask.

"That I have cuts, bruising, and scrapes from…whatever," she flippantly waved her hand as the doors opened. Vic then stepped inside, leaning back on the wall again, demanding their floor.

"There were no other wounds for him to examine?" Bucky asked standing before her, trying to judge her strange mood.

"Nope."

Steve and Bucky then looked at each other, not liking her answer in the least. They could see that Vic didn't have any actively bleeding wounds, but there was something _more_ than just _slightly off_ about her attitude. Granted, she had been kidnapped, groped, tortured, and threatened most of the day, but they were both sure that there was something in particular bothering her. They had been together long enough for them to definitely know that she didn't handle things like they should expect.

When the doors opened after their quiet ride, they walked into the apartment with Vic heading right for the fridge. Opening it up, she took out a water bottle, popped the top and immediately downed the entire thing without taking a breath. Even when she came back from bike rides she had never done that. She then grabbed another bottle.

"I'm going to go shower," she calmly stated while heading down the hallway, not bothering to look back at them.

When Vic got to their bedroom, they both watched as she _shut_ the door all the way, not locking it, but actually _closing_ it. Now they _knew_ something was up. That door had not closed once in all the months since Vic moved in.

"Alright, so how do we handle this?" Bucky asked staring at the closed door.

"I have no idea. We don't even know what's _exactly_ bugging her," Steve reached up, taking his cap off and running his fingers through his hair, which had flattened out from wearing it. Bucky then removed his own face mask, not having cared that he had been wearing it the entire time. He knew that they both must look a sight, but that couldn't be why Vic seemed to not be able to…

"Vic hasn't really looked at us since she was on the balcony," Bucky quietly pointed out.

Steve seemed to consider his words for a moment, then he nodded in silent agreement.

"Go wash that mascara off of your face, get changed, then meet me at the door. We are going to have a talk with her," Steve told him, barely avoiding the swing towards his arm for the make-up joke while heading for his own bedroom.

As they split apart, he made quick work of the eye-black with facial wipes that Vic had found for him. Changing out of his uniform as swiftly as he could, he put on shorts and a t-shirt. By the time he got out of his room, Steve was leaning on the wall next to their door.

"This is not going to be pretty," Steve told him.

"Her attitude?" Bucky jokingly remarked.

"No. Remember how Rumlow kicked her at the warehouse? Victoria's going to have some bruises we haven't _seen_ yet," he told him.

He was right. Bucky hadn't thought about that. They may have known about some of the hits, but they had yet to see the damage from them. Vic had not removed her clothes for the doctor so that he could get a good look at the injured areas, he now realized.

Steve then opened the bedroom door and they heard the grinding metal music coming from the bathroom speakers.

"That's not her normal shower music," Bucky stated, but Steve knew Vic's habits as well as he did. Normally in the shower she would play something she could sing to but this was one of her ' _want to hit something'_ songs, that she mostly used in the gym and sometimes while cooking, which he always found amusing to watch her dance to.

Walking over to the bathroom door, Steve gave a quick ear to the door, checking for other sounds, but he shook his head indicating that there was nothing to hear over the music. At least she probably wasn't crying. Bucky then went ahead and knocked firmly on the door.

A few moments went by before the music stopped and Vic simply answered, "Yeah?"

"We would like to come in," Steve requested.

"No!" she practically screamed at them, making him extremely uncomfortable. Vic then continued with, "Kapu, rester dehors, izgegat', excluir, mamoru!"

Bucky guessed that Vic was calling out different versions of ' _keep out_ ' since that was what she had yelled in Russian. Not waiting any longer he grabbed the knob and threw the door opened.

Vic was sitting on the floor of her shower in the back left corner, with steam already filling the entire bathroom. They knew she liked hot showers but this one seemed more than a bit excessive. They noticed that she didn't look at them as they walked in, letting them know they were right with _that_ assumption. The bloody clothes she had been wearing were all over, and about half way to the shower was the other water bottle, already empty and tossed on the floor.

"Vic, you need to talk with us," he stated as they stopped at the glass enclosure's door.

He had watched as they made their way closer how Vic drew her legs up to her chest, covering herself even more by wrapping her arms over her legs. Had Rumlow assaulted Vic before they had reached her? He would take her withdrawing into a small ball and the covering up actions to be that of someone who had been.

"Not now, later. Maybe in a week or so," she replied glaring at the floor, drawing strange looks from him and Steve.

"Why not now?" Steve asked her while opening the door. Sticking his hand under the water, Steve pulled it back quick as he got burned. He then reached over and turned the knob to a cooler, more tolerable temperature.

"Hey!" Vic admonished, but still did not move or look up at them. "Stop that! Look, can ya'll just go? I should be fine in a week or so."

"Why do you keep saying that?" Bucky asked firmly.

When Vic didn't respond, he then stepped into the large shower, crouching down right in front of her, the now warm spray starting to quickly soak him. He noticed that Steve did the same to be at her right side.

Examining Vic closely, he could see her other injuries much better with the layer of dried blood now mostly gone. She had unbraided her hair, and the bloody redness that had coated most of her head thanks to how Rumlow had been holding her while bleeding, was still visible, telling him that she had not tried washing it yet. Her forehead had a darkening lump from the mask's impact that had knocked her out. There was a minor splits on both of her upper and lower lips, on opposite sides.

On her right cheek were marks clearly made by fingernails being dragged over her skin, hand marks from being slapped, as well as bruises from the hard punches she had taken. Her knees had more bruises as well as minuscule cuts from the shattered glass Rumlow had dragged her through. He now also noticed a strange, red, raw area on her right hip that was exposed without her shorts covering it.

"Where did this come from?" he asked, almost touching it but not, sure that it would hurt if he did.

"Carpet burn as fuck-face dragged me across the den by my hair," she supplied still not looking at them, but he had to grin at the nickname. It was strange hearing her use such profanity after so long.

Taking in what she had said and the way she was acting he thought that he finally figured it out.

"Are you wanting us to leave you alone because you don't want us to see you this way?" Bucky asked.

As she seemed to turn her head further away from them, he knew that he had been right.

"Victoria, you don't have to hide from us. There is nothing that Rumlow could have done to you to make us love you any less," Steve said before taking his side on the floor next to her, so he did the same but in front of her since she had put herself into a corner.

"I don't want ya'll to see it," she then softly spoke.

_It_?

Him and Steve locked eyes, knowing by her choice of word that there was something in particular which happened that was upsetting Vic.

"Vic, what if I were to _demand_ that you _show us_?" Bucky asked putting a bit of dominance in his voice, the kind he used in bed sometimes, that made her always give in and that she enjoyed. But with his words, Vic finally turned her head to look at him. There was no mistaking the fear she had, that she was indeed worried about something. So he decided to do it, using a tone not to be defied, "Vic, move your knees and put your arms to your sides."

A few seconds later, they both were shocked to see what she had been covering. The entirety of her breasts were bruised from being extremely roughly handled, as well as her nipples. He and Steve were no long the only ones to ever have touched her.

But, it was the fingernail scratches over her soulmark that they knew she had been specifically trying to hide. Four distinct red markings slashed across it, as if Rumlow had been trying to rip it off of her skin. Bucky then remembered the one comment in the foyer that Rumlow had made about her soulmark, about how he threatened that next time he would cut it off.

"Victoria," Steve voice was saddened while reaching over and gently turning her head to face him. Without another word, Steve leaned in and gave her a gentle kiss on the lips, careful of the cuts.

When he had drawn back, she said, "I didn't want ya'll to see that. I hoped that after a week of letting it heal, and lots of medicine, that they would go away and not leave any permanent marks."

"How were you planning on keeping us from seeing it?" Bucky then asked, taking her left hand into his to give an assuring squeeze.

"Winter clothes and making ya'll sleep in your own beds until they were gone," she flatly admitted.

"You actually thought that you could keep _us_ away from _you_ that easily?" Bucky asked her with a smirk.

"There is no way that would have worked. You know what a stalker _he_ is," Steve informed her with humor in his voice, earning him a small grin from Vic. "Speaking of which…"

Steve then reached over to where Bucky held her hand and lifted her left arm up, twisting it so that they could see the area that her birth control implant had been located in. The doctor had only looked at it briefly, and they could see that it was a shallow cut, not needing stitches. More liquid bandage had been applied to it.

"They did that in the van, right after they got me. The dumb-asses thought that it was a tracker. They kept mentioning a tracker being inside of me, but I didn't realize they meant _it_ until they went to cut it out with a pocket knife," she told them before looking at him directly. "I thought that somehow _you_ had put one in me without me knowing."

"It's the first thing on my ' _To Do List_ ' for tomorrow morning," he was grinning at her, and getting another one to appear on her face too. Steve, on the other hand, just gave him a soft punch to the leg.

"After today, I may just let you," she said smiling, making him now wonder if he could _really_ talk her into it. There was no way they wanted a repeat of today.

"How about we help you get cleaned up?" Steve offered with a smile, not a leer like he usually did when they showered together.

"Sure, the doctor said to go easy with my hand for a few days. None of the cuts needed stitches, but he said not to stretch them or they may start bleeding again," she supplied. "This is a first. You two dressed while being in here with me."

"Trust me, it will _not_ become a habit. Come on," Steve said while standing up and offering her his hands.

When she had stood up, facing Steve, his attention was drawn to the warehouse's kick's bruise on her left side. It was fairly large, but had been against the wall where they could not see it. Vic must have seen his expression darken because she reached over and turned his head up towards her face.

"It's just a bruise. It doesn't hurt," she then told him, but then Steve growled angrily out loud, catching both of theirs attention. Vic turned towards him, "What?"

"What did Rumlow do to you, Victoria? Did he rape you?"

Bucky then turned Vic to face him as he looked further down her body, past the obvious side bruise to her lower pelvic area. She usually kept her hair nicely short shaved the way they liked it, but now it allowed them to see the darkening bruise that had formed between her legs, from one thigh all the way to the other and all over the entire area. It looked ten times worse than the one on her side. What had Rumlow done to her to produce such damage to her body?

"No, he didn't do that! Well…let me rephrase. He didn't rape me," she started but with the matching looks she was getting, she knew they wanted details. "He just hit me with his knee, repeatedly, while I was on that chair. It was right before he had me taken from the cell. He did most of this at that time."

His mind flashed to how she had been bound, and he could picture Rumlow hurting her. He had left the gag in so Bucky knew that Vic had not been able to antagonize Rumlow in any way. Everything he had done, Rumlow did specifically because he wanted to, and because it would hurt her and them…and because Rumlow had _enjoyed_ it.

Bucky could only imagine what he would have done to Vic if they hadn't found her...or if they _had_ turned themselves over.

"He did most of this while we were on the way to get to you," Steve admitted after probably having the same thoughts he had. "Almost as soon as Bucky figured out your message, Clint went and set himself up on a nearby building to keep an eye out for you while we got prepped and reloaded after making a plan on how to get you out."

"When the guy on the phone said the Quinjet was leaving, I think Rumlow would have fainted if he could understand what I was yelling through the gag," she admitted as he lifted the handheld sprayer from its holder. He began to wet down all of her hair while Steve reached over and pulled down her shampoo in the white and gold bottle, the one they loved the smell of.

"Tony found your creative expletives and accent on the video fairly amusing. Us, not so much, well…at the time," he grinned while putting the sprayer back up.

"What did you expect? Rumlow really pissed me off," she said, amusing him that she used that terminology.

"Really, he _pissed_ you off?" he teased her as he picked up the body wash. With that, Vic then give him the English bird, seeming more like her old self.

"At least we will always know when you are truly mad. Wade was so proud at hearing you cursing," Steve then said as he continued to scrub the dried blood from her hair.

"Wait…what?" she asked. He then realized that she didn't know yet.

"Wade's here. I was brave enough to call him on the flight back from Europe to tell him what happened. When Pepper flew back from California, she stopped off and picked him up," Steve told her. "Wade was the one flying the Quinjet as a distraction so Rumlow thought we were giving in to his demands. He was going to help the others in the penthouse while we brought you back here. He'll be here soon to see you."

"Great! Now he's going to want a Quinjet of his own," she joked as he began to carefully run his soapy hands over her body.

Steve then took down the sprayer and began to rise the shampoo away. But then Steve growled again as he worked, meeting his eyes directly. Without asking, he turned Vic around so that her back was towards him and swept her hair to the side. In the center of her shoulder blades were multiple large purple bruises, the size of a large male's fist. He then remembered the video from when she was taken, but it was obvious she had been hit there more than once.

"What?" she asked but then seemed to remember about taking the hits. "Oh, yeah."

"Damn it…I should have gotten you those bullets," he angrily spoke while gently touching the damaged area.

"They only hurt at the time I got them. I'm fine!" Vic said as she turned herself back around. "Wait, there _were_ bullets there?"

"Victoria, he was _never_ going to let you shoot Rumlow," Steve informed her sighing, making her turn her eyes towards him.

"You knew the gun was empty, didn't you?" Vic asked him but she didn't seem mad at all.

"Yes, but I gave you the opportunity to decide what you wanted to do," he told her, starting to wash her shoulder and arm again. Steve then started to apply conditioner to her hair.

"Are either of you upset that I would have killed him?"

"After seeing what he did to you, as well as what he was _threatening_ you with, then no, neither one of us would have been upset. But luckily, it didn't come to that," Steve told Vic while massaging her head. He loved the way that she closed her eyes and just let them help her.

The fact that they came so close to losing her sent a chill up his spine, despite the warm water hitting him.

"What about the guard in the cell? Do you regret it?" Bucky then asked.

"No. I'm more mad that Rumlow had that damn neck guard on, otherwise I would have done it to him," she told them as his hands drifted down her body to her legs as he knelt before her, carefully washing the bloody area at her ankles. They were not as bad as he had first thought they were now that the blood was gone but the bruising was now starting there.

"It may affect you later. If it does, don't hide it or try to deal with it yourself. Come talk to us, alright?" Steve told her rinsing her hair for the final time. He then took the sprayer and began to wash away all of the bubbles he had covered over Vic's entire body.

When they had first started showering together, Vic had a fluffy thing that she used for washing her body, but they both preferred when he used his hands. Usually by now they were doing other things but they would have to hold off until she was healed and over what Rumlow had done to her. With the way he had touched her, would she even want them touching her where he had? Beyond giving her body time to heal, it may take Vic a while to mentally come to terms with the way she was abused today.

Steve turned the shower off, opened the door and grabbed one of the large white towels that they used. Handing it to her, Vic began to dry herself off, stepping out of the shower first and onto a bathmat. When they went to get out, she held up her hand to stop them.

"Ya'll are _not_ going to drip water all the way through _my_ bedroom," she sternly informed them.

"So now it's _your_ bedroom?" he snidely asked.

For the past few months, she had taken to calling it _their_ bedroom, since the only reason they went to their old ones was for clothing, mission prep, or private time for two of them.

"When it comes to wiping up water up off of the floor, then yes, _my_ room," she grinned at them jokingly while wrapping the towel around her. "Birthday suits only."

Steve started to strip down, so he followed suit, their wet clothes sloshing to the shower floor. Grabbing his own towel, he shook his head to get some of the water out of his hair.

"Hey, stop that, you damn dog!" Steve yelled at him, taking a few steps away.

With a laugh, Vic then tossed him one of the smaller towels they both used for drying their hair. Steve never needed another one, Vic always teasing him about growing it out for fun one time, but he never would. She had been fairly adamant about coming with him when it was time to trim his own, refusing to let him go back to the shorter style he had when he joined the army. She used the excuse of not being able to give him the Viking warrior braids she liked doing ever once in a while. He did enjoy sitting between her legs as her hands massaged his scalp as she worked, a pleasure that Steve never knew existed.

"Alright, just so you know, I was _deadly serious_ about sushi," Vic informed them with her finger raised in the air over her head, her entire attitude seeming to have changed back to how she always was. It seemed that talking with them had alleviated all of the worries Vic had about them seeing her bruised body.

Vic finished roughly drying off her head and body before hanging up the towel, standing before them totally nude. Vic then walked out of the door, moving perfectly normal, heading for her closet. Thinking back to in the shower, Bucky remembered she had mentioned that the bruises didn't hurt, that they only had when she gotten them. But that was not what _should be_ happening.

"Hey, is it me or does Vic not seem to be in _any_ pain from those bruises, or anything she physically suffered today?" he asked Steve who was almost dried off. Hearing that, he seemed to take a moment to consider her actions since they found her. They both knew that she should be very sore from the hits she had taken.

"She's not moving like she's tender, or that they hurt her. Victoria didn't seem to even remember the ones on her back until I pointed them out _and_ she was _leaning_ against them on the wall," Steve told him, wrapping the towel around himself. He did the same as he began to remember when he was washing her off.

"When I was washing her body, I was trying to be gentle, but she never once flinched in pain. Even when the glass was being removed, she never flinched. What do you think it means?" Bucky asked wondering if it was another strange connection due to the soulmark.

"Let's get dressed, I'll order food, and then we can worry about it," Steve told him as they walked out of the bathroom to get dry clothes on.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why did Vic get mad a the nurse?  
> After asking for something to prevent scaring the nurse wanted to see the injury to her soulmark. As to why Vic got mad at the doctor was because he then wanted to see the injury, but she was not planning on letting anyone find out about it.
> 
> Also, if you are thinking that Vic may have mentally recovered a bit quickly from her upsetting day, remember how Bucky recovered pretty quickly also when they discovered the physical pain connection at dinner that night once the three of them were together eating later...interesting.
> 
> And what about her bruises not hurting? Maybe there was a clue in a previous chapter as to something a bit special about Vic that the guys didn't pick up on? Maybe something that nagged at Steve on their date night, but he didn't quite catch?
> 
> Hmm...maybe another soulmark connection that they haven't put together yet?


	75. Evidence and Admissions

When he had gotten dressed and ordered plenty of sushi, Steve headed for the den, finding Victoria already sitting out there talking with Wade who was in the chair. He figured that Bucky must still be in his room. She had dressed in longer workout pants and an oversized t-shirt that looked like one of his, whose sleeves almost touched her elbows. Victoria always wore more skin-covering clothes around Wade, but he figured this time there was more to it. She was also trying to protect Wade from getting angry at the situation she had been in.

Steve had been thinking the entire time about what Bucky had brought up, about how Victoria didn't act like she was injured. Was she just very good at hiding the pain that she felt? Was she doing it on purpose to keep them from worrying more? But what about the fact that the scans of her body showed _none_ of the injuries they had expected to find.

Standing in the kitchen sipping from a water bottle, he didn't pay attention to what the two of them were talking about, instead focusing more on Victoria's body's movements and actions, trying to determine what was going on.

After only a minute, Bucky appeared nodding to him before heading over to sit down next to Victoria. Guessing that it was mostly subconscious after doing so for so long, she turned her body slightly so that she was resting against Bucky, nesting into him as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder. With the way she had positioned herself, the large bruises on her back should be resting right up against Bucky's body.

But Victoria never once flinched from any type of pain or at being touched on the injured spot.

Thinking back over their entire time together, the only other incident where she had ever taken a good hit had been when Wade kicked her in the stomach the morning after he had gotten here and they had been sparing in the training room. He and Bucky had seen the bruise a little while later on the bed as they'd finally had their first in depth personal talk.

But now as Steve thought specifically about the bruise, _that_ was what had bugged him the next night, when Victoria had undressed for them at the elevator after their big date. _There was not a trace of it at all on her body_! It had been gone! How had they not noticed?

Well…having sex for the first time in seventy years _would_ be a _bit_ of a distraction.

FRIDAY then interrupted his revelation.

" _The Three Stooges_ , _Miss Jalapeño and Miss Natasha would like entrance_ ," they were told. Steve wondered if Pepper knew Tony had changed her alert name again.

"Go ahead and let them in, and tell Tony that we are going to gang up on him the next time we see him," he said moving to the edge of the counter. The two women stepped out, looking more serious than they usually do. Pepper walked over to the others while Nat came to stand very close to him, facing away from the others.

"We went through the security footage from the penthouse," she calmly told him. He hadn't thought about it even existing. They just wanted to get Victoria out of there and back home.

"Was there footage of her cell?" he very quietly asked, hoping that Bucky wasn't able to hear him, but he noticed the quick head jerk slightly to face him. He had heard.

"Yes," Nat solemnly answered, subliminally telling him that she had already watched it and that it disturbed her.

Victoria had already told them most of what Rumlow had physically done to her, but after seeing the warehouse video, he knew that he had most likely taunted her. Did he want to see it? Not really, but he needed to know what had happened to her. Bucky would probably also want to see, and then break stuff...probably Rumlow.

"We need Vic to come back to the medical bay," Nat said drawing his attention back to her. "We will need photographic evidence of what the Crispy Critter did to Vic. Even with the video, the judges for the Council are not just going to take our word for it."

Steve smiled at Nat actually joking and knew that she was right, but the idea of having others see Victoria's body like that upset him. He reminded himself that it was the same standard procedure they would require of _anyone_ who had been in that situation.

"Pepper and I will be with her, if she wants," Nat told him.

"We had a talk with her after we got back here and she eventually allowed us to see what had been done to her," he told her, wondering how the two women would feel about seeing the damage Victoria had taken. Pepper would probably not handle it as well as Nat could. "It's not pretty, Nat."

"After what I saw on that video, I didn't think that it would be," she said turning back to the group.

Pepper had just brought up the topic of going back to medical. Victoria calmly listened as Pepper told her what was going to have to happen, and she easily agreed hearing that it would help to keep Rumlow locked away. Wade said that he would stay here until she got back, but he motioned for Bucky to come over and he also got Wade's attention. The two got up, walking into the kitchen as Pepper and Victoria talked for a moment.

Once the four of them were together, Steve quietly said, "Let's head down to medical with Victoria, but I want us to discuss something away from her," getting a strange look from Wade but nods from Nat and Bucky.

A few moments later Victoria and Pepper stood up and the entire group took the elevator back down to the medical floor. It was a very quiet few minutes. Pepper led her to a more private room without the exposed windows so that she would be able to get undressed. Nat asked Victoria if she wanted her to watch after the two of them while she was gone, pulling a sneaky trick so that she could be part of the conversation. She agreed and Pepper walked her inside the room and closed the door.

"Alright, what's this about?" Wade started in on him after they had moved to one of the other medical room with a window, so they would be able to watch her room.

"When you were with or trained Victoria before, has she ever taken any bad injuries?" Steve asked.

"Not really. I thought she might have broken her hand when she punched the wall one time, but she was fine. The worst I can remember would have been some good hits from drunks at the bar but never anything serious, only some bruising," Wade told them. "And she's never broken anything that I've ever known about."

"When she was bullied in school, did she ever mention any injuries from those incidents?" Steve then asked.

"I know that she told me there were a few times that she was pushed down a flight of stairs. She never said she got injured. I know that depending on the angle, there could have been the possibility of breaking a limb, or at worst, her neck. But I just figured she'd gotten lucky with the falls."

"Do you remember the kick to the stomach you gave her that first time that you came here?" Steve asked, wondering if Bucky would figured out where he was going with _this_ question.

"Sure do, and I _still_ think she deserved it," Wade firmly stated.

He couldn't help but give a small grin, seeing Bucky do so also.

"We saw it happen, but did Victoria ever get any similar hits when she trained with you?" Steve asked.

"When she first started training with me, yeah. She used to get them all the time," he told them. "I didn't pull the hit that morning either if that's what you meant."

"With her flying back about five feet, I didn't think that you had," Steve added, "But I'm more interest in the bruise itself. We saw it starting to form not long after, but…by the next evening, when we went on our date, it was gone."

Wade seemed to consider his statement for a moment before saying, "A hit like that should have lasted a few days, at least. Every other time we trained, they would."

Nat then added, "Vic didn't have _any_ type of bruise when she dressed at my place."

Bucky seemed to have been remembering that night before cursing a bit in Russian, saying, "How did we not notice that?"

Steve just gave him a _very_ pointed look, and Bucky then just nodded his head in the same understanding Steve had. Sex is a great distraction.

"I guess we were a _bit_ distracted during the date to even consider the fact that it was gone," Bucky added, then he suddenly said, "Steve…the ditch!"

"That's right! Growing up, Victoria tried to jump a ditch on a dirt bike but fell in instead. She should have at least been seriously injured from something like that," Steve supplied.

"What are you two thinking?" Nat then asked, but she was probably just trying to confirm her own suspicions.

"We think it may be another soulmark connection," Bucky stated. "In the shower, we got a very good look at her injuries and she mentioned that none of the bruises hurt."

"You were in the _shower_ with her?" Nat harshly asked with a scowling raised eyebrow.

"Whoa, there, Spider…we were both dressed! Vic was trying to hide what happened to her from us. We just helped her to get cleaned up," Bucky raised his hands and defended them. "Vic finally let us see that Rumlow scratched her soulmark up pretty good."

"I saw the video," Nat admitted, calmer than a moment before but now Wade grumbled at hearing about that for the first time. They were still going to have to watch that video, and soon.

"Even the cuts on her hand from the glass that was protruding didn't need stitches," Steve pointed out.

"What are you thinking all that means?" Wade asked.

"We'll know by tomorrow if our assumption is correct, if it even happens again," Steve told them, "But I'm thinking there's a chance that maybe some of Victoria's injuries might be gone."

Steve then saw Pepper leave the room, looking around until she focused in on the group in their private discussion. She walked over and opened the door. He could tell that she was a bit disturbed after being in the room and seeing Victoria's injuries.

"Nat, Vic doesn't want the _guy_ the Council sent over to take the photos. She's requesting that you do it. After seeing her as she started to undress, I just can't. She said he can be in the room turned away, but that " _there is no way in Kansas that another man is looking at me._ " So, can you do it?"

"Well, my girl _seems_ back to normal," Wade chuckled at her use of a state's name as a curse word.

"Not a problem. I don't blame her," Nat agreed, leaving the room and heading for Victoria's.

"So, what's this private meeting about?" Pepper asked as she closed the door.

* * *

By the time that Vic came out of the room, everyone else had gone back upstairs to their own places, with Wade heading to their place with Steve. Nat and the Council's legal guy had left her to get dressed a few minutes ago, and Bucky had told Steve that he would wait for Vic, earning him a coughing ' _stalker_ ' under her breath from Pepper. Teasing from Pepper, he could easily take with a smile.

While Steve had been explaining their theory to Pepper, medics had brought Rumlow in so that they could being to repair his leg. When they went to put him in a room near Vic, he had marched out and demanded that he be put on the other side of the floor so that she never saw him again. They instantly moved him without a word at his command. Later he would be sent to Level Red where he and Weiss would be spending at least the night.

Stepping into the hall, Vic did not look happy but he had not expected her to. Seeing him waiting, leaning on the wall opposite of her door, did bring a smile to her face. She walked right over to him, looking at him with a bit of a snarky grin.

"So, _you_ got the short straw?" she asked.

"Nope…volunteered," he said reaching for her hand. She seemed a bit hesitant about taking it, but she did. He was not going to let her start to get depressed about what had happened so he pulled her into an embrace, wrapping his arms around her, still trying to be careful of her injuries, even with their assumption.

"How can you stand to look at me like this?"

"I see nothing different about you," he smirked.

"Liar," Vic said giving his butt a simple smack.

"Keep doing that and I happen to know where a private room is," he told her with a smile.

"Did you always find the beaten wife look attractive?" she teased him as she started to lean a bit on him.

"That's not how Steve or I see you and you know it," he smiled at her. "You know, Steve got a kiss in the shower."

"Very subtle, Arbuz," she said but then leaning in to give him one.

"Already moved on to our new nicknames?" he asked wondering how he ended up as _watermelon_.

"Well, it's only a few days until equinox, so yes…new nicknames. Besides, I got bored and had plenty of time to think about them," she told him.

Hearing that, he glanced around to make sure they were alone, and he took her left hand in his, leading her back into the private room she had just left. Shutting the door, he turned off the bright overhead light, leaving on the smaller one over the bed. He sat down, knowing that he would need the support.

"Vic, I know Steve would say the exact same thing that I'm about to if he was here, but when we found out that you were missing, it devastated us," he admitted. "If we _ever_ thought that something like _today_ would ever happen to you, we _never_ would have left."

"There was no way any of us could have known," she said coming to stand between his knees.

"Still…we both feel like we failed you. Neither one of us was here to protect you."

"I don't need bodyguards. I need soulmates. Granted it helps that they are ones capable of scaling a tower to rescue the ' _damsel in distress'_ ," Vic smiled, using their phrase for their playtimes while running her fingers through his still damp hair, pushing it away from his face like she always did.

"But what you did…the clues you gave us to help find you. That was amazing. It was like Hansel and Gretel leaving the trail of breadcrumbs," he told her as he leaned his head into her hand at the calming gesture. How was it she was comforting him?

"Technically, wouldn't it be like Gretel leaving crumbs for Hansel and Hansel?" she teased, getting him to smile. Instead of answering, he pulled her closer and gave her another kiss, this one much less chaste than the last. Continuing when their lips parted, "I knew that the two of you would be able to find me, if you found the clues. But when I heard the guy on the phone say that the Quinjet was leaving, I thought that _you_ didn't watch the video, and that ya'll were giving in to Prune Face's demands. I was _so_ _mad_ at the two of you right then."

"You were angry at _us_?"

"Yes, because there was _no way_ in Everest that ya'll should _ever_ let yourselves be subjected to demands like that just for _me!_ " Vic's voice full of conviction.

"I was ready to turn myself over the moment we learned you were missing, without real confirmation that Rumlow _did_ have a Chair. And if it were to ever happen again, and we couldn't find you, I _would_ do it to make sure that you were safe."

That was when Vic gave a left jab, hitting him hard in his right shoulder, not pulling the punch in the least.

"Hey, that hurt!" he whined, rubbing the spot.

"Do not _ever_ turn yourself over because of me, to _anyone_ , for _any reason_! And _Steve_ will get the _same_ if he even _tells_ me that he would _consider_ it!" Vic yelled at him, pointing her finger upward at a random spot to indicate where Steve was somewhere above them in their apartment.

With that, he wrapped his legs around her body and gave her a firm pull towards him to lessen her striking distance, knowing he might physically regret this.

"If it would mean that you were safe, then no go. Steve will say the same."

This time Bucky was ready and he was able to stop her fist in midair as it headed for his shoulder again. Her right hand then swung and he captured it the same but a bit more carefully due to the cuts on it. Standing up, he forced her across the small room until her back was up against the door, his body trapping hers in place. He then linked their fingers together.

"No you will _not_!" she struggled in his grasp, trying to get free. "I will _never_ let anyone use me as a bargaining chip _again_! Both you and Steve are _far_ more important than _me_!"

"Not to us! When it comes to you, we will do whatever is _necessary_ to get you back, like today! And if that fails, then we will do whatever is necessary to keep you safe!"

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door right behind Vic's head, startling the both of them.

"Mind if I join this conversation?" they heard Steve say, sounding slightly out of breath. He had probably run from upstairs at feeling the first strike.

Bucky released her left hand long enough to turn the knob, only stepping back enough for a large enough entrance into the room for Steve. Once he was inside, he used their body weight to close the door and took a hold of her hand again.

"I _felt_ that we are having a difference of opinion," Steve casually leaned on the door next to the two of them, a slight smile on his face as he subtly indicated feeling her strike on _his_ shoulder. He raised his hand as they both started to argue their points. "I heard the gist of the discussion coming down the hall. Unfortunately, I have to agree with Bucky, so you are outvoted, Victoria."

"That's not fair!" she angrily said rubbing her body slightly against his, stomping her foot.

"Buck, I went ahead and watched the video when I got back upstairs," Steve informed him, knowing exactly which one he meant.

"What video?" Vic asked looking between the two of them.

"From your cell in the penthouse," Bucky said watching her eyes get wide. "Security had a camera in there."

"Did it have audio?" she hesitantly asked, seeming a bit worried.

"Yes, it does," Steve told her. He then pulled out one of the tablets and held it up for Bucky to take. The moment that he released Vic's fingers, Steve had to take a hold of her after she went to grab for the device. "Nope. I know what is on there and he should know also."

Her voice became very soft as he walked over towards the bed, sitting down before he could watch it, "How could you stand to watch that?"

"We would not be able to help you deal with what you went through if we truly didn't know what Rumlow did, or even threatened to do," Steve told her as he then hit the play button. He saw that Steve wrapped his arms comfortingly around Vic to hold her.

The next few minutes were worse than when they had watched the warehouse video. Steve had keyed it to start just as Rumlow entered her cell, during the time they were trying to get to her, and that Clint was so near, but not knowing what was happening to Vic. Each hit that she took made his own body flinch. Hearing her muffled screams, and seeing the aftermath, he knew the severity of Rumlow's touches. By the end of the video, he was torn between not ever wanting to move and marching down the hall to put a bullet in Rumlow's head.

"Vic, if we had given into his demands, would you have done what Rumlow asked? Would you have given yourself to him to keep us from getting hurt?"

At first she seemed hesitant to answer, but she dropped her head, answering truthfully, "Yes."

"You know," Steve started looking down at her, "I never took you for a hypocrite."

Bucky flashed back to months ago, when she had used the same term on him in the barn at Thanksgiving, smiling now that the roles were reversed.

"Victoria, just as you do not want us to sacrifice ourselves for you, we feel exactly the same way about you. Never disgrace yourself like that willingly for us," Steve then told her, finally letting her body go but still holding her hands. "We would both rather take the punishment than have that happen."

"Then the two of you better hope that this is the last time something like this happens," Vic said coming over with Steve and sitting down next to him on the bed.

"It will be, even if I _do_ have to put that tracker in you," Bucky threw in, getting duel groans from them both.

"Dinner should be here in a while. I told FRIDAY to let us know. But, there is something that we need to talk with you about, Victoria," Steve said moving to stand right before her, his arms crossed and looking a bit too serious suddenly.

"Alright, have at it," she sounded almost chipper.

"Care to tell us about the panic attacks?" Steve asked.

The moment she tried to bolt from the bed towards the door, Steve was able to grab her around the waist, plopping her back down where she had been. He noticed that Vic didn't wince or grunt in pain...interesting.

"Hoover Dam it," she mumbled, knowing they were not going to let her get away without this discussion. "The video from the warehouse, right?"

"Yep, and when we questioned your actions, FRIDAY informed us that you've had them on numerous occasions. Why didn't you ever tell us?" he said.

"Because ya'll would worry. Besides, they are not that bad. It just helps to lay down and concentrate on calming down when something gets to me," she admitted. "They are not real full-blown panic attacks. I've seen those. Mine are more high-stress moments. I worry when all of you go out on missions."

"Is that what happened that day out in the sugar cane field? I saw the dirt on your back but at the time I didn't think anything about it," Steve asked.

"Yeah. I laid there for a bit, just trying to deal with that day, before needing to hit something so I went after the stalks," she admitted.

"You should have told us, Victoria," Steve admonished her, but very gently.

"After today, seeing ya'll off on a mission won't be as scary as heading out for a ride anyways," she said before freezing up for a moment. "What happened to my bike?"

"The police have it. A witness to your kidnapping called the police and they took it as evidence. We'll get it back tomorrow," Steve told her. Vic seemed really relived at hearing that.

"There was video of your abduction too," Bucky told her taking Vic's hand and running his thumb across her bruised knuckles, "We saw how hard you tried to fight them. But the most impressive move was when you disarmed that guard with the shield."

"When I saw him in the hall that was the only thing I could think of to do. Rumlow and Weiss wanted to know who had _secretly_ trained me. I didn't tell them anything," she said smiling.

Steve then nodded, saying, "But, full disclosure…"

Bucky then began to shake his head, trying to get Steve to stop talking, knowing that this was not going to be pretty.

"…we do have something to tell _you_ about."

"Alright," she said looking between them, her eyes already growing suspicious.

"After learning that you were keeping the panic attacks secret from us, we discovered from FRIDAY that there was _another secret_ that you were hiding," Steve said as Bucky slowly tried to casually stand up and move away from Vic. It seemed to only take her a moment to figure out what they learned.

"How is anyone supposed to keep a secret around here with FRIDAY hanging around?" she admonished the invisible AI. She then noticed that he had risen and taken a footstep away, so she grabbed the back of his shirt, pulling him back down to sit on the bed. "You two…"

"We were worried that it was going to be something else like the panic attack. We never considered that it was a _nice_ surprise," Bucky quickly admitted. Vic was tense for a few moments, then let out a big sigh, her shoulders then dropping, as if she were calm once again. "What? No pokes to the side? No punches?"

"Do ya want one? I can arrange that, Arbuz," she smiled over at him. "No, I can see that one. You're right. Knowing about the panic attacks, I can see why ya'll were suspicious. So now, ya'll will just have to pack your own bags when the time comes."

"That we can do," Steve stepping into her for a kiss. When he was done, he leaned over to get the same.

" _The Three Stooges, your dinner has arrived_ ," FRIDAY informed them, drawing a unified groan.

"So, who's going to go yell at Tony this time to get our title changed?" Bucky asked looking at them.

"I like _The Three Stooges_. It's been a long time since I've seen them so we'll do a marathon soon. Let's leave it for a while," Vic told them as she stood up from the bed. "Besides, it will probably irritate Tony that we _don't_ want it changed back."

"She has a point," Steve actually agreed.

"But that does remind me of something. FRIDAY, please initiate Protocol Tony 88, and let's go with 1987's Disney's _DuckTails_ and the Title Scrooge McDuck."

" _Yes, Miss Victoria_."

"Do we want to know?" Bucky asked her.

"Just a bit of revenge for Pepper," she grinned.

"So what's Arbuz?" Steve then asked her as they headed for the door.

"Watermelon," he practically growled in annoyance. "Why?"

"Because they are tough on the outside but sweet on the inside," Vic coyly answered opening the door.

"So, what do I get?" Steve asked with a cheesy grin.

"Sorbet."

"What? Why?" now _he_ sounded annoyed.

"Because you like it when I _lick_ you."

That brought a smile to his face as Steve went to grab Victoria around the waist but she evaded and made a run for the elevator, Steve chasing her as she laughed at him.

Bucky calmly followed them as Steve swept Vic up in his arms as she had to wait for the elevator...again with no indication of pain from the bruises. He began to contemplate what they were going to find in the morning. Hopefully, it was going to be good news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inside writer's joke - Protocol Tony 88 - the 88 comes from Kill Bill: Vol 1, the Crazy 88's. So basically it's the 'make Tony crazy' protocol just like when she did the Power Rangers song chapters ago. Vic's had to do it so often that she made it a standard protocol.
> 
> If you go back to the third part of Date Night, you will find where Steve was trying to figure out what was bothering him at that time. Neither of them noticed the bruise Vic received from Wade missing. I was going for subtle since there were more interesting things happening in that chapter!


	76. Worries

Steve wasn't exactly sure what to do with himself for the rest of the night as they had eaten dinner. His mind kept racing over different events from the past few months since they found Victoria. He was trying to revisit any event that had happened which might indicate another connection they had not thought of.

But with what happened today, there was nothing else like it at all. If Victoria's body did have some form of healing factor similar to how he and Bucky did, they would just have to wait until morning.

Wade had been the only one to join them for dinner, giving him and Victoria time to talk. He and Bucky had been silent most of the time, with Wade picking up on their pondering and distracting Victoria. Nobody brought up the events of today instead talking about anything else that they could think of.

He was a bit surprised that Wade liked sushi, but then he and Victoria told them about how when she was learning Japanese and watching anime, that she also 'forced' (Wade's term) sushi, somen, ramen, hot pots, and a lot of rice into their dinner plans. Wade joked about how he had to like it or cook for himself.

Luckily Steve had ordered twice as much of their usual order since they knew Wade would at least eat with them. Which turned out to be a good thing since Victoria ate more than twice as much as she usually did. She put away more than he _and_ Bucky had. They had _never_ seen her eat that much before. He likened it to refueling her body, storing up energy...hopefully for something good.

Eventually, Natasha came down and asked Wade if he would like to come hang out upstairs with the rest of the group. Victoria practically kicked him out the apartment telling him that he didn't need to hover since she already had the two of them. Wade had reluctantly agreed, saying that he would see them in the morning for breakfast. With that comment, he also gave the two of them a knowing nod.

The moment that Wade and Nat had left, Victoria had dimmed the lights considerably, trying to hide once again. They didn't mind if that was what made her comfortable.

"This is _not_ what I had originally planned for this evening," Victoria told them as they all moved over to the couch, with the three of them finally resting comfortably together for the first time since getting home. Instead of changing into her usual short pajamas, she had kept the long pants and oversized shirt on to try and cover the marks that had formed practically everywhere on her body. He noticed that she wrapped up her arms in the extra material at the end of the long shirt to cover them fully.

Reaching over he followed her exposed arm down until he found her right hand, pulling it free of the shirt. Lifting it up, he looked at the cuts still on her palms, trying to get a good look at them. He knew that there had been at least one large piece, but even its mark didn't look as bad as he felt it should have been.

"It's definitely not what _we_ had planned either," Bucky said, reaching over to her legs and pulling them up onto his lap, turning her so that Victoria now rested against him. Lifting his left arm, he wrapped it around her as he slightly turned himself so her back was to his chest, again with no complaint about the bruises being touched.

"Do I _want_ to know?" Victoria asked actually sounding a bit tired even though it was hours earlier than when they normally went to bed.

"Let's just say that someone hid the can of whip cream and planned on using it…think bikini," Steve told her smiling at the visual they had hoped to see while pointing right at Bucky.

"So that's why I couldn't find it the other night to go with the strawberries," she then poked Bucky in the side with her toes. "But I could _definitely_ see _Steve_ in a _whip cream bikini_."

"Never!" he firmly informed Victoria as he took a hold of the clip that she had used to hold her hair up after getting out of the shower, removing it so that the white mass fell free. He started to run his fingers through her hair the way that she always did for them.

That was when he felt the bump on her head. He had not noticed it when they were in the shower as he washed her hair but it may have taken time to appear.

"Victoria, where did this knot come from?" he asked. She reached up to see what he was talking about. Did it not hurt also?

"That must have been when I head-butted Rumlow's face. It was the only thing that I could do from where I was on the floor," she yawned out leaning back into him, nestling further down to get comfortable.

"This was just before we showed up, right?" Bucky then asked while massaging her feet, about the only part of her body that was uninjured.

"Yeah. Even with the way I was cuffed, I was able to push up and hopefully break his ugly prune nose," she softly spoke.

"Where did the glass in your palm come from?" he then asked noticing her starting to drift off to sleep. They had not watched any footage of the living room fight, only from her cell. They might have to watch that tomorrow.

Victoria sounded half asleep as she answered his question, part of the words garbled in with the yawns, "When he fell…in…chair…pushed up to lap…grabbed…glass. Smashed it…head."

Steve considered her action at that time. Victoria had put herself into a very serious and dangerous situation by acting out like that against Rumlow. If they had not happened to have been moments away, there was a good chance that she may have faced serious repercussions for her actions from Rumlow or his men.

"Why did you attack Rumlow that last time?" Steve then asked, trying to figure out why she had been antagonizing Rumlow into hurting her. Victoria had to have known that was going to be the result. She could not defend herself with how she was restrained.

"Annoy him…" she yawned, "kill me…" was all he heard.

Bucky looked down at her with a hard, curious expression. He gave her a firm pat with his hand on her lower leg to try and stir her attention. "Vic? Vic? Steve, she's asleep!"

Steve then moved his head enough so that he could see her face and noticed that she looked to be heavily asleep. Victoria had _never_ fallen asleep on the couch like this before. After the events of today, maybe her adrenaline had finally wore off?

"Did Victoria just mean what I _think_ she meant?" he asked but Bucky just shook his head and he did not look happy.

"That would have been when Rumlow and Vic thought we were on the Quinjet. I think she intentionally put herself into a position to have herself killed. That's what she probably meant earlier about not letting someone use her as a bargaining chip," Bucky calmly but coldly spoke as he stared down at her sleeping form.

"We are going to have to have another _serious_ talk with her," he said, not believing that she would do that.

But after considering their earlier debate, he began to grasp that with her mentality at the time, she probably had. Victoria had been willing to sacrifice herself for their freedom.

"Do you know what she told me earlier?" Bucky started to say, just looking down at her. "That the reason she changed our nicknames was because she was bored today."

"Bored?" he asked not sure he understood him. "She was kidnapped, beaten, molested, _and_ bored?"

"That's what I thought, so I scanned the rest of the penthouse cell footage while you got dinner set. She was left in there in the dark for over five hours right after arriving there, just tapping out songs with her feet on the wall. I can only guess that was when she meant. I don't think anyone else could handle what she did today and be able to say that, well, maybe Nat could," Bucky said pulling her feet closer to him. "Are you sure that not telling her our theory was the best?"

"Hopefully. If something happens during the night, great. If not, then she won't be disappointed. I'm just hoping for the best," Steve then noticed Victoria's body give just a bit of a shiver, as if she were cold. Bucky noticed also, reaching up her pants' leg with his flesh hand.

"Is she running hot to you too?" he asked him so he touched his hand to her forehead.

"She does seem to be. FRIDAY, can you tell us Victoria's temperature?"

" _Miss Victoria's body is currently at 99.5 but it is slowly rising, Captain_."

"Is there any other change in her bodily functions?" Bucky asked.

" _Her heart rate has dropped to 36 beats per minute_ ," she informed them.

"Buck, she not just asleep…she fallen back into one of her comas," Steve said as his mind raced. "I think this might be how her body heals itself."

"Does that mean when it happened earlier this year, her body was possibly trying to heal anything wrong with her at the time?" Bucky asked.

"The doctors never could figure out why it happens, so maybe," he answered.

Steve then picked her hand up again and noticed that it was cold, as it had been on her coma day. He held it out for Bucky to take so that he could see the difference. He did and gave him a worried look, before placing the back of his fingers on her cheek. Steve knew that her face was warm. But what had actually brought this on now?

Thinking about her previous coma, it had been Victoria being between the two of them which had calmed her body down. Assessing how the three of them had been since her rescue, Steve realized that this was the first time that Victoria had sat between them. Every other time, she had been next to only one of them.

"Bucky, I think that Victoria sitting down _between_ us is what brought this coma on, hopefully to help heal her," he told him.

"So the connection does not work unless both of us surround Vic," Bucky then figured.

"It would seem so," he agreed with him.

"Do you think we need to call someone to check on her?" Bucky asked sounding worried.

He considered it for a few moments, as he let his hand rest back on her forehead. They had expected her body to try and heal itself so this may be what it would do to accomplish that task.

"If you really want to, we can see if the doctor is still downstairs, but they couldn't do anything last time so I think that we could let it ride and see what happens," he told him moving slightly so that Victoria was laying down a bit more.

"Since she's still shivering, let's go ahead and move her to the bed," Bucky said lifting her feet enough so that he could stand up.

"Alright. Once we have her in there, you stay with her while I go change and then when I get back, you can get ready. I don't want both of us leaving her at the same time," he said sliding out from behind her, getting an agreeing nod from his other soulmate.

"Do you think that she will be out like earlier this year? Maybe for the entire day tomorrow?" Bucky asked him as he stepped back so that Bucky could reach under her and lift her up. He noticed that her body seemed completely limp, just like her coma day. Right now, she made no move to try and support her arms or head, as if Bucky were carrying a dead body. He reached over and positioned Victoria so that her head rested on Bucky's arm. It was a bit unnerving seeing her this way again.

"Maybe, but at least we know what to expect now. She's not stirring at all from being moved," he said as they moved down the hallway. He opened the door all the way so Bucky could walk in with Victoria. Making his way to their bed, he pulled the covers down and then moved so he could place her on her normal spot. Bucky had to crawl a bit on the bed to get her into the center so that they could surround her. "I'll be quick."

He was gone less than two minutes to get himself ready for bed. Coming back into the room, he found Victoria lying peacefully on the bed with the covers over her, Bucky sitting next to her gently talking while running his fingers lightly through her hair.

"I was seeing how out she really was. Not a single response. It looks just as last time," Bucky told him as he crawled up onto the bed next to her.

"I hope this is a good sign," he told Bucky. "FRIDAY, can you run the same monitors on Victoria as you did earlier this year when she would not wake up?"

" _Yes, Captain_."

"And let us know if there is any significant change in her vitals if they seem to be getting worse," Bucky added.

" _Yes, Sergeant_."

"Go get ready for bed," Steve told him, so Bucky just stood up and removed his shirt and shoes, leaving on his workout shorts. "That's it?"

"What? You want me fully naked?" Bucky grinned at him annoyingly. "For tonight, yes. This is all I'm doing."

Steve sighed as he got himself comfortable by lying right next to Victoria. Once Bucky had taken up the other side, it was only a minute later that they noticed her body stop its shivering, their body heat or proximity seeming to help. He hoped that was another good sign. Each of them wrapped an arm around her waist, holding her close, while Steve let his hand rest on Bucky's silver forearm, feeling like he needed a bit of comfort too after the events of today.

"Should we contact the others and let them know that she's out?" Bucky then asked. "Their curiosity may end up getting us an extremely early wake-up call."

"We could at least call Nat and she could let Wade know," he suggested to which Bucky agreed.

"FRIDAY, could you page Natasha for us?" Steve asked the AI.

A few moments later Nat's voice came over the comm system, " _I'm alone, what's going on_?"

"We wanted to let you know that not long after Wade left, Victoria fell asleep on the couch with us. She's never done that before and now she's unconscious, just like from earlier this year," Steve told her.

" _Do you want the doctor to come check on her_?" Nat asked.

"No, we think that she's fine," Bucky interjected. "There's nothing they could do for her anyways."

"Could you let Wade know what's happened and that we are watching out for her?" Steve asked.

" _Not a problem_ ," she told them.

"And keep Tony from annoying us. We want Vic to sleep as long as she needs," Bucky asked.

" _Already done_ ," Nat told them, making them curious but leaving the strange comment without an answer.

"We have FRIDAY monitoring her vitals so you and Wade can check on them if you want but otherwise we are just going to stay right here with her tonight. We'll talk with you in the morning and let you know if she's awake or out the entire day like last time," Steve informed her while lightly caressing Victoria's stomach as his fingers dangled off of Bucky's arm.

" _Alright. Hopefully we will see you all in the morning for breakfast_ ," Nat said turning the comm off.

"Let's say that this does work and she really does heal. How do you think that she will handle this as a side effect?" Bucky asked sounding amused.

"She seemed to handle the bad connections pretty well, so this one she will like," he told him. Victoria had taken all the bad but this would be an incredible good if it was real. If her body could heal damage at such an accelerated rate, maybe even quicker than theirs did, what could this mean for her?

"If this really works…hell, even if it doesn't…I want to start Vic on real training. She may go up against an LMD for fun using the tricks and moves she's used through the years, but after today, she _really_ needs to know how to properly defend herself," Bucky told him, rolling over a bit more and propping himself up on his elbow.

"Look at the damage she did with those _tricks..._ breaking that agent's nose, not to mention Rumlow's. And I sure would _never_ have bitten a man's arm," Steve told him chuckling but knowing that he was right. Victoria was now officially a target when it came to getting to the two of them. "But you are right. She does need more training with proper fighting techniques. If we had done it sooner, she may have been able to get away at the park."

Bucky snarled out taking that into consideration, "Damn it! Why didn't we?"

"Calm down, Jerk," he quickly interjected. "We both were hoping for the best and unfortunately that did not happen. But we did finally manage to capture Rumlow and he was the biggest worry out there that we had. Hell, Victoria was actually the one to take him down when you think about it."

"She definitely had no problem inflicting pain onto that S.O.B., that's for sure," Bucky sighed. "It's been a long time since I've seen anyone do that type of strike on someone, bending their leg like that."

He was thinking back to the guard she had killed, but at no point did she seem bothered by it. There definitely was no sympathy for Rumlow from any of them. Steve had even stood there along with the rest of the group and was ready to let her kill him. Victoria was such an easy going person normally, neither one of them could have suspected she had such a formidable side to her.

"That may work out to be a good thing with her new training. Maybe she won't hesitate if she's ever attacked again. Between what you and I can teach her, we can also get Natasha and Clint to show her some moves. Think of the skills they have that she can copy," Steve said reaching up with his hand to move a strand of hair off of her peaceful face.

After a few minutes of both of them contemplating the possibilities, Bucky finally spoke.

"You appreciate that by doing this that we will be basically turning her into a trained killer? Think of one person with the skills that the four of us have. If we heard about _anyone_ else in the world being able to do that, we would probably be out there either hunting them down _or_ asking them to join the group."

Steve considered Bucky's train of thought for a bit. He was probably right about if it was _anyone_ else, but this was _Victoria_ they were talking about. Their soulmate who like to tease them about not being mediocre cooks, who had somehow reset all of Tony's ringtones to classical music, made them hang up their own laundry, and locked Tony in his lab for an hour with the same song repeating for working on a car without her…messing it up somehow.

Thinking of the emotional starting point for people like Rumlow, and a few others the team had gone up against, Victoria was _nowhere_ near the same category that they were. Even Bucky had been able to come back thanks to having a normal life before his capture and training.

"I believe that Victoria has the empathy and temperament needed to know how and when to use anything she learns. Remember the guy in the club that tried to stomp her foot? With what she already knew then, she could have done a lot more damage to him, but she just knocked him down after he attacked first. She could have gone after that bully from the gas station, but she didn't. The only time she has ever become truly violent was today. And I don't blame her."

"I just don't want her to change," Bucky quietly admitted. "But I do want her to be safe."

"Have you realized that almost since we have me Victoria that she could have disarmed me at any time?" Steve then snickered eliciting a similar one from Bucky.

"I am especially proud of her doing that move," Bucky admitted. "She probably has picked up stuff from the gym and training room already. I have no idea where she learned to use batons like that. Her moves were not exactly Natasha's."

"There is also the chance that she may not _want_ to learn some of the stuff too. Victoria's _never_ shown a real interest in using a gun or bow and arrow," Steve pointed out as he felt Bucky moving Victoria's large shirt a bit up out of the way.

"Vic _can_ be stubborn when it suits her," he groaned running his silver fingers so that they intertwined with his, now lying on her bare stomach. They had found that just physical contact helped them all but touching like this, over her body, made him feel that she was just a bit safer. Especially considering who was sleeping a few floors downstairs. "Remember the bathing suit incident last month?"

Steve nodded with a smile recalling when they all had been out together while walking home from the movies. She had seen a very skimpy and highly sexy red string bikini on a mannequin in the window of a shop. Victoria decreed right then, _that_ was the suit she wanted to buy for summer. They had both protested saying there was no way she was wearing those ' _scraps of fabric_ ' out in public.

She had smiled sweetly, patted their cheeks, and then walked right inside of the store to try it on.

They both formed a cold sweat when she stepped out of the changing room to model it for them. It was paid for minutes later while the two of them had the most physically uncomfortable walk home. That night he had given her a couple of spanks as she rode Bucky as punishment for not listening to them, but she only laughed at him.

"Oh, yes, I definitely remember," Steve said while he then started to think about something else concerning this possible healing ability.

"Buck, I just had an awful thought," he sighed knowing that Bucky was _not_ going to like hearing this. "Do you think that there _may_ have been times during sex when we _might_ have been a bit rough? And then there are some of the positions that we ended up trying. None of us thought about it at the time, Victoria included, but what if she never showed any bruising from any of it because we all fell asleep afterwards together?"

"Fuckin' hell. You think that we might have actually hurt her but not have known about it because she healed during the night?" Bucky's face suddenly looked very concerned, his arm whirling to life with their fingers still intertwined.

"Stop that before you pinch me! I'm just wondering _if_ it was a possibility," he supplied hoping that he was wrong. "But how would we know? If she was physically uncomfortable with anything we all did, Victoria would have told us, right?"

"I would hope so, and off hand, I only recall her enjoying our playtimes," Bucky said, falling back flat on his side of the bed but keeping his arm stretched so they touched, staring at the ceiling, so he did the same. Their bodies were closely pressed up against Victoria's from shoulders to feet.

Now his mind was racing, trying to picture every single sexual act that they had done or tried over the past few months. Not once could he recall Victoria complaining or acting hurt or injured. Not once had she ever stopped them with their sign of fingers snapping.

Damn, Steve hoped that he was wrong.

"We'll just have to ask her," Bucky said a few minutes later sounding a bit more relaxed. "Vic won't lie to us."

"Victoria can't lie to us. She's horrible at it," he rolled back over onto his side to look at Victoria sleeping.

The only time he remembered her lying was when Bucky had tried to cook some Russian dish. She told him it was good but Steve had heard her voice waver and had eaten half the bowl before Bucky noticed a grimace after a bite. He had already admitted aloud that it was horrible but she refused to say that she didn't like the dish until Bucky started tickling her feet. Victoria then admitted she didn't want to hurt his feelings.

"We came so close to losing her today, Steve," the words were barely above a whisper, as if he was trying to not tempt fate.

"But we didn't and we got our Victoria back. Soon, we will make sure that it never happens again," Steve quietly replied. A few minutes later Bucky spoke.

"Does that mean I can put a tracker in her?"

"Go to sleep, you Stalking Watermelon."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just in case you've never see the movie "Not Another Teen Movie", Google 'Chris Evans whip cream' to see the image that I got the idea from. But it can never be unseen...hahaha. Then realize this was on his resume that got him the job as Captain America. P.S. also, watch him in The Losers with Heimdall and Gamora. He's has some of the best scenes.
> 
> Thanks to everyone out there for the great reviews! There will be a couple of chapters to round out this part before moving on. I can only hope that you continue to enjoy and be excited for new chapters!


	77. Happy Discoveries

Victoria's mouth was parched and it was annoying. She was in a very comfortable lying down position. The soft spot she was in was warm, and it was quiet. The only thing wrong was that she really needed a glass of water. Then she began to wonder exactly where she was. The last thing she remembered was sitting down onto the couch between her warriors. So how did she end up laying down in what felt to be her own bed?

Cracking open an eye, she saw a mess of short blond hair and could tell that Steve was still heavily asleep but the sun filled the entire bedroom meaning it had to have been up for a little while. His face looked so peaceful with him just lying there. Vic knew that they _all_ had a very stressful day yesterday so she didn't want to wake either of them.

Moving her body just enough to confirm what she already guessed, she could feel Bucky's body pressed up against her back, of course with his matching Steve's. Wiggling her feet she found that there was a pile of limbs all intertwined. Listening carefully she could tell his breathing sounded very steady so she figured he was probably still out also. So giving her body a simple stretch to get comfortable, Vic closed her eyes and decided to try and fall back asleep, water be fracked.

A few minutes later, she was still mostly awake while her mind constantly replaying different scenes from yesterday when she felt Steve begin to stir.

"Hot damn!" she heard him exclaim a bit louder than she felt was necessary.

"Language," she mumbled with a smile.

Opening one eye, she could see that Steve was looking right at her, with her pounded, bruised face probably the cause of the expletive. She closed her eye, taking a deep breath before speaking.

"Rub it in a bit more, won't ya? I thought that _you_ were supposed to be the _considerate_ one."

Vic then rolled onto her left side away from Steve and towards Bucky who she had felt stir at Steve's outburst. Reaching over, she rested her arm over him.

"Holy hell, do you see that?" Bucky then said excitedly.

"The two of you _suck_!" she then stated before rolling onto her belly and shoving her head underneath her pillow to get away from the irritating pair. Yelling from under the pillow, "I've seen how you two look after missions and I _never_ said anything rude! Trust me, I _could_ have!"

Vic then felt hands on her back, lifting up her shirt so that her entire back was exposed to the air that was much colder than it had been a few minutes ago when their warm bodies had been surrounding her. She could tell that the hands which began to caress over her skin where the bruises they discovered yesterday were Steve's. Then she felt the bed sheet tossed back before a flesh and metal one started to mess with her ankles. The cold metal on her foot was _not_ a nice morning greeting.

"Ice box!" she yelped, yanking free of his cold hold.

Reaching over towards Bucky, she smacked at where his body should be, making contact with his leg before his hand caught her right one in his grasp.

"Look!" she heard him exclaim as he pulled her right arm up and twisted her hand back towards Steve.

"That's not nice!" she yanked her hand free and used it to hold her pillow over her head. "Go away, _mean boys_! No kisses for a _week_ for _either_ of you!"

"Victoria, we need you to actually get up," Steve told her but she just groaned and used both hands to hold onto the pillow.

"No! I'm going back to _sleep_ until ya'll learn to _play nice_! Come back and wake me up _then_! And make sure you bring _food_ when you do!" she informed them before using her foot to grab a hold of the bed sheet and pull it back over her as much as she could. Both of them found her ability to use her toes to pick stuff up creepy and she hoped that in doing so, they would leave her alone.

"Nope!" Bucky informed her right before she felt his body move slightly on top of hers. He then wrapped his arms under her body, gripping her tightly as he twisted their joined form around so that she was now lying on top of him, the pillow covering her head now trapped between their heads but underneath hers.

"Aw, come on!" she loudly moaned irritated at them still refusing to look at them. It was the feeling of Steve's hand beginning to pull the waist of her pants down and her shirt up that really shocked her. She knew where this usually went, but with the way she looked, all she could think was ' _eww_ '. "So you like the battered wife look too, Sorbet?"

"It's the same everywhere!" she heard Steve say.

"Of _course_ it is, you saw it _yesterday_ ," she sighed reaching back to remove the pillow from behind her head and finally opening her eyes. But looking at Steve, who was now sitting back a bit, his expression was not that of the lust usually there in the mornings, but of shock. Looking over her shoulder, Bucky's face was a large grin as he then began to squeeze her and rock with her, as if he were happy. "What the heck is wrong with you two perverts?"

"Victoria, look at your right hand," Steve said with a large smile.

She didn't know what the point was but she did it anyway. It took her a moment to comprehend that the normal hand she saw should have been covered with cuts from the glass. Turning her hand over, the bruises on her knuckles were gone. Her eyes then went to her wrist, which no long had any signs of the ruts or bruises from the handcuffs. Her left wrist was the same.

Pulling the collar of her shirt out, she shoved her face inside of the material so that she could get a look at her totally _not bruised_ _and injured_ breasts. But the most shocking part was that the four deep finger scratches that had marred her soulmark were gone! Her skin was smooth, without a bit of redness, as if the injury had never happened.

"What the fuck!?"

Both Bucky and Steve then burst out laughing, with Steve falling slightly forward so that his body was now lying slightly on top of her and Bucky, stealing a quick kiss.

"It worked!" Bucky hailed from underneath her.

Then she started to really wonder...

"Did you two let _Tony_ _experiment_ on me? Because if you _did_ , I'm coloring _all_ of your uniforms and his suits _neon pink_!" she yelled at them.

"No, we did _not_ let Tony do _anything_ ," Steve laughed reaching up to touch her face where Rumlow had punch her. She then swiped her tongue over the area of her lip that had been split yesterday and found no cut, not even a scab. Steve then leaned up and gave her a deep kiss gripping her face like it would disappear. Bucky's mouth was then on her neck, hitting her favorite sweet, sensitive spot there.

She was barely able to pull away from Steve's greedy lips to say, "Oh, no, you two are trying to _distract_ me! What did ya'll _do_?"

"We just put you into the bed, that's all, darlin'," Bucky told her as Steve leaned back in, kissing her. Bucky then moved just enough so that she now sat between his legs, with Steve crawling right on top of her, crushing her nicely between the two of them.

"Then care to explain where the bruises went?" she asked as Steve went for her neck on the opposite side that Bucky had just claimed. Even though it had only been two days, it felt like so long since they had been together. Yesterday had almost been the end of times like this.

"Turns out there's another connection from the _soulmark_ ," Bucky whispered in her ear as he began to tickle her sides, making her squirm under Steve's body.

"Stop that!" she squealed as the two guys seemed to get too much happiness from her ignorance. Another connection? "Are you telling me that I'm _totally healed_? And that somehow the _soulmark_ is responsible for it happening?"

"Yes, it looks like it might draw on our healing abilities," Steve said wrapping his arms around her waist, joining Bucky's which were now holding her to him. "We weren't sure if it was going to work. We were just guessing, but as you can tell, we are a _bit_ happy that we were right."

"So ya'll _knew_ and _didn't_ tell me?" she asked trying to wiggle from between them. All she was able to do was partially roll over.

"We only had a suspicion which we figured out late yesterday," Bucky said before giving her kiss as she then began to poke his side. Finding the right tickle spot, he yelped as his grip loosened just enough that she was able to push back from him, tossing her and Steve to the other side of the bed onto his back as he still held onto her. Reaching around, she began to go for his sides as Bucky launch himself towards her with a wide grin.

A minute later, she found herself on her back kissing Steve while Bucky's lips were on her belly, his two day beard tickling her bare skin. Letting them go for a few minutes, they finally seemed to get over their initial jubilant celebration as they both collapsed next to her, their mass of arms still holding her down.

"Now, care to use some _words_ to explain how you knew that I might heal?" she asked them. Steve then gave her a brief rundown of how they took her comments and actions of not seeming injured as not sounding right. Then he brought up the kick to her stomach. Vic admitted that at the time, she was more concerned with learning to dance and what was going to happen later that night to even think about it not being there.

"So then what happened last night?" she asked rolling over onto her belly so that she could look at the both of them.

"What do you remember?" Steve started.

"We came back upstairs and ate dinner with Wade...he went upstairs with Nat...we sat on the couch…" then she started to have a problem recalling. There was nothing past that.

"Do you remember us talking for a few minutes as you fell asleep?" Bucky asked curious. She thought about it for a moment.

"You asked me about something…" she said looking at Steve before reaching up to the top of her head. It felt normal. The bump that Steve had found was gone too.

"We asked you about why you attacked Rumlow that last time," Bucky rolled to his side while reaching over to put his silver hand on her lower back. Vic knew that he was making sure she wasn't going to move as opposed to it being a comforting gesture. What did she say last night? Had she told them what she had tried to do and then forgotten about doing so?

The look on Steve's face confirmed her fear. She had.

_Ah, hell._

"Interrogating an injured person! I expect that from him," she said jabbing a finger at Bucky, "but _you_ are supposed to be _wholesome_ ," she said then pointing to Steve.

"I haven't been _wholesome_ since our first _shower_ together," he grinned at her as he rested one of his legs on top of hers. She knew that he was mimicking Bucky's maneuver of keeping her in place. They were not going to let her get out of this conversation.

"You are deflecting," Bucky said not dropping the topic.

Crossing her arms before her, Vic dropped her forehead onto them on the mattress to hide. This was _not_ going to be fun. Vic relented, "Fine, ask me anything!"

"Once again, now that you are fully awake...why did you attack Rumlow that last time?" Bucky repeated with a much stronger tone. Usually she liked that tone because fun things happened after, but _this_ was _not_ going to be one of those times since she guessed yelling was going to be involved.

Vic sighed heavily, knowing they would not stand for too long of a delay, then admitted, "Because I figured if I could get him angry enough then he might…do something rash, like kill me…and then when ya'll got to the location, he would not be able to prove that I was alive. Then ya'll would have not have to give into his demand and been fine…"

For the next few moments she waited for one of them to start in on her, but it was silent. Too silent. This was _definitely_ worse than yelling.

"Remember how mad we were when you told Tony to hit you that night right after coming to live with us?" Steve calmly asked. She just nodded her head without looking up. "Do you think we approved of you trying to get Rumlow to kill you?" She shook her head. Vic felt a single finger trace a line from her neck down her spine. She knew that it was Bucky's metal forefinger without seeing it. Her entire body shivered from the wonderful yearning feeling it provoked. "We are going to revisit _this_ topic at a later time." She just nodded in agreement.

"Now, on to the next order of business," Bucky then started. "Has there _ever_ been _any_ time during _sex_ when either one of us has _hurt_ you or been _too_ _rough_?"

Now _that_ strange question really had her attention. Lifting her head, she looked between their two faces. There was no disguising the worry written on both.

"What? No, never!" she responded not understanding where such a question would come from. "Why?"

"Are you telling us the truth?" Steve then asked very sternly as if he believed she would lie to them.

"Yes!" she resolutely answered back at him, then looking over at Bucky. "Why would I lie about something like that? Why would you even _ask_ that?"

"Because last night, we realized that _if_ this healing of yours did happen that there was the chance that you might have been hurt at some point but healed while you slept, and we would never have known," Steve explained to her.

Then her mind started racing, trying to make sure she was right. There had been many times when they both had held onto either her arms or legs during sex, holding her in place, tying her down. Also there were the grabs around the waist, the sex against the walls, on the hard floor, pinned between the two of them, the kitchen island. They had just done very minor roughhousing a few minutes ago. They had all been _fun_ times, and there was _not_ a single incident that she had _ever_ felt injured by their grasps or anything else they had done.

"Are you sure?" Bucky asked a few moments later. He must have given her time to process the question.

"Yes, I'm sure!" she said sitting up between them on her knees, taking this a lot more serious now.

Both of them seemed to relax a bit after hearing that.

"Then there is one last thing to discuss," Steve calmly said. So far their questions had gotten worse and worse so she was dreading this new one. "Late last night, we talked about this as we watched you sleep."

"That sounds creepy," she mumbled with a smile.

"I do it all the time," Bucky smirked at her before jabbing a thumb towards Steve, "So does he."

"Stalkers," she mumbled.

"Victoria...after yesterday we recognized the fact that you need to be _fully trained_ to defend yourself from _any_ possible future attacks that _hopefully_ do not actually happen."

" _Fully_ trained?" she asked but thinking she knew exactly where this was going.

"Yes, as in not just the tricks you've learned through the years, but actually defensive and offensive combat maneuvers," Bucky stated with a firm tone in his voice. "Steve and I will be your primary instructors. Natasha, if she actually agrees to this and I believe she will, would also train you. And maybe Clint if you want. We will all teach you how to prevent a repeat of yesterday."

Vic sat there for a moment, considering what they were talking about. Narrowing her eyes between them, she asked, "Is this one of those times when ya'll are trying to make it sound like I have a choice when in fact y'all've already decided it's a done deal?"

"No," Steve said as Bucky answered, "Yes."

"Let me say this..." Steve started giving Bucky a pointed look before turning back to her, "I totally agree with Bucky that you need to be trained to defend yourself much better. But we will _not_ pressure you into actually doing it. We would like for you to _willingly_ _accept_ _this_ as an _offer_ , not as a _command,_ " looking right at Bucky.

Vic knew that they were right. If she had gone to the gym more and paid attention to the team as they trained, she might have picked up on stuff that she could have used to get away yesterday. She had always wondered if she could turn herself into Kakashi Hatake, and it seemed that she would now get the chance to find out.

"What happens if I _don't_ agree?" she asked suspiciously.

"Nothing, _Rapunzel_ ," Bucky smiled at her. Steve reached over and gently punched Bucky's arm.

"Ignore him. Nothing will happen, but you will probably _always_ have an escort when you step out of the Tower for a while, at least until we feel comfortable enough that nothing else will happen to you," Steve told her calmly. She liked that he was being honest, but then he usually was.

"What type of training are ya'll talking about?" she then asked curious as to how far they were thinking of taking this.

"Hand-to-hand obviously, specialty melee weapons like Nat's batons, especially since you seem to have a basic skill in them already, but we also would consider firearms and bows," Bucky answered.

"Don't you think that _might_ be going a _bit_ overboard?" she asked.

"Not if it keeps you safe and with us," Steve smiled at her.

She knew exactly where this was coming from. They were scared. They had basically lost her for a while yesterday, without knowing if they were _ever_ going to get her back. And remembering what Rumlow had done to her as well as had in store for her, she _never_ wanted a repeat of _that_.

"Fine, I'll do the training, but _no_ 5 a.m.'s in the gym. We can do _warmup stretches_ in the bed in the mornings _then_ head for the gym," she smirked at them.

"I agree with that term," Bucky grinned getting her innuendo.

"Of course _you_ would. We'll see how that works out," Steve smiled back at her.

At least they seemed a bit more relaxed than they had last night. Their earlier celebration seemed to have helped with that. Last night by dinner they had essentially closed themselves off for some reason, but she figured that after the discussion they all had down in medical, it was due to guilt over not being there for her. Vic would not have let them carry on that way for too long, but it seemed to have gone, which was nice. Dealing with them brooding would not be fun.

"Anything else ya'll wanted to discuss?" she asked hoping that there wasn't for right now. She would still have to deal with the ' _attacking Rumlow'_ issue, but hopefully it wouldn't be that bad. A triple spanking at the very least, she guessed with a quick smile, before getting to the fun stuff.

"I think that we are good," Bucky supplied.

"Then there is one thing I need to let ya'll know about," she began hoping they were fine with what she was planning. "When I was with the doctor yesterday as he looked me over, I informed him that I needed to have my birth control implant put back in."

Vic looked between the two of them carefully, trying to gauge how they were taking this news. Neither one of them seemed upset.

"Are ya'll ok with that?" she asked.

"Yes," Steve said smiling. "If it wasn't for them removing it, it would not have been a topic either one of us would have brought up this soon."

"I'm just enjoying it being the three of us right now. Maybe in a while we can talk about that as a next step," she supplied to which they both simply nodded with smiles. That had gone over much better than she had hoped. She knew that at some point they would have another serious grown-up talk. "So, now what?"

"Breakfast!" Bucky informed her with a grin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kakashi is a 'copy ninja' from Naruto (who loves to read a love story manga). Vic's 'powers' are partially taken from him, as well as a Marvel comic character named Echo (another copy mutant) who can duplicate moves or abilities by seeing them performed.
> 
> Now we know that there is something else the soulmark can do. Think this may turn out to be very useful in the future? (Hint with evil grin)
> 
> Thanks for all the positive reviews. I love hearing that everyone is still enjoying the story.


	78. Breakfast and Experimenting

Natasha sat at the table next to Wade, carefully glancing at his watch every few minutes. It was well past the time that everyone would usually meet for breakfast but there had been no word from Steve or Bucky since last night. For the most part, everyone had finished eating and was just sitting around the table chatting with nothing pressing to do for right now. Only she, Pepper, and Wade knew of what the guys had discussed with them yesterday. The three of them had agreed that keeping the others out of the loop might be for the best, especially if it didn't work. It would also keep the entire room from behaving exactly how she was right now.

"What's up with you this morning?" Clint leaned over to whisper to her. Nat sighed knowing that of course, _Hawkeye_ would have noticed. "You seem more nervous than when on a mission."

"Hopefully, I'm waiting for some good news," she whispered back hoping that would satisfy him.

"Care to share?" he bugged her.

"Nope," she firmly stated glaring at him in the way that she knew he recognized as her back-off expression. Clint sat back in his chair and grabbed the last piece of bacon that Tony had been reaching for on his own plate, getting him a scowl from the grumpy man.

"Really, Clint?" Tony mumbled picking up a slice of toast instead.

"Payment for my secret tunnel," he told him taking a large bite of the bacon.

" _Your_ secret tunnel is part of _my_ building," Tony tried pointed out.

" _My_ building," Pepper then mumbled as Tony and Clint started nagging at each other all in good fun.

Nat knew that probably none of them had not slept well last night, mostly because Rumlow was in a secured cell a few floors below them right now. The World Security Council was sending a security escort for him today, but the Tower was the only place in New York secure enough to hold him overnight. Also, none of the Avengers trusted another agency to be able to handle Rumlow if a problem arose. Weiss was in a cell nearby since they knew he had to be some higher up for Rumlow to be using his penthouse as a base of operation. The other captured agents were at the local F.B.I. holding facility until they could be deal with.

Sam ended up making a run to the coordinates that Rumlow had given to see if anyone was still at the location but initial satellite scans did not show anything. He had left at sunrise and had already sent back a report. It was nothing more than a meeting spot at an old empty closed down drive-in movie theater. They were going to have to try and find out where Rumlow had the Chair located some other way. Nobody actually believed that he would just give it up. There were still probably a few HYDRA agents on the loose who were supposed to meet the guys there.

Eventually the alert she had set up with FRIDAY gave the notification beep that the three of them would recognize. It meant that at least one of the trio was heading up to their floor. Looking at Pepper and Wade, each of them had the anticipation she felt written on their faces.

"FRIDAY, what was that sound for?" Tony asked hearing the sound she knew he didn't set up himself.

" _I'm not allowed to tell you, Boss_ ," the AI responded. " _Miss Natasha tells me I am not good at keeping secrets but I intend to prove her wrong_."

"Natasha, why have you hijacked my computer again? I already have Vic to deal with," Tony asked pointing his toast at her.

"You think I'll give in that easily? Please..." she rolled her eyes as she turned her head after hearing the elevator doors opening.

Leaning over as far as she could, she stared intently down the hallway trying to get a good look at the footsteps coming closer. Nat sighed in relief at the person walking between the two grinning men. Vic was wearing a pair of jean shorts with a tank-top that exposed her soulmark. Even without being up close to really see her skin clearly, she knew that Vic would only wear something like that if she had indeed healed. She leaned back down into her chair with a smile on her face. Vic had not signed up for having to deal with getting beaten up the way she had so having this ability to heal was a great relief to Nat.

"Good morning," Steve said as they made their way across the room towards the stairs leading up to the table.

"More like early afternoon, sleepyheads," Tony said grabbing more toast and not looking down at them. The three of them had agreed to keep him in the dark about the possibility of Vic healing during the night. Pepper had pointed out that it would be the only way to keep him from bugging them, and their apartment.

"Semantics," Vic said as they got to the top of the stairs, smiling wide at everyone sitting at the table. Wade pushed his chair back, stood up and walked over to Vic, giving her an incredibly big hug. She knew that he had worried most of the night. The two of them had stayed awake _very late_ in her apartment talking after everyone else had gone to bed. Then there was what had happen _after that_ , which brought another smile to Nat's face.

Clint, Pepper, Wanda, and Pietro were sitting at the table in stunned silence at seeing Vic looking so healthy and not injured.

"This?" Clint simply asked her finally turning away from staring at Vic.

"Yes," she simply said.

Tony finally looked up from his tablet to see that everyone was staring at behind him. Turning around he watched as Wade took a step back from Vic, examining her up close, turning her head to the side to make sure that everything was gone.

"Care to explain why the hell you look like that?" Tony exclaimed as he now joined the others in staring.

"What? This is what I always look like. Man, have you _not_ been paying attention to me at _all_ these past few month? Shame, shame," Vic taunted him holding her hand in the air as if ringing a bell for some reason while moving over to the buffet to grab some food.

"That's not what I meant and you know it!" he huffed out.

"She's right, Tony. There's nothing wrong with how Vic looks," Bucky patted Tony on his shoulder as he walked past, also getting a kick out of annoying the man.

"There is no way that is a makeup job! Even my own _beautician_ would never have been able to cover up all of those bruises!" Tony stated firmly.

"You have a _beautician_?" Steve asked with a smirk on his face that was priceless. "How very _manly_ of you."

"Stow it, Spangle Britches!" Tony answered before turning to look over at Vic who was fixing her plate.

Wanda and Pietro were talking quietly to themselves in Sokovian, probably discussing the events they were witnessing. Vic seemed to hear them and then joined in the conversation. In their own language.

The next minute they watched as the three of them talked, nobody else at the table able to understand what they were saying to each other. Finally, they all laughed while turning to look at Tony, who had been shocked into silence at the moment Vic started to speak another language.

"If you've had your fun at my expense, would someone please care to _explain_ what is going on _before_ I storm out of here like a _little child_?" Tony practically yelled. Pepper was barely able to contain her laughter.

"Oh, _I'd_ like to see that," Vic said sitting down at the table, leaving chairs open on both sides for her guys. When everyone had gathered earlier, they had unspoken agreement to leave space for the three of them, in case they actually had shown up this morning. Nat was glad that they had now.

"If it would make you _happy_ , then I'm _not_ doing it," Tony told her, crossing his arms and pouting. A moment later then he threw out, "And since when can you speak _Sokovian_?"

"I learned it in May, I just haven't seen Pietro or Wanda since," Vic said starting to eat as Bucky and Steve took up their sides surrounding her, wide smiles of all of their faces.

"You learned an entire language _in a month_?" Tony asked curious.

"No, I learned it in about _eight days_ ," Vic casually said between bites then saying something else in Sokovian which made the twins both laugh.

"Stop that! I know what you're doing and it's not nice to tease your _boss_ ," Tony pointed out.

"Maybe not, but it is fun to tease a _friend!_ " Vic smiled at him.

Nat saw Tony try to scowl at such an endearing term, but as he hid his face behind the coffee cup he was drinking from, there was a genuine smile there.

"Bucky and I started to suspect that Victoria may have an accelerated type of healing, or something else similar, yesterday afternoon. She mentioned that the injuries didn't hurt her except when she had received them. Also, she didn't move like she was hurt. So, last night after Wade left, when Vic sat down on the couch between us, she quickly started falling into a deep sleep, a coma, just like she had earlier this year," Steve told the group, everyone intently listening.

"A sleeping coma brought out the healing?" Tony asked leaning on his elbows, intrigued by the theory they had discussed.

Nat was still wondering how the soulmark linked them in such a strange way.

"Yes, _I_ had to _carry_ her to bed," Bucky told them with a smile before Vic reached over and poked him in the side, making him slightly jump.

"When she woke up, everything was healed," Steve said. "Tony, would there be any type of test you could run on Vic to test her muscle and bone density?"

"Of course. I love experimenting on _guinea pigs_ who take over my AI," Tony smirked at Vic. "Scrooge McDuck _indeed_."

"If you can't take it, then don't dish it out," Vic smirked at Tony, "Don't I get a say in being this guinea pig?" Vic asked looking between the two of them.

"Not this time, sweetheart. We need to know," Bucky supplied but Vic didn't argue any more. She seemed fairly accepting of this announcement.

"Don't worry, Vic, I'll keep an eye on him," she decided to offer while giving Tony a cold glare to let him know to be nice.

"What are you looking for exactly?" Wade then asked.

"After hearing from you how she had never been injured badly, no broken bones, we thought about her story of when she crashed into the ditch growing up. The doctor yesterday also said she had no broken or even cracked ribs from the kick Rumlow gave her, or even a concussion from being knocked unconscious. Just the bruising. It started us to wonder if there was a reason," Bucky told the others.

"What ditch?" Nat asked curious about the story. "You mentioned a ditch yesterday."

"There's a ditch between two of the cow pastures where I grew up that I tried to jump on a dirt bike when the farmhands told me I couldn't because I was a girl," Vic said with a cheesy grin. "But it was just dumb luck that I didn't get hurt."

"No, we don't think so anymore," Steve then said. "We saw that ditch. That thing was at least ten feet deep. Plus you said the dirt bike landed on you. But you only walked away with scratches and bruises. That is _not_ normal."

"You tried to jump a ditch that size? How old were you?" Nat asked.

"Eleven. I just didn't get enough speed so I impacted on the edge and went down, literally," Vic said finishing off her plate of food in a very short amount of time.

"It was about fifteen feet across," Bucky then told them. Nat pictured the dirt ditch, probably like everyone else at the table was, and agreed with their assessment that a normal body would have been badly injured.

"Well, my lab tests will show if Vic has a difference with this ability to take more damage than a normal person, and after seeing the healing affect her body has, I have a feeling they will prove positive," Tony said smacking the tabletop as he grinned while standing up. "Pinky…are you pondering what I'm pondering?"

"Oh, no. Isn't it still too early for this, Tony?" Vic then whined slumping a bit in her chair. Glancing around the table, nobody else seemed to get the joke either. Tony on the other hand stood there waving his hand for her to stand and come with him. With a loud sigh, Vic stood up, drank down the last of her orange juice, and then said, "I think so Brain, but where are we going to get twenty pounds of cottage cheese and eight rubber horse nipples from at this hour?"

The entire table stared blankly as Tony loudly laughed, took Vic by the arm and led her away without an explanation as to what they had just witnessed. The two of them had a strange connection with TV and movies quotes and she could only guess that was the answer to the comment.

"Anyone?" Nat then asked the table hoping someone knew. All heads remaining at the table shook 'no' as an answer.

* * *

Vic sat on the lab table as looked out through the windows to where everyone else was sitting around the common room having fun, while Tony had her hooked up to about four different machines at the same time. Her warriors kept watching from the couch where they sat talking with Wade and Clint while the twins and Pepper played a three-way game of pool. It looked more like they were just having fun and learning how to play more than anything.

Nat had kept her word and had been watching over Tony and his screens since following them to the lab a few moments after they had walked away. Eventually she had sat down next to her and asked for an explanation as to what she and Tony had said. So, using a tablet, she had pulled up some of her favorite episodes of the show. That had taken up at least an hour, and Nat had seemed to enjoy the show, even being a bit, or mostly, childish.

"Alright, Nat, want to go get the fly boys?" asked as he walked over and began to remove the sensors that were stuck around her arms and chest.

"Sure," Nat said jumping down from the table and leaving.

"Hey, Tony," she said reaching to take a hold of his wrist, for which he stopped moving for. "I wanted to say thanks for working with Bucky and helping him to get to the top of that building. That means a lot to me."

Vic could see him becoming slightly embarrassed at the praise, which she found funny. Usually he would be hogging attention to try and get a compliment. But then this one was unsolicited and genuine, and Tony knew it.

"I had to..." he started to say to which she gave him a look of curiosity. "You've never written down your recipes."

Giving him a simple laugh as he tried to hide his reasoning's but she knew. Pulling him in to her, she gave him a big hug, which he did return. Looking over his shoulder, she saw the group that had been heading their way either pause or give strange glances at them.

"You definitely earned a few pizzas," she told him finally letting go as Bucky, Steve, Wade, Clint, and Nat came into the room.

"I know!" he smirked as he dropped the handful of sensors onto a nearby table.

Nat then hopped back up onto the table next to her, in the same spot she had been in, stopping Bucky from taking up his normal side. But instead of coming over to her, her warriors walked to the screen Tony had been working at for the past hour, looking at the readout. She could see an outline of her body, plus markers where the sensors had been. As for the actual results, Vic was not sure what Tony had found.

"So…I had FRIDAY run a couple of different tests with similar results from each. Overall, Vic's body absolutely does have a higher muscle density as well as an elevated bone density," Tony began pointing at some numbers on the screen for the guys to see.

"But what does that mean for Vic?" Wade asked coming to stand next to the table on her other side.

"When Vic gets hit, it takes a lot more force to really injure her. Not only would take a much stronger hit to bruise Vic but she does not seem register the pain for as long as someone else would. Her body is more resilient to that type of damage. But compared to Nat," Tony said waving his hand towards Nat, "A hit that _would_ bruise Nat's _ribs_ , would only bruise Vic's _tissue_ area. A hit that _would_ break Nat's ribs, _might_ bruise Vic's ribs. So on and so on."

"That's a _big_ difference between the two of them," Clint said probably knowing how much Nat had been through during the past few years they had worked together.

"Take into account that she may be drawing from both Popsicles, plus her own muscle strength from working out and biking," Tony pointed out, earning scowls from both Bucky and Steve at the nickname, but she had been watching them as he talked and saw their relief as he spoke.

These results proved that for the past few months, there had not been any time that she had been injured in bed from either of them. She knew that she had been right, but Vic had a feeling that without these test results proving it they both may have been hesitant about their next time together.

Steve became visibly upset for a moment, drawing everyone's attention towards him.

"What?" Bucky ask as Steve put an arm on the table to steady himself.

"Take into account what Tony just said, and now, think about what Victoria looked like last night," Steve said looking over at her. "Rumlow was hitting her with a force that he thought would _seriously_ injure her, not just _barely_ hurt her."

Everyone was now thinking the same thing, and all of them were, _very creepily_ , staring at her. She needed to get out of here.

"Great, a _roomful_ of stalkers. So, is the guinea pig _free to go_?" she asked hopping down from the table to walk over to her two guys, who each gave her a kiss on the cheek, coming out of the funk they were in. She was glad that they had not let on to the real extent of their joy from the results. Nobody knew of their private sex talk.

"Why not? I still have to get ready for later since I get to play boss for the day," Tony said shaking off his own thoughts of her beatings and walking out.

"Get ready for _what_?" she asked as they walked back over to where Nat, Clint, and Wade were chatting.

"He's using the Quinjet to escort Rumlow to the Council's prison, along with Wanda, Pietro, and Clint. Then he'll drop them off at home before heading back here," Steve told her, making her wonder about something she hadn't thought of before.

"Where _exactly_ is _Rumlow_ right now?" she asked knowing she didn't sound too happy.

"Downstairs in a _heavily_ secured cell, Level Red, right down the hall from Weiss," Bucky said wrapping an arm around her waist. They had both been very relaxed this morning so they must feel confident about this cell Rumlow was in. Especially with her only a few floors away, totally helpless last night.

"Really?" she responded, thinking quickly. "FRIDAY, Protocol Negan, Rumlow and Weiss' cells."

" _Yes, Miss Victoria_."

"Victoria, what did you just do?" Steve asked looking worried.

"I just put on some music for them to listen to until time to go," she smiled as evilly as she could. Both Steve and Bucky just sighed, but they didn't try to override her command. "So where are they going to disappear to?"

"They are both getting a free ride to a secured location until the World Security Council can figure out what to do with them,"

"Do with them? Shouldn't they have already been working on that for the past three years, two months and six days?" she asked not liking the answer she had gotten.

"Where does that time come from?" Bucky asked.

"The day after the Helicarriers until yesterday," she pointed out as Steve turned to look over at the others.

"Clint, Nat, got a few minutes?" Steve asked getting their attention.

"Sure, what's up?" Clint asked.

"After yesterday, we realized that Victoria needs some additional training, the kind to prevent a repeat event. We are both going to start seriously working with her, but we wondered if the two of you would also consider showing her some moves," Steve asked.

"How in depth were you thinking?" Nat asked.

"We want hand-to-hand with some weapons training," Bucky told them.

"I remember how well she did with _snowballs_. Vic, would you be that proficient with _anything_ I showed you?" Clint asked. He had not spent a lot of time at the Tower during the past few months, but she never had really worked out with him around. Even when they went to his place for Bucky's sessions, they would work on the house.

"If I focus and pay attention, then for the most part I would duplicate your moves almost perfect. Or at least I think so. I've never tested the _actual_ accuracy," she told him.

"If you want, I'll help with training you too," Nat said looking happy at the statement.

"Yes, definitely," she said starting to feel a bit better about doing this. She had seen Nat training before but had never tried to learn her moves.

"I'm heading home but you can come up any time and spend a few days with us," Clint grinned.

"She's _not_ going to be there to _work_ on your _house_ ," Nat then informed him. He sighed at hearing that.

" _Or_ I can also try to get a few days when I can get here and schedule it with you," Clint solemnly stated with a nod knowing he had been busted.

"Thanks, we'll let you know how it works out once we actually start," she told him.

"You better pay attention to them," Wade told her as Clint left to go get ready to leave also.

"I will, old man," she smiled at him knowing that he had wanted her to do something like this for the longest time.

"Now, if you will excuse us," Wade told them, walking to stand next to Nat while offering his left arm, who then hopped off of the table and linked their arms together. "See you kids tonight!"

With that, they silently watched as the two of them walked towards the elevator, leaning heavily onto each other while also receiving strange looks from Pepper, Wanda, and Pietro as they passed by them.

"What the _hell_ just happened?" Steve asked when the shock had worn off only when they were out of sight.

"I don't think I want to know," Vic answered as a icky shiver ran through her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Hopefully you recognized Tony & Vic using the Pinky and the Brain pondering joke. Look the episodes up if you didn't. Very funny to watch.
> 
> Any Walking Dead fans probably already know the song that Victoria has playing. For those who don't: Easy Street by The Collapsable Hearts Club.
> 
> Also, the 'shame' comment with ringing bell gesture is from Game of Thrones.


	79. Good Riddance

Nat and Wade had just walked out...hand in hand. _Nat and Wade_? When had...? How long...? Had they...?

Steve almost felt like he needed his mind washed from the creepy thoughts that suddenly emerged. Looking next to him, you would think that Victoria had eaten something that had not agreed with her. Bucky, on the other hand seemed a bit paler than he had a few moments ago. Yep, they had seen the same thing he had so Steve knew that he was not going crazy.

The three of them were still trying to forget what had happened as they escorted Vic back down to medical where she was to meet back up with the doctor to have a new birth control implant inserted. The doctor assured her that there would be no lapse in protection with the other one just having been removed yesterday.

He and Bucky had a quick chat while she was in the room for the procedure as to when they needed to have the talk with her about trying to have Rumlow kill her. They agreed that it would be best as soon as the Quinjet left.

They ended up back in the common room to wait around until it was time to escort Rumlow and Weiss to the Quinjet once the World Security Council's escorts showed up. Wanda sent Pietro down to pack up the few items they had brought in case they needed to stay longer while hoping that they would be finding Victoria sooner rather than later. Of course he was back in about five seconds with their packed bags ready to go.

Tony eventually came back up wearing his Iron Man suit, parking it off to the side until it was needed. Clint also had minimal items to pack and was also back fairly quickly. He and Victoria then got into the most interesting game of pool anyone had ever seen. They learned after the first few shots that Victoria had watched a skills competition of world class pool players when she was in Las Vegas and had picked up most of their skills. Clint just had his natural ability to hit anything going for him. Whomever broke would automatically win the entire round without the other even getting a single shot in.

If she was _also_ copying Clint's moves, Victoria refused to admit to it.

Eventually FRIDAY informed Tony that the World Security Council's representative had arrived in the lobby. After having his identity and credentials confirmed directly with the Council through a secured channel, Tony authorized him to go to the Level Red floor where the highly secured cells were holding them. Tony stepped into his armor, Clint grabbed his bow and quiver, Bucky headed down the stairs to the mission prep room to get a few guns, while he was on Victoria duty. Not that he minded one bit.

"So what _exactly_ is going to happen to the motherf…" Victoria started to say, to which he gave her a dirty look, pausing her from finishing. "To the _bad_ _men_."

Steve gave a sigh, counting the seconds until Rumlow was gone and Victoria no longer had to even think of him. In all the months she had been with them, no one and nothing had brought out her profanity. But one incident with Rumlow was all that it seemed to take.

"There is a special secret maximum security prison created for high-threat or enhanced people called the Raft. Right now, they will both be taken there until their trail by the World Security Council in a few weeks. Rumlow will be stuck in medical for most of that time."

Steve saw the wide grin appear on Victoria's face at hearing that, shaking his head but totally understanding where her hatred for the man came from.

"Bread and cheese slices only, no steaks for him. He doesn't deserve it...oh, but give him lots of salads," she said giving him a quick kiss on the lips before standing up from the couch and he wondered where the salad idea came from since it seemed very specific.

He followed Victoria as she began to head to the lower level where the Quinjet was located. Steve was still a bit hesitant about even letting her get that close. Earlier Bucky suggested to Victoria about her heading back to the apartment so that she never had to see Rumlow again. After refusing, he could tell that Victoria was getting irritated when Bucky continued to carry on.

"Why do you _want_ to be there and see him?" Steve had finally asked.

"I'm not going to let that psychopath even _think_ that I'm a bit scared of him. If I hole up somewhere and don't see him off, then he may think just that. So, if you don't stop nagging me," she said jabbing a finger into Bucky's chest, "then let's see how you handle the next month with no kisses."

Steve could barely contain his laughter at her reasoning since that's what Bucky had been doing by letting her draw the gun on him yesterday. Of course, hearing that made him drop the subject, but more than likely it was the threat of no kisses which worked.

They sat down on the prep room's bench to wait for the prisoners to be brought up. Weiss had no special abilities so he was going to put into normal handcuffs. The background check on him found that he was the money-man for HYDRA here, or at least the only one that Rumlow used. There were numerous small corporations that he headed that had not been part of the original collapse years ago. They had either been hidden too well or had been created right afterwards with funds considered 'clean' so that they seemed legitimate.

Weiss was going to face charges for his participation in all of the terrorist activities that Rumlow had accomplished since he had given him the monetary support to do them. Then there was his being an accessory to kidnapping when it came to Victoria. It had been his residence and warehouse that she had been held at. Weiss would not be seeing daylight without bars for many years.

Rumlow, on the other hand, had to be dealt with a bit more carefully. Between his extensive training with SHIELD, there was also his time with HYDRA. He could handle himself in any type of situation normally. Yesterday had not been normal though. He had trapped himself in a location without extraction thinking himself safe there with them having no idea where he was at.

Rumlow had been overly confident and he had paid the price. Or at least his left leg had.

Even being brought up in a wheelchair, he would be wearing specialized SHIELD cuffs to be extra careful. Steve smiled they were the same kind that Rumlow had used on him years ago in D.C. With all of the terrorist activities that he had performed in numerous countries, special envoys for those countries were all screaming at the Council for possession of Rumlow so that he could stand trial by their laws. There were a few that had already put in execution orders on him, without the process of a real trial. There was going to be a lot of political arguing going on for the next few months.

Hearing the elevator door opening, they stood to watch the first group exit into the hallway leading to the Quinjet. It was Weiss who was being escorted by Pietro and Clint. When he looked over at where Victoria was standing, watching him, Steve saw his eyes grow wide at taking in her appearance and realized that they may have made a mistake. It was already too late to do anything about it, but he started to wonder if maybe he should have forced Victoria to not be here. Seeing her fully healed was not something that he would have wanted Rumlow to even know about. It was doubtful that Rumlow would even consider it being a side effect of the soulmark as opposed to a really good makeup job. There had never been any other soulmark connection so strong before.

Hopefully, since they would both be behind bars for the next few decades it would not matter.

"Ya're gonna look lovely for ya mugshot," Victoria taunted, in a very sweet southern accent, to Weiss as he passed by with a large black right eye. Looking down at her, she saw the questioning look Steve was giving her about the accent. "I did that on purpose. That's all they heard yesterday, so I may as well keep it up."

As Weiss was being strapped into his seat for the flight, the elevator opened again. Steve heard a soft giggle from Victoria at the sight of Rumlow sitting in the wheelchair, his leg outstretched with a special brace cast on it. His other leg was shackled to the footrest while his arms were secured in front of him with the large cuffs encasing his entire forearm and attached to the seat. They had extremely limited his range of motion. The look on his face could set ice on fire when he saw Victoria standing there next to him.

"You fucking redneck bitch! When I get out of here…" he started to scream at her before a large wad of cloth suddenly appeared in his mouth. Pietro was now standing right next to Victoria.

"Oh, I'm sorry…were you saying something?" the young man comically asked, making Steve a bit prouder of him for taking the initiative of stopping the verbal abuse of his soulmate. As the group passed by, Steve saw Bucky reach out and give Pietro a couple of pats on the back, also appreciative of his act. Tony had a wide grin on his face.

"Ya messed with the wrong family!" Victoria then said making his chest swell with pride at hearing her call them family. They knew she loved them, but there was something about _that_ word that was just wonderful to hear. Even Bucky's face was practically glowing at her words.

Bucky kept his guard up as the wheelchair was secured to prevent it from rolling around. They knew how Tony would sometimes fly a bit crazy for fun, but this time, he may just do it on purpose to toss Rumlow around a bit, claiming turbulence as being at fault for the rough ride.

The moment that Rumlow was secured, Bucky lowered his gun and walked over to Victoria, wrapping his arm over her shoulder while giving her a long kiss. Steve knew that the show was specifically for Rumlow, not that he could blame him. Ever since D.C., Bucky had carried around a special hate for Rumlow. Given different circumstances, he had no doubt that Bucky would have killed Rumlow instead of allowing him to be taken prisoner.

Tony stepped from his suit, putting it on guard mode aimed specifically at Rumlow, before walking over to the latch to close the ramp.

"So, does this trip earn me a pizza?" he grinned at Victoria. He heard her sigh at the commanding request.

"Yes, you can have a pizza. I need four hours' notice so that it will be ready," she heard her say as Steve focused on Rumlow's glare in her direction. Pietro must have shoved the cloth in well as he was having a hard time dislodging it since his arms couldn't bend that far due up to the cuffs.

"Great, I'll take a pepperoni and a Supreme."

"Fine, Landlord," she said wrapping her arms around his and Bucky's waist. At that moment Rumlow finally managed to spit the cloth out.

"Just remember, you fucking Bitch. _Lessons in pain_!" The hard, cold tone of his words actually sent a shiver down Steve's spine. He noticed Bucky do the same shiver. But it had a different effect on Victoria.

"Whatever, you crusty cock-sucking, barnacle-looking, maggot's testicle-licking, goat wanking…" Victoria was able to get out before Bucky overcame his shock, finally managing to press his hand over her mouth to silence the most vicious string of curing Steve had ever heard.

" _Language_!" Tony then screamed from inside of the Quinjet, his eyes wide in shock from hearing Victoria's foul mouth.

Steve couldn't wait to hold _that_ over Tony later on.

"How about _not_ antagonizing the kidnapping, sexually-assaulting, murdering, international terrorist?" Bucky asked staring at her very intently.

When Victoria nodded her head in agreement, he removed his hand.

But just as Tony was giving them a salute goodbye as the ramp rose, he noticed Victoria stick her tongue out at Rumlow, who was staring her down.

Once the Quinjet was moving down the tracks to take off, he turned to her.

"You just _had_ to get that last little jab in, didn't you?"

"Of course," she sweetly smiled at him as he and Bucky were now ready to take care of what they had privately discussed.

Bucky then headed over to his cubby, hanging his guns up before walking back over to Victoria and taking a hold of her left hand. He then did the same with her right one, both of them keeping her from trying to run.

"We'll just add that to your punishment list," Bucky plainly informed her as they started to lead Victoria to the elevator.

That was when she realized their intent and tried to pull free.

"Oh, come on! You have to at least give me that _one shot_ at him after _yesterday?_ " she whined as the doors opened.

He glanced at Bucky who nodded that he didn't have a problem with that.

"Fine, you get that one," he told her bringing her hand up to kiss her knuckles.

* * *

Thirty minutes later, Vic finally emerged from the bathroom looking as beautiful as she always did, and Bucky knew that the clothing she had changed into was only meant to distract them. Bucky could see that she was not happy. It was obvious that she had spent her time in there worried as to what was about to happen as well as also probably trying to figure out a way to get out of trouble.

As she had been heading inside, he and Steve were still arguing about her punishment for trying to get Rumlow to kill her yesterday. They had been agreeing that a spanking was in order, at the very least. But after she had told them that she needed a few minutes and disappeared inside for some reason, they had quietly talked about what really was going to happen.

Now Vic was slowly making her way to the bed, wearing only a thin slip of a nightgown with her head turned down just slightly. Her hair had been braided up into an intricate design that was lovely. He knew that she was trying keep them from getting too angry with her.

They were both sitting on the edge of the bed and he was finding it hard to not smile, to not give away their true intent. There was no way they would truly punish Vic. Not after what she had suffered yesterday, but having her worry about it happening was punishment enough.

In fact, he and Steve had already talked last night while she slept about how their playtimes would need to stop entirely. After what she had been through thanks to Rumlow, anything they may do would just be a reminder of her kidnapping. They never wanted to have her to relive any of that. He had also been relieved to learn that they had not hurt her previously. Vic came to a stop, her hands behind her back, probably wringing with worry with how she seemed to be fidgeting.

"Victoria," Steve started as he put his arms behind him for support to lean his body back, "You had to know at the time that you attacked Rumlow that we would not approve. Is that a correct statement?"

"Yes," she mumbled without making eye contact.

"You've been warned before about doing or saying something that would get you injured. Like the incident with Tony," he then said, which got her attention.

" _That_ warning was specifically about _telling_ someone to hit me. I _never_ did that with Rumlow," she defended herself.

"No, you just cursed at him, insulted him, egged him on into and then during a fight, then physically attacked him while totally vulnerable, where you could have been easily killed," Steve pointed out harshly. Vic opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out. There was no good defense that she could give. A moment later she finally spoke.

"It's not my fault if he can't take a couple of insults. He needs to grow tougher skin…well, even _tougher_ skin," she smirked at the taunt, crossing her arms over her chest, before her lips turned into the cutest pout. "Besides, he's mean."

That was all he could take. He stood up, turning his back to her as he looked out of the window so that she couldn't see the wide grin on his face. How Steve was able to go on sounding so serious was beyond him.

"Yes…he is. That also means that he probably would not have hesitated with his actions considering what you did to him," Steve continued on without him. "And that is why we are angry that you tried to get him to kill you."

"It was the _only_ way I could keep the _two_ of you _free_! _"_

Hearing her admit that aloud sobered Bucky up real quick. The fact that she would take such a drastic action for them. Turning around, he stalked right over to her, determined to set her straight. Her head turned at hearing him approaching, but she never once flinched or looked nervous.

"You will _never_ do that again! Because no matter what we _may_ have to do, or what _happens_ to us, we will _always_ find a way back to you! So you _will_ be there when we do! You _will_ keep yourself alive _at all cost_!"

The look in her eyes as she contemplated his words, the softness that invaded her expression, told him that she would do as instructed.

"Do you promise to keep yourself alive at all costs?" Steve then asked softly, knowing that she would never break a promise to them.

"Yes!" she informed them, sounding determined.

Glaring over at Steve and giving a single nod, he could see that he was also satisfied with the outcome.

"Victoria…you are being offered a one-time get-out-of-jail-free card," Steve then told her, the curious look apparent from her. " _Yes_ , I get that _reference_. All that you have to do is…give each of us a kiss."

Hearing that, she began to look between the two of them, as if she expected them to change their minds. Steve then stood up so that they were all very close. Vic then reached out with her hands, grasping both of them by the base of their necks. She pulled him in first, giving a simple chaste kiss before turning her head to do the same with Steve.

"Now, can we move on to a more fun order of business?" she smiled at them.

They had figured that Vic would need some time to mentally heal from how Rumlow had treated her yesterday, but instead she had put on a sexy gown and was now requesting for them to be together. He looked over at Steve, as if to let him give his take on her invitation. At seeing the two of them questioning her, Vic then slid the thin straps off of her shoulders, allowing her nightgown to pool at her feet.

Yes…it was a very distracting item.

They both then simultaneously moved to wrap their arms around her, kissing her lips, neck, shoulders, anywhere they could easily get to, which was everywhere considering Vic had not been wearing anything underneath.

"Are you sure?" Steve whispered in her ear after a few moments, needing to make sure. "After yesterday…"

"Absolutely sure, Sorbet," she answered by cutting him off, running her tongue up the side of Steve's neck, pulling a moan from him. "There is _no way_ I'm letting _Rumlow_ dictate _our_ sex lives."

Bucky felt Vic take a hold of his left hand and move it around to in front of her, resting it firmly on her mons. He then realized that she had also moved Steve's hand to rest next to his.

"Rumlow told me yesterday that ya'll weren't allowed _here_ ," she said pushing forward with her hips into their hands to indicate the area, "anymore and I intend to prove him a bald, scar-faced liar."

He looked over at Steve who seemed as eager and willing as he was to help accomplish that mission. Sliding his hand further down between her legs, Bucky heard the gasp from Vic as his fingers slid into place. Steve bent over at the same time, capturing one of her breast with his mouth.

"I'll go low, you go high," he told Steve as he used his fingers to guide Vic towards the bed as Steve side-stepped so that he could lay her onto the mattress. Seconds later, Vic was stretched out on her back with her legs spread at the edge with him kneeling between them. Steve had crawled up next to her, his hand gently caressing over her nipple while they kissed.

* * *

As she lay there, with Steve now sucking on her nipple as she stroked his hard member, Bucky's tongue kept carefully playing between her legs. Even though she was enjoying what they were doing, Vic noticed that they both seemed to be a bit gentler with their touches than usual.

Tony had pointed out that they had not been hurting her for all of the past few months, but it seemed that they were trying to make sure that either they were more cautious with her.

If they needed a few sexy times to get over their own worries, then she would let them.

* * *

Later, as they all lay on the bed in a massive pile, both of them trying to grasp onto more of Vic than the other, he noticed that the last of the tension he had been carrying around since yesterday was finally gone. He and Steve had ended up with their foreheads resting against each other with their chins atop of Vic's head. All of their arms and legs twisted together so that he could not tell Vic's skin from Steve's. But resting as he was, it was a comfortable emotional high that he did not mind at all.

Hopefully with Rumlow out of the way, and a large chunk of funding taken away from them, maybe this was the real end for HYDRA. No other had ever tried to stand up to replace Pierce. Even Rumlow had been more focused on his terrorist acts than really trying to lead. If nothing else, they might hopefully have a large period of time without any missions to take them away from Vic.

"Should we go somewhere?" he quietly asked.

"What do you mean?" Steve answered.

"Like on a vacation. After yesterday, it would be fully deserved," he said starting to think of the different places they could go.

"It's not like I already _have_ a vacation planned, or anything," Vic then sarcastically answered, to which they both had the same idea and began to tickle her. "Fine, we can take _two_ vacations, just stop that!"


	80. Protocol Boredom

**Avengers Tower - Training Room  
Three Weeks Later**

* * *

" _It's been almost three hours_ ," Victoria whined at him from the mat on the floor where she had dropped after he had told her that she needed to run the scenario with the LMD's yet again. For the first two hours, he had her doing hand-to-hand training against him, learning different moves which she did very well at. Now, she was learning how to apply them differently when attacked. That was not going as well.

Over the past three weeks, he and Bucky had found that she could easily duplicate moves she was shown, but it was knowing how to apply them to attacks that threw her off a bit. If someone came at her the same way she was trained, it was no problem, but a deviation with a new move made her either miss a strike or get herself hit. She needed to work more on applying the skills…and unfortunately, Victoria got bored easily.

"Again, or I'll call Wade," he threatened which accomplished exactly what he had hoped it would, her rising from the mat and giving him a nasty glare.

Before everyone in the Tower could get over the creepy factor that was the unconventional relationship which Nat and Wade found together, they had then been shocked again to learn that Wade was moving to the city. He had pointed out that since he didn't have any other close family besides Victoria, and since this is where she was now, he may as well be here to.

Seeing Victoria so happy at the announcement was worth it.

Steve also wondered how much of it was also Wade being a bit more worried for her now that an incident had happened and wanting to be closer for the future.

Wade found a small apartment not too far away and he had also gotten a job working with Happy down in the security office. Tony had announced that Wade was now the official father figure for the team and had even started to teach him how to be able to fly the Quinjet without any assistance from FRIDAY claiming Wade could run errands for him. He had also started working on new routines to mimic missions he went on years ago to give them something new to train on.

But Steve had noticed that Tony had yet to give Wade a single nickname and _always_ referred to him as 'Sir'.

Watching Victoria deal with the three LMD's duplicating, for the most part, the moves that the guards had used to take her from the park, he noticed that she was improving. They were currently set at level four safety protocol, the second to lowest, for Victoria's safety even though they were working on unarmed combat. As she improved they would consider lowering the safety so that training became a challenge again. So far, he didn't see that happening real soon. Behind him, the hallway doors opened, and he didn't have to look to know that it was Bucky...there was no sounds of footsteps.

"How is she doing?" Bucky asked stopping on his left side as he watched her sweep the leg of one of the LMD's out from under it. It was the same move that she had said she learned from a movie and used on Wade, but not thought to apply that day in the park.

"She's picked up a lot more moves today, but she's still seems to be having a hard time applying them sometimes."

"Vic'll get better. She has to."

Steve looked over at his soulmate, staring at him for the comment. They had talked privately a few days after Rumlow had left the Tower about the terrorist's final words to Victoria. Both of them had indeed had a disturbing feeling that took quite a while to pass. Even now, they both made sure that when Victoria left the Tower for any reason, that she was always accompanied. Tony, Pepper, Wade, and Nat had been let in on the unease they had, stepping in so that Victoria hopefully didn't realize that she was being guarded.

They still even worried about how to treat her in bed. After being kidnapped and bound up for so long, they never wanted her to have to relive that experience or feeling in any way, so they had agreed to be a lot more delicate with her…which mean no more playtimes. Treating her also as _if_ they had found out from Tony that they _had been_ hurting her. He missed how they used to be, knowing that Bucky felt the same, but it was for Victoria so they would deal with it.

"Do you think that we are just a bit _too_ paranoid?" he asked Bucky. "Rumlow _is_ locked on the Raft with _no chance_ of the Council letting him go. There is no way for him to hurt Victoria anymore."

"We can only hope so," was all that Bucky said before Steve called out for Victoria to go again after she was grasped and pinned in place, earning another whine and the program shut down again. When the LMD released her, she smacked the back of its head to vent.

" _Ya realize that there is packing to do? Ya'll remember that ' **surprise** ' vacation, right_?" she asked throwing her hands over her head to get their attention. They were scheduled to leave tomorrow for his secret birthday trip so he wanted to get in as much training today as possible since it would be a week before they did anything more than ' _exercise_ ' together in bed.

"I just did mine _and_ Steve's packing," Bucky smile down at her, earning a tongue sticking out at him. "Keep that up and I'll find a _use_ for that tongue."

Steve jabbed him in the side for the comment, "Stop distracting her!"

" _Did you pack lots of plaid golf shorts and floral print shirts_?" Victoria asked with one of her grins.

"No, of course not. Why would we even have those?" Bucky asked as Steve let him walk right into her trap.

" _Because that's what guys your ages wear in Florida_."

Bucky groaned and smacked his hands over his face.

"How did you _not_ see that one coming?" he asked him as he started to curse in Russian. " _I_ saw that one coming."

" _If I beat these butterfingers, can I quit_?" she asked sounding exasperated, looking up at the two of them. He turned to Bucky whom simply nodded his head, still irritated with getting taunted.

"Fine. Take _all three_ out and you'll be _done_ for the day," Steve smugly told her over the intercom. She had only managed to almost take out two so far.

The second that Victoria gave him _that_ smile, his stomached dropped.

" _Protocol Boredom_!" she then exclaimed with a smirk causing an immediate reaction in the training and observation rooms. They both heard the lock-down procedure begin to seal them into the small room, preventing them from getting into the hallway or to the stairs down to the training room floor, the only two exits. The console in front of them then also died, preventing any computer access. The LMD's righted themselves and moved to their reset position across the room while Victoria began to bounce on the mat while the same song she had sung in the cell at the HYDRA warehouse began to blast over the speakers.

"Vic, what have you done?" Bucky growled out looking at her while he worked the control panel to see if he could activate it to override whatever she had done. Without her glancing up at them at his question, they had no idea if the intercom system even worked right now. "Vic!"

He was still trying to get the console to work again when Bucky's hand grabbed his shoulder to get his attention back to the floor below. The LMD's were moving in on Victoria but he noticed that they were moving much quicker than they had on previous exercises.

"FRIDAY, can you hear me?" Steve called out.

" _Yes, Captain_."

"What does Protocol Boredom do?"

" _It secures the training and observation rooms so that they cannot be accessed during a session to prevent injuries to anyone. It also changes safety levels to one_."

"What?" he cried out as the LMD's finally reached where Victoria was waiting for them. Just before they reached her, she performed a forward roll through them, letting them pass her as she stopped, double hand planted and mule kicked the stomach of one of them that had managed to stop close to her, knocking it back into a second one, both falling to the ground.

The third one moved jumped over the bodies, but as it landed she performed a fully body spin and struck it in the head with a fierce right hook. It stumbled backwards before falling down as the other two were rising.

"FRIDAY, shut down the training room! Now!" Bucky yelled.

" _I'm sorry Sergeant but I cannot. Override for this command must come from Miss Victoria_."

They could only watch as an LMD came at her, but Victoria sprung backwards into a move they had seen Natasha do many times, coming to a stop a few feet away and ready to strike. When it got close enough, she grappled its swing while back elbowing into the neck. Unfortunately, the other LMD was able to come up from her flank and give a solid punch to her right side. Since she had a hold on the LMD, Victoria pulled it forward so that the two of them crashed into each, causing them to once again fall down.

"Steve, she going to get herself hurt or killed!" he yelled as they both watched in horror as the fight continued. Neither of them could get through the heavy steel doors in time. Tony had made sure that they were secured in case the need arose to contain the LMD's after being taken over by Ultron or a similar AI, besides FRIDAY.

The other one was now coming for her, trying to kick at her, but Victoria sidestepped and grabbed it's leg. Holding it against her, she balled her fist and punched it hard in the groin. Since they were programmed to duplicate the effects a person would have, it doubled over, allowing her to give a right elbow strike to the head, knocking it down. A final hard kick sideways against its head snapped the neck.

The LMD that was rising closest to her was the next target, with Victoria already moving towards it. Using a Natasha move, she swung up so that her legs were wrapped around it as she sat on the shoulders. But she then swayed so that her legs' position twisted the head, snapping its neck.

As the body began to fall, taking Victoria with it, the final LMD grabbed her from behind, tossing her onto the floor on her back. It then started a series of crushing stomps, trying to hit her, but Victoria rolled on her sides away fast until she was able to handspring back to a defensive position. They exchanged a couple of punches, each landing a couple of blows before Victoria managed to get a kick on its lower leg, breaking the simulated bone. Falling towards the ground she then delivered a crushing impact to its Adam's apple with her knee.

They could only stare down at Victoria who was looking around the floor at the disabled LMD's, verifying that she had indeed taken them out. Seeing that she had, she looked up at them while doing a little victory dance, similar to one they have seen Tony and Sam do before.

" _FRIDAY, cancel Protocol Boredom_. I'm through for the day!"

As the console reactivated, the song stopped and the security locks on the exits turned off, the two of them quickly moved to head through the door and down the stairs to where Victoria was.

Of course she had a large smile on her face, at least until she saw the two of them stalking towards her with a harsh determination.

"What were you _thinking_ doing that?" Bucky barked out at her.

Steve saw it in her eyes...the moment she decided to run.

She took a couple of carefully placed steps to the side, putting the LMD's on the floor between them. Victoria bolted to her right, heading straight for the corner of the room at full speed. They both sprinted behind her, not in too much of a hurry since she was blocking herself in with nowhere to go with where she was headed.

But as Victoria reached the wall, they watched as she somehow started to run right up the corner wall, a couple of well-placed steps of each side of it, before getting high enough and grabbing onto the bottom bar rail of one of Clint's perches. Where had she even picked up _that_ ability?

As Victoria pulled her legs up, wrapping them over the bar, she looked upside-down at them smiling as she hung from at least fifteen feet above the floor. They both stopped underneath her, at first waiting to see if she would get scared, but they never felt a thing. Her braided hair was draping in the air like dangling ropes.

"Vic," Bucky's voice sounded _much_ too sweet, "You need to come down here."

"Oh, no. I saw _that_ look," she said, pointing at the them with one of her free hands. Steve made sure that he could catch her if she fell. "I took out those bots like ya'll have been wanting me to…"

"But you _removed_ the _safety_ settings," Bucky informed her while looking the wall over to see if there was another way up to the perch. Clint had a configuration of bars and walls that he used to get there and neither of them could probably handle the strange course never having practiced it before. On the other hand, all they had to do was jump straight up, but they didn't know what Victoria's response would be. Their extra weight may even weaken the structure, causing it to fall. They would not put Victoria in harm's way by doing that.

"There are _no_ safety setting in _real life_ ," she pointed out twisting her body so that she was now resting on top to the bar, not dangling underneath.

"That's not the point," he told her, resting his hands on his hips. "I can't _believe_ we are having a conversation like this. Will you get _down_ here?"

" _Nope_! Not until you _both_ say I did an _excellent job_ of taking them out!" she proudly requested.

He looked over at Bucky, moving his hand behind his back so that Victoria could not see the quick hand gestures he used to give him the plan. Bucky then nodded in understanding before they turned to look up at her.

"Fine. We _are_ glad that your training _allowed_ you to take the LMD's out," Bucky calmly said, but he did actually sound proud.

Hearing that, Victoria beamed at them before twisting again and swinging on the bar before launching herself to the ground with a spin while in the air. He had seen gymnast do similar moves. Another thing she had picked up, it seemed.

But the second that she landed, Bucky swooped in, taking a hold of her left arm while he grabbed her right. Moving her back up against the wall, their hard bodies preventing her from escaping them.

"But...you still took the safety off," Bucky heavily said, his voice deep.

"And for that, you will be punished," he continued falling back into their old routine, "Say, about five spankings."

" _Each_ ," Bucky then threw in. "That should keep you from doing it again in the future."

Victoria was squirming against them, but it did nothing but make him wish they were already upstairs. She also didn't look upset or scared at their comments either. The expression on her face was the exact opposite.

"How about if I just promise not do that again?" she heavily breathed out, letting them know that she was already becoming excited with the prospects of what was about to happen.

"Too late," Bucky growled close to her ear, provoking a delightful needy moan from her. That was all he could take.

Before Bucky had the chance to, he swept Victoria up over his shoulder and headed for the elevator.

* * *

Pacing back and forth in front of the large window, Bucky kept trying to steady his breath as his eyes stayed fixed on Vic. After they had enjoyed telling her to slowly strip away all of her clothing, Steve had ordered her to stand at the foot of the bed facing it with her legs spread and her hands behind her head. They had gone down to only shorts as they watched her stand there for a few moments. Steve had then made her promise to stay there, without moving or speaking, until he returned, which Bucky was still waiting to happen. Vic had not even tried to glance around to look at him, keeping entirely to her oath.

When the bedroom door opened, he saw a couple of items in Steve's hand. He bypassed Vic without a glance or talking to her, coming over to the window behind Vic so that she could not see them. There was a devious grin on Steve's face like he had never seen before. He held out a very specific item for him to take, a small red leather paddle, keeping the blue one for himself. He couldn't help but laugh.

"Really, Punk?" he spoke softly taking the item from him and glancing at Vic. She was still completely obeying her last command, not even trying to peek to see what they were doing. He did remember seeing something like it on Valentine's Day at the sex museum Vic had taken them to, along with other items that had gotten his… _both_ of their attention.

"Why not? Modern times require modern equipment," he said in a low voice as they turned to look at Vic. "I had figured that with the way she likes to get in trouble sometimes that these would eventually come in handy. Like today."

Except for a minor squirm every once in a while, she stayed completely immobile. But her chest was rising quicker than for just normal breathing, telling him she was excited about what was to come. Bucky realized it had been a while since he had seen her like this. It had been weeks since they had cut out playtime. He started to hesitate about this, wondering if it would remind her too much of Rumlow, but Vic had done something that could have gotten her hurt very badly.

"Are you sure we should do this?" Bucky asked looking over at Vic, who was calmly waiting. They had agreed to treat her with kid gloves for the past few weeks, not wanting to frighten her in the least.

"We can make them very soft, and stop them if she starts to panic. But we _can't_ have her doing that same maneuver again. Next time, she could remove _all_ of the safety setting or there could be weapons with _live rounds_ involved," Steve pointed out, also looking at her bare body. Hearing that, he gave a nod in agreement. They could easily stop if she looked scared.

Bucky then studied the item, never having used something like it. Back in school, the teachers usually had a wooden paddle on their desk to keep them in line, and he remembered the few times he'd earned a smack or two. Steve never had, being too much a goodie-two-shoes. Looking over at Vic, he gave it a simple smack on his hand. It was firm but not painful. Steve may just be onto something with them.

* * *

Vic stood there waiting as Steve left the room for some reason. She stood motionless, not wanting to make anything stop this. It had been twenty-three days since they had dealt with Rumlow and she never gave him a thought anymore...expect for one specific reason.

Even though they had all been together countless times, both of them had refused to do any type of dominance with her. No holding her down, no spankings, no ropes or toys, nothing. They had all figured out months ago how each of them enjoyed the different things they did during playtimes, but now they were hesitant about doing things she knew they liked as much as she did. She knew that it was due to Rumlow's treatment of her since it had started the morning after the kidnapping. There was no other logical reason.

They didn't want to remind her of Rumlow. What they didn't seem to understand was that by acting differently towards her _was_ doing just that. Even with Prune-face gone, it seemed that he was messing with her life.

So, this morning while Steve was distracted setting up the LMD's for another try, she devised a plan. Instructing FRIDAY quietly, she set up the new protocol knowing that eventually Bucky would come down and see how they were doing. She had easily figured out how to take out all of the decoys...she just hadn't done so on purpose. Vic had kept up the ruse until Bucky finally put in an appearance. It was then time for her to do exactly what they had been training her to do…with the safety a bit higher than they would like. That would also prove to them that she could defend herself.

As well as hopefully irritating her two warriors enough to get over their annoying cautious ways when it came to sex.

They were talking in a very low tone about something. Did it work? Were they finally going to get over their reluctance? They had claimed at least a spanking. She then heard the distinct sound of something getting smacked, but not her. It took all her patience to not turn around to see what was going on.

"Victoria," Steve's was much closer now, but she refused to even glance back. If she spooked them, they may quit, thinking they might scare her like Rumlow had tried to do. That was why she had forced their hands, literally. "Why did you raise the safety protocols?"

"To feel threatened so that I could take the LMD's out," she lied, hoping they didn't see that she was.

"Do you think that we approve of you raising the safety setting?" Bucky asked from closer also. She had heard Steve move, but not him. She had waited for this question, knowing the answer.

"No, Sirs," totally not a lie.

Vic then felt a single finger run down her entire spine, Bucky's, causing a shiver. It was a favorite move of his, especially when she was in trouble. With her hair braided up out the way with how they requested it, he had been able to start at the top of her neck, just where her own fingers lay. Now, there were two hands resting on her butt cheeks, one for each of them like they always used to do right before a spanking. Knowing they were not going to stop brought a smile to her face.

"Why are you smiling?" Steve then asked. He must have been further to the side and able to see more than she thought possible.

"No reason," not knowing what else to say.

" _Victoria_?"

They both removed their hands and she heard them take a few steps back away from her, their voices in hushed whispers. Damn it, were they not going to? She needed to push them even more it seemed.

"I'll do it again if that's what it takes."

That _definitely_ got their private conversation to stop quickly.

"Why _would you_ change the safety setting knowing we would be angry?" she heard Bucky's demanding voice and she could feel his breath on her shoulder. Fudge. When she didn't answer, he slid his finger down her spine again. That felt so nice.

"You _knew_ that we would be angry at you," Steve told her, his voice moving behind her as he paced, trying to work out the problem before them. "For pulling such a crazy stunt, you had to know that we would…"

The moment he stopped talking, she knew that he had probably figured it out.

"Victoria, did you _want_ us to spank you?"

That was exactly what she wanted, but how could she tell them that? Seconds passed by.

"Silence. That means that Steve is right."

Another few seconds pass.

"Why?" the word was heavily grumbled in her ear so close.

She may as well get this over with. They wanted honesty...

"Because I'm sick o' Rumlow dictating our sex life!" she spit out with a heavy accent so she may as well keep going. "Ever since that bastard left, the two o' ya'll have treated me like a damn dandelion, afraid if ya'll do something the _least_ bit demanding in bed that I'll breakdown, and I'm fucking sick o' it!"

Vic then felt Bucky's forehead press down onto her neck, his arms wrapping around her waist.

"We didn't want you to think of him."

"But that's exactly what ya'll are doing by treating me differently," she managed to get out, her sweet tea voice threatening to crack. She broke Steve's rule, moving a hand further back to rest on the top of Bucky's head. "I like the way we were and I miss it."

Steve then appeared in front of her, his arms also snaking their way around her, his forehead to hers. She lifted her other hand to place it on his head, matching the touch to Bucky's. They stood like that for a short while during which time she felt tension that had been in both of their shoulders seemed to fade away. It was Steve who finally spoke.

"You moved your hands. One extra spanking."

Vic couldn't stop the happy grin that appeared on her face at hearing that. She moved her hands back behind her head where they had been as the presence of Steve and Bucky's warm bodies disappeared from around her.

"Start counting," Bucky told her as she felt the first firm smack that was definitely _not_ made with a hand.

"One."

"Steve got us each a new toy," Vic felt Bucky's hair tickle her shoulder as he leaned in to say. "Do you like that?"

"Yes, Sirs," she heavily breathed out as another smack occurred on her other cheek. "Two."

"I've had these since before…for a while now," Steve said with after his smack.

"Three."

They managed to drag her punishment out as much as they could, each of them taking a cheek on their sides. Never before had feeling the stings meant so much to her. Maybe everything dealing with Rumlow would finally be gone from their lives. At least once the spankings were done, both of them were not hesitant as to what they each wanted right then. Vic knew that the smile never left her face the entire time.

* * *

"Where do you think you're going?" Bucky asked Vic as she started to finally roll off of the bed after all of them had taken a few minutes to recoup.

"To get dressed," she smartly answered.

"That's what you _thought_ you were going to do," he told her, reaching over and clasping on her ankle so he could pull her back towards him and Steve. "See...I think that you _also_ need to make it up to Steve for having to deal with you this morning while knowing that you _could have_ taken out the LMD's the _entire time_."

Steve smiled over at him, asking, "What are you thinking?"

As Vic rolled over to try and crawl away, he yelled, "Grab her!" to Steve. The Punk had her pinned to the mattress three seconds later as she sensually moaned.

"Well, since we've not had a playtime for a while, Steve here is going to get one all to himself," Bucky informed her as he leaned over to run his finger down her spine as Steve had pinned her chest to the bed. He loved the way her body shivered from that move.

"Take her to your room," he instructed as Steve then collected her in his arms, keeping her from escaping. Once they were all standing, he leaned in to whisper, "Are you fine with this?"

"Absolutely, Sirs," Vic grinned at him while biting her lower lip. He then nodded to Steve who forced her from the room.

When he made it into Steve's room after a diversion into his own for some rope, he saw Vic doing that struggle-rubbing up against Steve's front, trying to get him excited.

"Don't let her get to you! She needs a bit of punishment," he told him. Holding the rope up, he asked, "Any preference to a position?"

Steve smiled at him.

A few minutes later, they were both standing at the foot of Steve's bed admiring the view. Steve had given Vic one of his large button-down white shirts to wear, and nothing else. She was sitting with her back against the headboard and her arms outstretched just a bit away from her shoulders. Her wrists were tied to the top rail, while another piece of rope wrapped just below her breasts, making the shirt form-fitted and riding very high on her legs. There were strips of rope just above her knees and more at her ankles, holding Vic into place. The bandana he had gotten on their camping trip was once again forming a simple gag for her mouth.

"She looks just like one of the dames from those detective books you used to keep under your mattress," Bucky told him thinking back to many sleepover nights where they would stay up late reading them.

"Exactly," Steve grinned at him. "And she's going to stay just like that until I finish a drawing of her."

"You could do _anything_ you want to her and you decided to _sketch_?" he asked not fully believing.

"Oh, yes," he answered walking over to his desk and picking up his book. Steve then pointed towards the picture frame propped up on his dresser. "I've been thinking of doing a damsel in distress piece to go with the pin-up pictures we got for Valentines day."

Walking towards the door with a smile, he called back over his shoulder to them, "Have fun."

When he went to round the wall, Bucky gave one final look at Vic while Steve sharpened his pencils, and she gave him a wink. It brought a smile to his face.

* * *

**The Raft**

"Dinner time, Buddy," the annoying guard called out as the door to the medical wing opened up.

Rumlow glared at the first guard carrying the tray that seemed much too happy for his liking. The second guard held his position close to the door, weapon in hand but not aiming at him. He had found they were not as slack here as he had hoped. Every single time he had tried to steal an item to use as a weapon he had been caught. He had ended up with a few new minor injuries for his attempts.

Moving closer to him with his dinner, he noticed that the guard had picked up the fork and was messing with something on the tray, as if he was debating eating his meal. Coming to a stop just out of reach, he considered striking out at the man for his action but he held back. The last time he had done that they had turned some awful classical music over the room speakers for hours, reminding him of that damn cell at Avengers Tower, where that bitch was. They knew that physically hurting him was pointless so they did their best to irritate him. The guard finally put the tray down onto the rolling serving table.

"You'll be moved to a new cell tomorrow. The doctor finally gave approval for you to leave here. Too bad, because I hear these beds are more comfortable than the ones in the cells. You'll have to let me know if that is true, Buddy," the snarky guard said.

Rumlow started to change his mind about hurting him.

"Why don't you go fuck yourself, _Pal_?" he sneered back at the guard, getting an honest grin instead of a backhand for the insult.

The guard then rolled the tray from the wall so that it was now in front of him.

"Those mashed potatoes are not too bad," he said giving Rumlow a strange leering down at the tray, he noticed that it was the potatoes that the guard had been messing with.

But it was what had been done to the potatoes that really caught his attention. They had been smoothed down into a flat surface and the words 'Hail Hydra' were written prominently in them. Rumlow then looked up at the guard, memorizing his face as the guard gave him a simple nod.

"See you later, _Buddy_."

Sitting up in bed that night, eating his meal, Rumlow felt much happier than he had the entire time he had been here. He began to consider all of the different options and daydreams for when it came time to get revenge on the bitch that had put him here. He may not know _when_ he was going to be able to get out of here, but at least now, he knew that he _would be_.

And when he did, he wanted be ready to make Victoria suffer.

* * *

**End Act: Two**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you were wondering about one of her moves, Vic likes to watch videos of parkour, hence the running up the wall maneuver.  
> As for Nat and Wade, I decided to have a bit of fun. Remember on the flight from Europe how Wade called her Tasha? They've been talking with each other for months over the phone, so this is not a sporadic idea. As always, thanks to everyone for the reviews.
> 
> FYI: so Act Two is now completed. Originally this was as far as I thought that I would be able to take the story (especially being my first real one) but then the idea of Rumlow's revenge just became a driving force. It is also fully written. The next chapter is more of an intermission before the next main next two Acts are a bit shorter than the first two Acts, but with not a lot of filler, all action and information. They deviate fully from all movies (but include a hint of comics) in terms of story-line, so it's all original. Plus it goes in a direction that is a bit darker (Act:Three[Torture]), and then with a twist (Act:Four) you won't really see coming, but I think you would like it. But after them, there is no more.


	81. Down Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to give a head's up concerning this intermission chapter. Vic is planning something but it's also supposed to be a bit of a surprise for the reader as well. There may be enough clues for you to figure it out. The strange short sections that might not make sense now will with the next chapter.

**July - December**

* * *

**July 4th**

"What do you mean I have to wait downstairs?" Bucky was practically whining from behind them as Victoria started to lead him through the rental house they had been staying at for the past few days for their birthday vacation. She was wearing her sexy red bikini so he would follow her _anywhere_ looking like _that_. They were planning on heading out to the beach to watch the town's fireworks display while playing in the surf, but they had some time before they needed to head out.

"If I even _think_ that you are _trying_ to go sneaking around on us, I'll use sun screen to write 'Iron Man's Boy Toy' on your back before you head to the beach in the morning," she threatened Bucky, which caused him to fall with a huff onto the couch with his arms crossed.

With that final threat seeming to work, Victoria led him up the stairs and over to the spiral staircase that went up to the rooftop deck. Once outside, she led him over to the picnic table that they had been eating most of their meals on since arriving in Florida for the _almost_ surprise vacation. It was past sunset so it was fairly dark outside. The house was beachfront, and with the small campfires going, he could see groups of people still hanging out on the sandy shore, waiting for the fireworks that would start in a short while. But there were a few that had already taken to lighting up the night sky with their own store bought explosives.

"Alright, now…stand up on the table," she requested of him.

"Why?" he asked as tried to wrap his arms around her, which she smacked away.

"Just do it…what is it with ya'll asking stupid questions all the time?" she grinned at him.

Using the bench as a step, he moved to stand up on the table, turning around to face the beach. Victoria had not turned any lights on when they came out, so he was sure that nobody on the sand would be able to see them up here. They had privacy while being out in the open.

That was when Victoria grabbed a hold of his swimming trunks and pulled them down to his ankles, leaving him totally exposed to the warm night breeze.

"Happy birthday," she said as her hand grabbed a hold of his shaft and started to give it a few pumps. When he realized that with the extra height from the table as to what she was about to do, it didn't take long for him to harden. Victoria then slipped him inside of her mouth, swishing with her tongue in the way that drove him crazy.

That was when one of the nearby neighbors began their fireworks display. As he stood there with Victoria sucking and licking on him as her fingernails gently dug into his butt cheeks, he glanced down at their private walkway heading from the house to the beach. Steve spotted the lone figure standing where the steps down started, watching the light display.

But then, Bucky turned his head towards the house, straightened up his posture, and gave Steve a salute. He was not sure if Bucky could _really_ see the two of them, but right now, it didn't matter at all.

Steve saluted back and then placed his hands on his hips in the most comic book superhero pose he could think of...Superman!

Through the sound of the explosions, he could hear Bucky laughing.

* * *

"So _you_ are the mystery appointment on my schedule?" Pepper asked as Victoria closed the door behind her. She was dressed like she had just come up from the garage in dirty grey coveralls, and judging by the grease smudge on her cheek, she probably had.

"Yeah, I wanted to speak with you in private about something that I need help with," she grinned while walking across the room.

"Alright, have a seat," she offered her.

"I better not. I kind of wiped my hands on my pants," Vic said turning a bit so Pepper could see the grease smudge marks over her butt.

"So, what can I help you with?" Pepper asked smiling.

"There is something that I want to buy, but it's very big, and it needs to be a secret… _especially_ from the guys," Vic smiled.

"You want my help to keep something a _secret_ from _them_?" she asked not sure about how she felt with this request.

"How else am I going to surprise them at Christmastime with their present?"

They talked for about fifteen minutes before Pepper knew that she was going to need some help. Picking up her cellphone, she called Clint. After explaining Vic's plan, he then got them on a conference call with Maria Hill and Fury. The five of them talked for an hour while she and Vic took a lot of notes.

By the time that they hung up, Pepper knew what she needed to do to get Victoria's surprise going.

And she couldn't be happier to help keep a secret.

* * *

"The big baby will be fine," Vic told the rest of the group assembled in the mission prep room, almost ready to get on the Quinjet to head out. "I'll check on Mucus Man when I get back."

"Iron Man!" was yelled from behind her while sounding very mucousy.

"Alright. Let us know how everything is going when we call tonight," Steve told her, giving her a goodbye kiss. When he moved towards the Quinjet, Bucky took his place.

"Are you sure you don't want some help dealing with Tony?" he asked with all seriousness.

"No, I can handle him. It'll be just like giving a cat a bath," she smiled at him, getting another goodbye kiss.

"I am not that bad," Tony whined from where he was lying down on the bench, blowing his nose with a tissue.

The two of them watched as Wade flew the rest of the group, this time including Clint, Wanda, and Pietro, out for the mission to a base that they had found thanks to Weiss' money trail. It was listed as being a bit on the smaller side, with only a handful of agents and minimal weapons as defenses, so she was not worried about them losing Iron Man from the fight. She had gotten used to dealing with Tony and his requests. She waited until the Quinjet was out of sight before saying anything.

"You know," she said turning around to face the grown boy, who was now sitting up and looking perfectly healthy, "that was some of the _worst_ acting I have _ever_ seen. I guess it was a good thing that you became a superhero and not an actor."

"That was one of my _best_ performances!" Tony placed one of his hands over his chest and lifted his head proudly.

"Like I said…," Vic said heading for the door. "Alright, you got _five_ minutes to be in the garage and ready to go. I just need to pass the tracking device off to Rebekah in accounting."

"They still haven't figured out that you know about the device?" he asked as they headed for the elevator.

"I still don't think that _Steve_ even knows about it," she smiled as they stepped inside.

"And you are fine with Bucky tracking your every movement?" Tony sounded more than just curious.

"He only _thinks_ that he's tracking my every movement," she deviously grinned at him. "Besides, after Rumlow, can you blame him?"

Tony thought about it for a moment, before shaking his head and answering, "I guess not."

"If a tracker in my wallet is all that it takes for him to calm down and not turn me into Rapunzel, then I can let him have it," she pointed out as the doors opened to Tony and Pepper's place. "Change into something that can get ruined and don't forget a clean pair of clothes for the trip back."

"Five minutes, little drummer girl," he yelled back as he took off running for his bedroom to get out of the Superman pajamas he was wearing, the little red cape flying in the wind behind him. She had been a bit surprised at seeing him wearing the joke birthday gift she had gotten him. Since watching _The Lego Batman Movie_ , Vic realized that she had not seen Tony in his Batman pajama bottoms. Talk about holding a grudge...

Heading down to the seventh floor, Vic walked over to Rebekah's cubicle where she was on the phone. Rebekah gave her a warm smile as she finished requesting an invoice be sent over.

"Hi there, Victoria," Rebekah said, "Are you sure about this?"

"Yep," Vic told her, pulling out the tracker from her pocket where she had it waiting, handing it over to her. "The appointment is made under my name, but they are used to others showing up for it. Tony has already paid for the massage and facial, so all you have to do is relax for a few hours."

"I don't know what to say," she said putting the device into her purse. As she slowly stood up from her chair, Vic looked at the swollen belly, wondering what she would look like at six months being pregnant, like Rebekah was. But that was not something that would happen any time soon. First she needed to finish working on their gift. Maybe by the time Christmas Day came around the three of them could have a chat. She knew that both of them would eagerly agree to officially starting a family. A Valentine pregnancy announcement would be a great gift.

"It's nothing. You are actually helping me out, believe it or not," Vic told her, pulling out her pocket watch. "I have to go. Just leave the device on your desk near the phone and I'll get it when I get back."

"Alright. And thanks again," Rebekah told her as she waved bye while heading back to the elevator. Tony had better not keep her waiting, she thought, but Vic figured that if he was going to go through the trouble of faking an illness to get out of going, then he was probably already at the Jeep.

Stepping into the garage, Vic found that Tony was indeed waiting, leaning against her car.

"Alright, get in, Shellhead," waving her arms at the Jeep. Tony then proceeded to open the back door on the passenger side. "What are you doing?"

"Getting in," Tony mockingly answered.

"I'm not your fracking chauffeur," she said pushing the back door closed and swinging the front passenger door open for him.

"But you just opened the car door for me," Tony smiled at her.

Giving him one of her Natasha's looks, Tony's eyes went wide, and he quietly sat down.

Walking around and getting in the driver's seat, Vic reached around to the pocket on the back of her seat and pulled out a baseball cap that Steve always kept there for when they went somewhere.

Lying it in Tony's lap, she informed him, "Put that on. I can't be seen with you."

"Are you afraid that my _adoring fans_ will cause a scene and it will get back to the Dynamic Duo?" he asked examining the hat as if it had cooties or something.

"Nope," she answered grabbing the keys from the cup holder. "I _literally_ don't want people to see us together."

"I _feel_ like I should be _offended_ by that comment," Tony stated as he finally put the hat on.

"Oh, you _should_ be!" she grinned over at him while cranking up the vehicle and turning on one of their joint playlists. "And if you break anything today, no pizzas for a month!"

"I'll be on my best behavior," he said, which earned him another look. " _Fine_ …I'll be on what _Pepper_ considers my _best behavior_."

" _That's_ the spirit!" Vic said as they pulled out of the garage.

* * *

"What!? Are you _kidding_ me?" Clint whined as he stared at the very large truckload of spiky metal bundles of barbwire sitting before him and Vic as she took out her phone.

"Nope!" Vic smiled at him, a bit glad that she had not given him any warning. The sorrowful look he was giving the inanimate objects was worth it.

Vic then snapped a picture to remember this moment...and to share it with Nat and Laura later.

* * *

As they stood together on the bow of the ferry taking them to the island where Vic had planned their motorcycle ride to end at, Bucky found that this boat trip was already much better than one he had taken decades ago. It had been when he had left Brooklyn and been deployed for the European Theater. The ship had been a large, commercial cruise one, but with the number of troops it was taking across the pond, the normal capacity of a room was doubled. Instead of only holding three, his room had six guys sharing it for the trip.

It would get so crowded, that they eventually agreed to sleep on different shifts to give some space to the others. He had eagerly taken the night-shift as his awake time, sleeping during the day. It reminded him of being at home, heading out for a night on the town with a couple of dames for him and Steve. Unfortunately, the handful of dames on the ship were nurses, and not even their cute outfits had helped their appearance. He could swear that the youngest one had been in her sixties.

So most nights, he would find an open bench out on one of the decks, either upper or lower, depending on which was the quietest at the time. He would lay there for hours, looking up at all of the stars that had magically appeared in the sky the night after they had left New York. He had wondered if they had always been there.

As Block Island steadily drew closer, he hoped that for the next few nights that the three of them would be able to find a nice spot to sit and look at the stars for a while. He hadn't realized how much he missed them when he came back to the city.

* * *

"I'm guessing that this means that we're going to be eating a lot more cherry pies than apple ones next year?" Natasha asked her as they walked through the orchard.

"As long as they produce," Vic answered. "Knowing Bucky, he'll probably have the song going every time I make one."

"What song?" Nat then asked, making her realize she probably had never heard it.

"An old hairband song called ' _Cherry Pie'_. Remind me to play you a bit of Bucky's _'in the mood'_ songs on the way back," she grinned as Nat moaned.

"Hopefully it's not as bad as Wade's," she casually said. "When he wants to…"

"Gross, gross, gross!" Vic quickly covered her ears, and stared to walk away fast, yelling over her shoulder, "I'm not listening!"

* * *

**(KUDOS to the original unknown writer - see bottom author's notes)**

Pepper was fixing her coffee as Tony and Wanda were standing in the common room's kitchen. Steve walked in and came face to face with Tony, staring at the item in his hand.

"Morning," Steve said glaring at the doughnut that Tony held.

"Steve."

"Tony."

There was a physical tension between the two of them. Wanda looked over at the two men and her face showed the worried feeling she had as the two of them faced off.

"Is that the last doughnut with…red, white, and blue sprinkles?" Steve asked, glaring at the doughnut.

Tony then slowly began to bring it up to his mouth before taking a large dramatic bite from it.

Wanda's face was now on full panic.

"What did I tell you would happen if you ate the last doughnut with red, white, and blue sprinkles?" Steve asked with all seriousness.

With his mouth full as he chewed the bite, Tony answered, "I'm a little foggy on it, but I think that it was something like ' _raining down hellfire_ '."

Wanda picked up the watermelon slice from her own plate and took a bite, watching the exchange very intently.

"That's right," Steve responded coolly.

"And here I am without an umbrella," Tony replied just as coolly.

"I feel a storm brewing," Steve informed him.

The two men faced off for a few moments before Wanda dropped her plate onto the counter and screamed with all her might.

With that, all three of them lost it and began to laugh.

Pepper commented to the universe from the door as she walked away with her morning coffee, "There is something seriously wrong with _all_ of them!"

* * *

**October 14th**

"There is _no way_ that you are getting me _in there_!" Victoria firmly stated, which both of them knew was a lie…either she was going to go willingly, or one of them would carry her.

" _Yes_ , you _are_!" Bucky then informed her.

Steve watched as she then made a reach for the emergency stop button on the elevator's wall, so he grabbed her wrist to stop her from initiating it. With that move, Bucky then grabbed Victoria around the waist and lifted her up over his shoulder. Steve was never more glad that she preferred jeans to a short skirt since it seemed that she was not going to go willingly.

"You just couldn't do this the easy way, could you?" he asked as the doors opened up to the common room.

Stepping out and heading down the hallway, when they got to the open area, Bucky placed her feet on the floor and turned her around by her shoulders. He had watched the expressions on all of their faces at Victoria being carried, and each one of them were smiling.

"Happy birthday!" the assembled crowd yelled as she was now facing them.

Turning a lovely shade of embarrassing red, they pushed her forward into the embraces of everyone who had come to the Tower to give Victoria her first true birthday party ever. Clint, Laura and the kids had even come to the city for the event since only Avengers and close friends who knew about them were in attendance. Rhodey and Sam had even taken a few days off to be here. Pepper had even invited Fury, Phil, and Maria, all three of whom had shown up. Bucky had already informed Fury that he was not allowed to dance with Victoria again, secured location or not.

They had worked on this for almost a month after informing Tony that Victoria had never had birthday parties growing up. Tony had also been saddened to learn that she had never had anything but two store bought cakes when she lived with Wade years ago. He had then _demanded_ that he be put in charge of the cake, but Steve had to inform him that chocolate was a no-go when it came to the flavor, stunning Tony with _that_ revelation about Victoria. So, of course, there was one way larger than was really needed for the number of people attending sitting up on the balcony area waiting for them to eat.

After a few minutes of chatting with their friends, he and Victoria had eventually made it up the stairs together, now staring at the garish item together while Bucky mingled below.

Tony had decided on a five separated tier cake with its own special table set up just for it.

Starting at the bottom cake was a very babyish girl design with smooth delicate pink icing. Running up the sides were green icing stems ending on the top at very bright colorful sugar flowers forming a bouquet.

Next was a tier designed to look like a unicorn's head, with rainbow icing hair and a gold-leaf waffle cone horn on top to suggest a young girl's birthday.

The middle tier was multi-tones of purple frosting forming a basket-weave pattern around the entire cake, going from darker to lighter as it went upwards. The top was also decorated with an icing flower formed to be wisteria, Victoria's favorite flower they had informed Tony, to represent her sweet 16th birthday.

The next layer up, which he easily guessed was supposed to represent her 21st birthday, was a messy design of bright colorful icing streamers, numerous styles of sprinkles haphazardly thrown onto it, and a Barbie doll with a small beer can glued to her hand as she looked to be fallen down drunk from the way she was lying on the cake.

But the most beautiful tier was the top, representing Victoria now. It was white icing in very large swirl patterns with a mixture of fresh honey-glazed chopped fruit resting on the top along with twenty-seven tall thin candles for her to eventually blow out. Scattered along the sides in icing were edible sugar diamonds, making the cake sparkle in the light.

After taking in the overall spectacle, Steve looked over at where Victoria had been near him, also examining the item, but she was no longer there. She had picked up Bucky's habit of sneaky movements, giving her the same ability to go unnoticed when she wanted. Glancing around the room, he couldn't find her with any of the smaller chatting crowds.

Finding Bucky and catching his eye, he signed for her location and received the reply of 'kitchen'. Of course _he_ knew where she was.

Walking up to the archway into the room, Steve paused instead of entering the bustling room. Looking around, he couldn't find her among the caterers getting the birthday dinner prepared. Seconds later, Bucky was standing next to him.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I can't find Victoria," he told him, looking back down at the crowd to see if Bucky had been wrong with her location, but so far, his stalker tendencies had always been correct.

"Follow me," Bucky instructed heading to the far side of the room weaving through the working bodies. Stopping at the closed pantry door, he opened it and then flipped on the overhead light. Inside, sitting on the floor crying was Victoria. After stepping inside, Bucky closed the door to give the three of them a bit of privacy. They each then took up their spots on her sides.

"Care to explain?" he asked her quietly.

"I've never been the center of attention like this," Victoria sniffled and wiped her face with the hem of her shirt, "It's all a bit overwhelming."

"So, something a _bit_ smaller next year?" Bucky asked with a smile, bumping against her arm.

"Maybe, _if_ Tony will let us," she joked in response.

"We can do whatever you want," he told her. "But you have a large family now. You are _never_ going to be _alone_ on another birthday _ever again_. It may just take a bit to get used to."

They sat for a few more minutes talking amongst themselves before there was a knock on the door. As it then opened, Nat was standing there looking down at them with a smile, seeming to understand what had happened…as always.

"Dinner's ready," she told them.

"Alright," he said as they all stood up and headed out of the pantry, Victoria actually ready to face the large unique family she had found.

* * *

As their little group walked down the street in the middle of the crowd, Nat grinned as she took in that nobody around them actually realized that the Avengers had joined this year's Village Halloween Parade. For most of the day, they had spent dressing up and getting the zombie make-up done by a professional make-up artists that Tony hired. All of them looked nothing like their normal selves.

She, Pepper, and Vic had both decided to go with a Mexican Dia de los Muertos look, dressed in lovely red and black frilled dresses. Their makeup was similar, but she had requested a spider web design to cross her forehead and over her cheeks for fun.

Wade, Steve, and Bucky had all gone traditional Walking Dead zombies, actually looking the part way too much. Tony had to slightly different, so he had gone for Zombie Pirate.

This was the first time they had done something like this. But after Vic had heard about the parade, then Nat learned she had never trick-or-treated, Nat had informed the rest of the team that _she_ was calling for a ' _Night Out on the Town'_ , before Tony had a chance to.

None of them even tried to complain.

* * *

"What is this?" Bucky asked lifting up the strange item out of a plastic grocery bag. It was made of metal in the shape of a devil's head, but the backside was flat and there were places for it to be mounted to a wall. The back skull area of the head was a deep hole for something to be put inside.

"Oh, I saw that in an antique store's window and I thought he was cute, so I got it," Vic told him as she reached for it.

"But what is it?" he asked again.

"It's to hold long-stem matchsticks," she answered, putting it back into the bag on the island that looked like all of the other plastic grocery bags that were there.

"What are you going to use it for?" Steve then asked, wondering the same thing that he was.

"To _hold_ long-stem matchsticks…what a silly question," Vic then answered, putting away more groceries.

He and Steve just looked at each other, knowing that they had just received another ' _Victoria answer_ ', which meant that the answer should have been obvious to them without asking.

So, for now, they just dropped the topic and helped to put away the food.

* * *

Steve dove for cover behind the same wall that Tony was, barely being missed by the numerous projectiles heading for him. How he missed his shield.

"Where's Sam?" he asked Tony.

"Dead."

"Wanda?"

"Dead. Where's Bucky?"

"He's also dead," Steve told him.

"Natasha...Wade?" he asked moving his head further away from the corner as a shot went by.

"They're _all_ dead, Steve! Every one of them! _We're_ the only ones left!" Tony scrunched up his body as a volley of shots impacted the other side of the wall. "I _really_ wish I had my suit on right now."

"I don't think that it would help," Steve said trying to work on a plan. "We need a distraction."

Tony took a deep breath and looked over at him. "I'll go. You have a better chance of taking them out than I do."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Just make sure that you avenge us," Tony told him, moving to kneel so that he could make his move.

"This is the bravest thing I think you've _ever_ done," Steve told him, giving him a pat on the back.

"Remember that for my _tombstone_!" Tony grinned at him.

With that, Tony popped up to a standing position before taking off in a mad dash away from Steve, hopefully drawing all of the fire in his direction. Steve stood and made his own run in the opposite direction, throwing the last of his ammunition at the two opponents. Unfortunately, his aim was not as good as theirs. Off in the distance, he heard the scream of Tony getting hit.

Before he knew it, Steve had taken multiple shots to his head and chest. One shot was directly to his face, blinding him so that he fell over a barricade, landed on the ground on his back. He was dead.

"Steve's out," Pietro's voice then sounded from next to him.

"That was the _worst_ attempt at _avenging_ I've ever seen," Tony's loud voice was taunting him as he wiped the cold snow off of his face. As he began to stalk away towards Pepper, he yelled back at him, "I will _never_ forgive you for this, Steve!"

From across the snow field Steve could hear the satisfying cries of victory being loudly yelled by Clint and Victoria. Standing up, he watched the two of them doing a little salsa dance together as they celebrated winning the round of snowball fighting.

"Why did we _ever_ agree to let the _two of them_ be their own team?" Natasha asked coming over to him from the sidelines where Wade was still shaking snow from his head. The original concept of Victoria and Clint versus _everyone else_ resulted in overwhelming agreement that the larger team of Avengers and Barton kids would automatically win. 10 versus 2? The odds _had_ to be in their favor. How wrong they were. With a flick of her thumb in the direction, "Bucky's still on the ground, dead, over there."

"I'll check on him," Steve said before walking away. Heading to the far end of the field, he found Bucky lying on the ground with arms spread wide and staring up at the sky. "What are you _still_ doing down there?"

"She hit me...in the groin," Bucky informed him very plainly, not moving from the spot.

"I'm sure she..."

"Vic has _perfect aim_ , Steve! She _meant_ to do it."

It was hard to argue with that logic, Steve thought as he saw something moving quickly from his peripheral vision. Turning his head, he saw Victoria hastily weaving through the maze of bunkers heading right for them with a wide grin. Reaching the other side of the thick snow bunker next to Bucky, she leapt onto it, glanced at her sulking soulmate and then jumped down. Bucky looked worried as Victoria's body was aimed for his, but she spread her feet so that they landed on each side of his chest so she was now standing over him in what he called a _Peter Pan_ stance.

"Come on, you big baby," Victoria taunted while straddling Bucky, "I didn't get you _that_ badly."

"You know exactly _where_ you got me," Bucky accused her while crossing his arms, to which Victoria only continued to smile.

Glancing around to see where the others were, her voice purred sexily as she then asked, "Need me to kiss it and make it feel better?"

Of course the suggestion brought a smile to Bucky's face.

"Oh, no!" Steve then informed her, "None of that where the others could see!"

It was at that moment that Laura called out from the front porch that the Thanksgiving Day football game that the group had been waiting on was finally about to start. There was a surge of bodies now rapidly moving for the warmth of the house's interior.

"Looks like _that_ problem just got solved!" Vic informed him as she grabbed the front of his coat and pulled him towards the ground as she knelt to rest on top of Bucky's body. "I wonder how long it will take them to realize that we're missing?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, the section with the doughnut comes from a Civil War promo video that aired on Jimmy Kimmel. I tried to find the actual writer's name to give credit but couldn't (probably an in-house writer). I found the scene too funny to pass up so I put it into writing with my own additions to fit with the story. Look it up and watch...it's hilarious.  
> Also, did you happen to notice that Vic's birthday is Bucky's (3/10) and Steve's (7/4) added together? In Ch. 5, Vic mentions it was one month and three days past her birthday to Wade. Sometimes it the subtle things that make me smile...


	82. Christmas Gifts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is in three sections, but they are slightly out of timeline sync. I found that the story works better this way but it should not really be confusing.

**Act: Three**

* * *

**The Raft**  
**Christmas Eve**  
 **Dinner Time (Unknown local time zone)**

Lying on his cot staring at the ceiling, Brock Rumlow was sending out a mental Christmas Eve wish: to get out of this fucking place so that he could exact his revenge on that Bitch, who had definitely earned the capital B, and her damned soulmates that had put him here. It was the same wish he sent out every night, but today just happened to be special. Maybe this time it would be granted.

His anger at Rogers had been almost all consuming for three years, but after having his leg injured so that he now, and would always, walk with a slight limp, he had focused his hatred towards Victoria…not that he didn't have plenty of hate left over for Rogers and the Asset. He had told her that he was going to give her lessons in pain, and over the last six months, he'd had plenty of time to come up with numerous different ways to do so. And with Ross' offer to secretly work for him, he had only requested one form of payment...Victoria.

Considering the fact that he knew Ross would never agree to free him, but Brock figured that having Victoria trapped here on the Raft with him would be the next best thing. He could continue the tortures he had devised for her to go on for years and years...and the Captain and Asset would never know what had happened to her.

If only Ross would finalize his agreement. That would be a wonderful Christmas gift.

"Dinner time, Buddy," he heard as the cell block's door opened and two guards stepped inside.

The only thing giving him real hope of _actually_ getting out of here was walking through the door, carrying a tray of food towards his cell. He was the only prisoner on this level. Hell, as far as he knew, he was the only prisoner on the entire Raft. Weiss had been moved weeks after getting here to a Supermax prison for his involvement with HYDRA, but with his own specialized training, the World Security Council had deemed it necessary to keep him here, alone, with only guards to barely talk to.

The extra guard stopped in the round area a couple of feet back from his cell, as the one he had come to mentally call Buddy made his way to the acrylic glass and bar partition, separating him from the holding area's gallery. Pressing a couple of buttons on the side panel, the acrylic glass began to lift the six inches necessary to slip the food tray underneath of it. He was considered so much of a threat that they only gave him paper cups to drink from, and firm rubber utensils that could not be fashioned into weapons. At least they knew him well enough to consider him a danger.

He knew that Buddy was HYDRA, but during all of the months, he had never indicated as to what he was going to be able to do to help get him out of here. Had he been playing him this entire time? He didn't think so with the small gestures he had done: extra portions of certain meals that were not horrible, giving him extra access time on the built-in tablet reader, keeping other guards from harassing him during his guard shift. There was not much he could do without raising suspicion, but at least he seemed to be trying.

Standing in front of his cell holding his dinner tray, instead of sliding in inside, Buddy asked him, "So, what would _you_ like as a Christmas gift?" smirking and then turning to the other guard, who chuckled at the question.

"I want that jolly fat man in red to swoop in here, kill every single one of you, and take me away from this fucking place," he evilly grinned as he looked at Buddy and then the other guard.

The two of them began to laugh hysterically at the idea of such a murderous gift. Buddy then gave him a big smile.

"How about I instead give you _my gift_ , for now?" Buddy asked turning so that the other guard could see what he was about to do. Buddy then made a loud noise of building up saliva before spitting it directly onto the mashed potatoes on his tray. The other guard enjoyed his disgusting gesture so much that he had to wipe away a tear from his eye as he laughed.

Brock gave a harsh look to Buddy, not understanding why he would do such a thing. He then put the tray on the floor and slid it through the small opening for him.

"You keep hoping for that gift, Buddy. You never know…maybe it will come true _tonight_ ," Buddy told him with nod and a wink before hitting the keypad to close the glass before turning away. He patted the other guard on the back as they walked away, as the other joked about how pathetic Brock was.

But he knew what he had seen…what Buddy had said. Was tonight really the night he would finally get out of here?

Sitting down at the table, he ate the slices of turkey and dinner roll, while ignoring the mashed potatoes, with a growing feeling of hopefulness in his chest.

* * *

**Outside of New York City  
Mid-Morning (A bit earlier in the day)**

Pulling off of the highway onto the smaller state road, Victoria had to keep biting her tongue gently to prevent herself from smiling as the thought of what was about to happen. Hopefully everything went well. If not, then a lot of work during the past five months, two weeks and three days, will have been for nothing. They were less than an hour from the city, but the area had turned very rural, with not many house visible and dirt roads leading towards the hidden structures. They had left not long after breakfast since she wanted to give them the day to explore their surprise.

Steve was once again trying to find just the right Christmas song to listen to while Bucky was lying on the backseat reading on his tablet. The fact that they were all still together just over a year brought another smile to her face…and another bite.

"How could there not be any radio stations out here? We are not that far from the city yet," Steve complained pressing more buttons.

"You're giving me a headache with all that flipping. Just turn it to satellite radio, Punk," Bucky said, giving the back of Steve's seat a small sideways kick.

"Don't mess my car up," she called back to him, gently applying pressure to the brakes so that he slipped forward, almost rolling off the seat and into the floorboard.

"I barely kicked it," he whined, righting himself into a sitting position, preventing her from doing the same maneuver twice. "Are we there yet?"

"The _age old question_ to annoy parents through the years…" she mumbled.

"You're not our mother," Steve pointed out.

"Thank goodness, otherwise our relationship would be creepy," Bucky said, sliding his arms around her from behind her seat, starting to give her firm pokes in her sides.

"Stop that, I'm driving," she said batting at his hands until they disappeared. "We are almost there. Less than five minutes."

Vic had told them that for a small Christmas vacation, that she was taking them somewhere out of the city for a week. She already had gone earlier in the week to the grocery store, so everything they would need was waiting. They had not asked too much about the trip, just figuring it was going to be just like every other small vacation she had been able to squeeze in between missions for the past few months.

With Rumlow having been secured in the Raft, and Weiss out of commission also, the scattered remains of the HYDRA cells that they had monetarily controlled were slowly being taken care of. Following Weiss' money trail, they had found seven small cells on three continents. One had been in the final stages of planning a terrorist act during a futbal playoff match when the stadium would have been packed. There would have been over seventy-five thousand casualties. Luckily, they had been able to stop it.

Seeing the solid white fence surrounding the land coming into view, she slowed the Jeep down, getting ready to make the left turn onto the property. The action caused both men to pay more attention to where they were. Stopping at the beginning of the dirt drive, she halted at the wrought iron gate that now stood before them, preventing them from going any further. Reaching into the glove box, she pulled out a remote, pointed it at the item, and they slowly opened up for them.

"This place is secure?" Steve asked while watching the gates swing wide, allowing her to move them down the dirt drive once again.

"Yes. The gate needs either a remote or you have to know the code to get in, which, so ya'll know is 1119," she said checking to make sure the gate was closing behind them, which it was.

Vic wondered if either one of them would pick up on the significance of that number representing the date they first met in the park. Most of the property was forested, so they were now passing through woods on both sides of them, but only a few moments later the road emerged into a large clearing, giving them the first view of the house and a red barn off to the side closer to the wood's edge.

It was two stories, painted a white with black shutters and trim detail. There was a wraparound covered porch on the first floor with ornate columns. Both the front and right side elevations had a turret-style element, giving the house a bit of detail instead of being just a simple box shape. Pulling to a stop on where the drive pulled in front of the house, instead of taking the side path which led to a detached garage, she turned the car off.

"So…what do ya'll think?" she asked as they looked out at where they would be staying.

"It's charming," Steve said looking at the house.

"It's secure," Bucky said looking out at the property.

"It's in the middle of nowhere," she then said, opening the door and getting out.

There was a thin layer of snow covering the open ground, and the tops of the trees. The winter storms had been very mild this year so far, which she was grateful for. Opening up the back of the Jeep, she pulled out her bag as Steve and Bucky came around to get theirs.

"How big is this property?" Bucky asked, his eyes still scanning the open area to the tree line.

"Just over eighteen acres with the fence surrounding all of it, so we won't be disturbed by neighbors. There's the house, and the barn, and it's mostly forest with some trails going through it, but they're probably covered with snow right now. There are a couple of rows of black cherry trees down the far right side of the property. One of the previous owners used to sell them," Vic told them as they walked up the front steps to the antique door with frosted glass and lead detailing. It had taken a week to refinish just it. Reaching in her pocket, she pulled out a single key, unlocking the door, and then turning off the house's alarm system with a code.

Stepping inside, she put her bag down by the steps leading upstairs, while Bucky and Steve looked around the first floor. There were not a lot of nick-knacks, but the major furniture items were there. The front room on the right was designed to be a parlor, but it was instead set up to be an office with an antique desk and chair in the area, with two comfortable looking recliners in front of it. The desk was turned to be able to look out of the windows towards the dirt drive, so that the person's back was _not_ to the glass. The dining room on the left had a simple round table with five chairs surrounding it, with a doorway to the kitchen. Overhead was a restored crystal chandelier from the 1930's, which had also be converted from gas to electric.

Passing the stairs in the hallway, they were now in the living room, with an open kitchen to their left, the white ship-lap walls everywhere on the first floor. She watched as the two of them explored the area, taking in the house. The wood burning fireplace was on the right wall, near a set of French doors, which led to a small hall on the backside of the stairs that headed back to the parlor. But off of the hallway was the other turret, this one a library obviously due to every shelf being filled with books. Every room on the first floor, except the small library, had at least two entrances to it, so that a person could not be trapped inside. Vic knew that they would both come to like that feature.

More porch area was on the back side, overlooking about an acre of snow-covered field that was the back yard. Off the kitchen and living room was a covered porch with a long dinner table set up for eating outside on nicer days, or even if it were raining. She watched as they did one entire walk around the house's floor pattern.

"Alright…this is definitely nice," Bucky said taking a seat on the over-sided couch in front of the fireplace, which had a large screen television hanging over it, putting his feet up on the black leather ottoman.

"The house looks older but like it has been remodeled," Steve said walking into the kitchen from the dining room. The cabinets were white with a quartz countertop, but the center island was a light blue with a butcher block top.

"Yeah, it was built in the thirties. The remodeling was done very recently," she casually said, walking over to the fireplace that was already set up with wood to be started. Pulling a long matchstick from a wall mounted holder, she lit it and got the fire going easily. The devil's head holder would have given away the surprise but luckily they couldn't see it clearly from where they were.

"So…how do the two of ya' like it?" she asked taking a seat next to Bucky, who put his arm around her shoulders.

"I could _definitely_ get use to somewhere like this. Think we can try coming out here again?" Bucky asked as Steve sat down on her other side.

"I agree. It's quiet, peaceful…and no Tony to annoy us. What more could we ask for?" Steve asked giving her a quick kiss.

"I'm glad ya'll like it, but ya'll haven't seen the best part," she told them with a grin.

"And what would that be?" Bucky asked.

"Upstairs..." she stated with another grin, "...where the bedroom is."

Steve then reached underneath of her, lifting her up off of the couch, saying, "We can take a hint."

Bucky was the first to reach the stairs, as Steve had to move a bit slower to prevent her shins from taking a door frame. At the top of the stairs, they turned left into the open doorway leading into the master bedroom, while the other doors were closed. Seeing inside, Steve stopped just like Bucky had.

Before them was a huge suite that took up the entire front of the house, from over the office to the dining room. Off to the right was a large king sized bed, with nightstands. To the left, was a door leading to the bathroom. Bucky made his way over to it and turned on the light.

"This is all new," he stated, walking inside of it, Steve following with her in still in his arms.

At the door frame, he finally put her down so that he too could see. Moving inside, they focused on the very large glass shower and an oversized tub big enough for all of them to use at the same time. She loved the look of curiosity from both of them at seeing the three sinks. Bucky then went to the far door, opening it and finding the closet. She knew exactly how big is was, but she loved the look of awe on his face as he saw it, making Steve curious enough so that he took a look inside also.

"How did you find this place?" Steve asked as he looked at the unique items that would work perfectly for them.

"Online," she simply said.

"You just happened to find this house, which has a king size bed, and a bathroom that can perfectly fit all of us?" Bucky asked skeptically, which she was proud of.

"Of course not," she stated while moving from the bathroom door over to the bed, jumping down on it. "I found the house first. _Then_ I spent the past five months, two weeks, and three days, having it remodeled just the way we would need it to be so that we could live here."

The matching blank stares from both of them were exactly what she had been hoping for. They then looked at each other, still trying to fully register what she had said.

"Merry Christmas!" she then finally said, hoping that would clear everything up.

"Vic…did you buy a house?" Bucky asked.

"No, I bought _us_ a house," she stated. "It's under an LLC that Pepper helped me to set up so that our names could stay off any records. Koa 'Hale, LLC."

"What does that mean?" Steve asked.

"It's Hawaiian for _Warriors' Home_."

They then looked at each other once again. Then their faces grew into wide smiles at the full understanding came to them. Seconds later, she was pinned to the large bed by two warm bodies, each trying to wrap their arms around her.

"Does this mean that ya'll are not upset at me doing this behind your backs?" she asked as one of them worked on the button to her jeans.

"Not upset at all," Bucky said as she felt a cool hand running up her belly. "But how could you afford this?"

"Remember me telling you that I had money? Well, I just put a bit of it to use," she told them, to which their hands started to slow their travels.

"You had enough to buy a property like this?" Steve sounded a bit skeptical, so she knew it was time to tell them.

"Promise to keep this a secret?" she requested to which they both nodded. "Remember when Tony got back from being held captive and at his press conference he announced that he was shutting down the weapons manufacturing part of Stark Industries?"

"I vaguely recall hearing about it later," Steve answered.

"Well, that bit of showmanship caused his stocks to _plummet_ to almost _nothingness_. I just happened to have purchased a _couple of thousand shares_ of SI, along with some for Wade. Not only did they go back up to higher than they were before, but they've split _three_ times."

Both of them were now staring at her like she was crazy, and Vic knew what was about to happen.

"But something like this size of property had to cost millions?" Steve asked.

"Not even two million since the property needed so much upkeep," she decided to tell them.

"You had access to that much?" Bucky looked a bit stunned, then seriously asked, "Then why were you working as a messenger and waitress while living in that _dump_?"

"I _told_ you...I had everything I needed, plus I could easily move around. Besides, you don't use _stocks_ to pay _rent_. They're an investment for the future…or present since ya'll are already in the future," Vic grinned at them, earning a tickle from Bucky. "And don't _either_ of you tell _Tony_. If he found out, I'd _never_ hear the end of _'how he made me rich'_ from him. Plus, he'd probably fire me as his mechanic."

"Then how did you actually manage to get the house renovated?" Steve asked as he started to pull her shoes off.

"I had a couple of people helping to run interference on ya'll," she said as her shirt came off thanks to Bucky.

"The _team_ knew?" Bucky asked as he removed his own shirt.

"Of course. Nat is _great_ at sneaking around, in case you never noticed," she lifted her legs so her pants slid down easier. "I even made Clint come out and help with a few things as payback for helping to work on his house."

Steve then stopped fiddling with her bra, sitting up a bit to look at her.

"Did you come out here _alone_ at any time?" he asked, becoming very serious.

Vic knew where this was going. "Yes, a couple of times, but nothing happened, as you can see."

"Vic…you know that we don't like it when you leave the Tower without someone with you," Bucky then added, sitting up also at hearing her confession. She could also see his brow furrowing as he thought of something.

"Did the two of you really think that I was spending _that much time_ at a _spa_ with either Nat or Pepper?" she pointed out, waiting for Bucky to mention his items.

"Vic, how did you manage to…" he paused, trying to drum up the courage to actually admit to it, so she decided to let him know he had already been busted.

"Do you mean… _Vic, how did you manage to come here while the tracker hidden in your wallet showed the spa as its location_?" she asked in a comical voice with a grin. She saw him slightly pale at having been caught.

"Buck!" Steve then admonished him. So Steve hadn't known!

"Let's just say that a lot of secretaries and data entry clerks from the lower floors has had a pampered paid day off thanks to Tony at least once," she grinned. "The only stipulation was that their pampering needed to correspond with my leaving and arrival times."

She could see the two of them both scowling at what she had done.

"What is my mantra?" she then seriously asked them.

"You are not Rapunzel," they both answered simultaneously. She had drilled _that_ phrase into them after the way they had been so overprotective towards her due to Rumlow.

"Look," she said pushing back on the bed to get a better look at both of them, wearing nothing but a bra and panties. "I'm a grown woman. I don't need a babysitter."

They both looked a bit guilty at the Rapunzel comment, knowing that they had practically kept her prisoner in Stark Tower for the first month while training her after she had been rescued from Rumlow, even with him being in the Raft. Did they think she hadn't noticed that someone always left the Tower with her when she went shopping?

"Besides, with all that silly training you _nicely forced_ on me, I can handle myself now," she pointed out.

They both grumbled for a few moments but she could see that they were starting to accept what had happened.

"Fine, but in the future, maybe surprises that don't involve you traveling alone would be nice," Bucky said reaching for her panties.

"You're just upset that for a stalker, you didn't do your job very well," she pointed out as Steve started back working on her bra. Seconds later, she was naked while the two of them caressed her entire body while still partially clothed. "You two are overdressed _again_!"

* * *

**The Raft**   
**Two Hours After Dinner**

Brock felt the vibration start as he was lying on his cot less than two hours after dinner. That was the feeling of the Raft's entrance rising up out of the water. As far as he knew, this was not a scheduled event. The Raft was on a two-week timetable, rotating out the guards and bringing in fresh supplies. The only other time it would rise would be if another prisoner was being brought in. But none of the other cells on this level had been made ready for any new inmate and even though the one connecting to his was ready, Ross had not finalized their agreement yet. Wouldn't that be a lovely Christmas gift...

Sitting up on his bed, he waited as the large tube entrance to the vessel that has been his home made its way to the surface of the ocean. Once the vibrations stop, the entire place seems much quieter than he felt that it usually did. Then, after a few more minutes, he heard it. The sounds of gunfire began echoing through the structure. There was not a lot of it, less than he would have thought considering the number of guards that were housed here. Then it got quiet once again.

By the time that the door to the cell block gallery started to open, he was jumping out of his skin with nervousness and curiosity. The round low lying area had been darkened for evening to indicate the outside world's clock, to help keep him on a schedule. And from the dark hallway, he saw a group entering. Guards. But as he assessed them, he saw that the three Raft guards that were slowly walking towards his cell were not armed like they usually were. Their hands were behind their back, probably cuffed.

Behind them were at least five figures, shrouded in the shadows, but he could only hope that they were HYDRA. One of the figures then stepped forward into the nighttime dimmed light coming from his cell so Brock could see him clearly. Buddy. He gave a small sigh of relief.

"On your knees," Buddy instructed the three guards whom he had worked with for these past few months. They did as they were ordered to, lining up in front of his cell. "So, Buddy, are you ready for that Christmas gift?"

The evil smile that crossed Brock's face told Buddy his answer.

"I know that you told Max that you were wishing for a jolly fat man in red, but I'm _really_ hoping that you won't mind me instead," he heard a firm, feminine voice say from somewhere very close. Looking at the remaining figures, one of them stepped forward into the low light to give him a better view.

The young woman now standing right behind the three guards, was striking in her own unique way. Her hair was a strange pure red color, not like Black Widows, but almost matching the shade of a fire truck. It reached just to her bare shoulders. Her body was slim, but muscular in a good way. And it was encased in a tight red leather corset with a skull embossed on its front and centered. Her lower arms were covered in black leather gloved binders. She also wore tight black leggings with high buckling red leather boots that came over her knees. A gun belt was slung casually around her hips while three daggers were secured on each side of the corset. He hadn't seen something so yummy in a very long time.

"Oh, baby…you'll do nicely," he was practically drooling at the sight of her. She then grinned back at him with an evil smile.

"I'm glad to hear that," she then looked down at the guards before her.

Pulling out one of her pistols, she aimed it at the back of the head of the first guard.

"Ho," she said pulling the trigger, shooing him in the head.

"Ho," she then moved to guard two, killing him.

"Ho," she finished as the third lay dead before him.

Brock had never seen a woman so calm and vicious before, grinning with each fatal shot she took. She then started to move right for his cell as Buddy…Max…moved over to the controls that would open his doors. She stepped onto the back of one of the dead bodies, not letting it get in her way, as she holstered her gun. He had actually wondered for a moment if she was there to kill him. He could easily see her doing it, while _enjoying_ it at the same time.

When she got close, he was then able to see the item on her chest much better than when she had been so far away, still partially covered in shadow. Her soulmark. It was a match to his own. But why the fuck did it match?

The burns over his body had warped the one on his own chest, the partial white skull and crossbones, so that the edges of it were distorted into his marred flesh. It was where he had decided to take his new name after the fall of SHIELD. The strange thing was, the one that he was now staring at matched the _warped_ one he now carried. She had to have been born with the _distorted_ soulmark.

"You _are_ a cutie," the woman said licking her lips and letting her fingers scrape eye-level over the acrylic glass as it began rising up, freeing him from the room he had been confined to for the past six months. As the bars were then activated, she moved her hand out of the way. He didn't know exactly how he should take her comment, soulmate or not. Brock knew what he looked like, and _cutie_ was not what he had ever been called.

"Who the fuck are you?" he asked a bit on the defensive as the bars finally were not separating them anymore.

"Sinthea Schmidt…but you can call me Sin, baby," she told him taking a hold of the back of his head and pulling him in for a kiss, her tongue demanding entrance to his mouth. The hard leather corset pressed into his chest as she held him tight, and he just wrapped his arms around her as hers did the same. He didn't realize how starved for physical attention he had been after so many months.

When they finally pulled apart, he looked her over, his mind having had time to process her name, "Why does that name sound familiar?"

"You probably heard of my daddy… Johann Schmidt. But you may know him better by his other name…Red Skull."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can now see, I've pulled Red Skull's daughter from the comics since she is Rumlow's love interest in them. There are numerous pictures of her available online, where I took the description of her from. I hope that the twists and turns that the story is about to take meets your approval.  
> Again, thanks for taking the time to review. Any time you have a question, or want are not sure of something, feel free to note it in a comment. I may not give spoilers, but I'll do what I can to explain something.
> 
> Ross' agreement, a connecting cell to Rumlow's...hmm? You'll be finding out more about that very soon. I predict a bit of screaming when you do...


	83. Bad News Travels Fast

**Christmas Morning  
Extremely Early**

The piercing sound of a strange alarm from Steve's _and_ Bucky's phones going off on their nightstands gave her a major surround-sound irritation as they were all cruelly jarred from their deep slumber.

"What the Mississippi is that?" she asked shoving her head underneath her pillow to try and escape the unique claxon sound. That was when she felt the bed shake violently on both sides of her.

"How the hell…?" Bucky asked seconds later, making her curious as to what was going on. Lifting the pillow off of her head, Victoria saw that both of her warriors were stand up next to the bed, the phones in their hands glowing red, shining on their very worried faces.

"Check the perimeter. We'll be out in less than three," Steve told him before grabbing for clothing articles on the floor around his feet. Seconds later, her own clothes from the trip to their house were tossed on the bed right next to her. Bucky was already walking out of the bedroom door while pulling his pants up, sans underwear, his shirt clenched between his teeth.

"What's going on?" she asked trying to wake up more as Steve tossed his own clothes on the bed next along with hers.

"Victoria…we need you to quickly get dressed. We have to leave immediately," Steve calmly told her pulling on a pair of underwear and socks.

" _Why_? It's _Christmas_. We shouldn't have to go _anywhere_ ," she whined as she heard the house's alarm being turned off before the front door beeped as it was set to do when an entrance or window opened. Bucky was already heading outside.

"Yes, _we do_. It's an emergency," he calmly stated but she could see a panicked look on his face. Whatever was wrong…it was really bad.

"What happened?" she was irritated that their holiday vacation was being interrupted. So much for a peaceful holiday when your soulmates are superheroes. As she grabbed her shirt, she tried to put it on in the darkened room. She couldn't even tell the front from back, or if it was inside out. "Can you turn the lights on?"

"No…just do the best you can," he responded while finishing getting his own clothes on.

"What do you mean _no_? Why won't you turn on…" she started to ask but then it hit her. Why else would Bucky be checking the perimeter? "You think that there may be someone outside?"

"Yes, please…just hurry," Steve was starting to grab anything they had brought with them and shoving it violently into the bags, not caring what was whose.

"Fine," she said pulling her pants on. "But at least tell me what that alarm on the phones meant? Is there _actually_ someone outside?"

"We don't know…that's why Bucky is doing a sweep of the area…to check. Victoria, that alarm was to inform us that as of a few hours ago, that there was breach on the Raft," Steve calmly said zipping up the last bag.

"The Raft?" she asked as the name quickly came to her. She hadn't thought of that place in six months, two weeks…not since… "Did Rumlow escape?"

"Yes."

"Fuck!"

"Language," Steve said grabbing her ankle and pulling her to the edge of the mattress, placing her shoes at her sides.

"Don't give me that…" she started to say but Steve jumped in.

"Victoria! _Please_ …just get _dressed_!"

His voice was more stressed than she had ever heard. Standing up, she grabbed onto his arm, stopping him as he was about to head to the door with three bags in his hands. Steve's face was visible thanks to the bit of moonlight coming in through the bedroom windows.

"Hey…calm down. Everything will be fine…" she said running her hand on his cheek, hoping to ease his tension. He stood for three seconds like that before she felt his right hand on top of her own. "Nobody knows about this place. Until a few hours ago, the two of ya'll didn't even know about it. There is _no way_ that _Rumlow_ does."

"We are _not_ taking that chance," he said as his hand moved from the back of her hand to her wrist, pulling her enough so that she was dragged off of the bed, "Not with _you_."

She barely managed to grab a hold of her shoes before he moved them through the door and out of the bedroom.

Rounding down the staircase, she saw that Bucky was just coming back in from his quick sweep of the property, holding Steve's shield on his right arm. He had grabbed it off of the hooks that she had specially mounted in the hallway just for it.

"Nothing," Bucky informed them as the two of them gave simultaneous throws of the items in their hands, Steve's shield heading to him while the bags went to Bucky. Vic was impressed with the move, if not the reason for it. Steve slipped the shield over his left forearm before latching back onto her wrist and forcing her down the remaining steps.

"Will you two just _stop_ for a moment?" she demanded, pulling her wrist free of Steve's grip as they reached the foot of the stairs.

"We'll _stop_ when we reached the _Tower_ ," Bucky firmly stated, now taking a hold of her other wrist, trying to move her towards the front door.

Since _neither_ one of them were going to listen, Vic did the only thing she could think of…she sat down.

The sudden resistance on Bucky's forward movement managed to pull her wrist free from him, so she then folded her arms and tucked her hands underneath of them. They were not going to do this to her.

"Vic! Get _up_ off that _floor_ , and into that _car_ , right _now_!" Bucky demanded of her.

" _No_!"

She sat there as the two of them stared at each other for a moment, probably trying to figure out how to deal with her. She knew exactly where this was headed.

"I am _not_ going to let you two _lunks_ lock me away in that _Tower_! That's _exactly_ what ya'll are planning to do, _isn't it_?"

Bucky looked over at Steve, who said, "She knows about him."

"The Tower is the _safest place_ for you until Rumlow is _recaptured_ ," Bucky then said tossing the two bags next to the door.

"Oh? And exactly _how long_ will it take _this time_?" she inquired looking up and between the two of them. "Let's see…it only took three years, two months and six days last time, if I remember correctly, which I'm pretty damn sure that I do. So...will my _imprisonment_ be _shorter_ or _longer_ than that? I'm _just_ curious!"

"Vic, I _demand_ that you get up off of that _floor_ and get in the _car_ … _now_!" Bucky then commanded with one of his looks, speaking in that tone that left no room for argument. Until now.

" _Not_! _Fucking! Happening_!" she stated firmly and defiantly…wondering what they would do now.

* * *

Bucky could only stare down at Vic sitting on the floor, actually _refusing_ to do what he had asked of her. This was probably the most important thing he had ever asked her to do, and she was just _sitting_ there. Never before had she ever refused him. Granted, those request had been either minor, or even sexual in nature, but _why_ did her stubborn streak have to come out at a time like this!

"Rumlow could be on his way here, right now, and there is _no way in hell_ that _we_ , especially _you_ , are going to _be here_ ," he told her as Steve took a couple of steps into the den, letting him deal with her, while he looked out of the windows that gave good views of the entire side and back spaces.

"As I pointed out to Grinche," she thumbed in Steve's direction before hiding her hand again, "Rumlow has _no idea_ that this place _exist_ , Obmorozheniye!" she huffed out at him, making him a bit irritated at receiving the new mean nickname of 'frostbite'. He quickly figured out what Steve's was, but unfortunately it sounded adorable in French.

"As much as I would _like_ to think that statement is _true_ , we are _not_ taking the _chance_ ," he firmly stated.

"Because of that _stupid fucking threat_ that he made when his _ass_ was hauled off?" she asked, cursing again, telling him that she was really mad. Rumlow was the only reason Vic ever used real curse words, minus the very rare occasions. When it came to Rumlow, she could burn a drunken sailor's ears if she tried.

"Yes! _Exactly_ because of that _threat_!" he pointed out for her, turning to look out of the dining room window towards the front and the road to the house. Nothing at all in sight. Steve was just coming from the secondary door in the office that led to the small library room, which had a good view of that side of the house. He suddenly appreciated the open path floor plan even more.

"Do the two of you think that I have _actually_ forgotten what he did to me?"

Hearing her say that stopped both of them in their tracks.

"No. Of course we don't think that," his voice was much softer than a few moments ago.

"Then the two of you need to calm down for a minute, and talk with me," she firmly stated in a bland voice, no accent at all.

"Fine," he said taking the few steps necessary to be in front of her. Crouching down, he saw Steve moving to come to be with them too. Once he was also crouched down, since neither of them would sit due to it being quicker to rise this way, he took a breath so they could talk.

"First, did the two of you already discuss some kind of plan in case Rumlow escaped?" she asked. He looked over at Steve, letting him take this one.

"Yes, we've talked about what would probably need to happen in case he did…and now, he has," Steve answered.

"And what exactly _is_ going to happen?" she asked.

"Right now, we are going to meet up with Tony and Nat at the Tower. Then we will head out to the Raft and find out exactly what happened and how he escaped, since the message did not have details," Steve calmly told her.

"And where will I be during this?"

"At the Tower," he answered a bit more hesitantly knowing what was coming.

"Uh-huh…" she sounded while nodding her head. Somehow he knew this was going to be bad. "And why would I stay there? That's where I was the last time he was able to find me."

"If you are even _considering_ suggesting that we leave you out _here_ , all _alone_ , I advise you _not_ speak those words _aloud_!" he informed her, deadly serious.

" _No_ …I'm not going to do _that_ ," she lightly told him, sounding as if it had been obvious.

"Good," Steve then said giving an audible sigh.

"I'm coming _with_ the two of you."

He wasn't exactly sure for how many seconds passed as he continued to stare at Vic before he realized that he was doing so. Come with them? He looked over at Steve, who looked just as confused.

"What do you mean by ' _come with us'_?" Steve then asked.

"I guess _Tony_ really is the _genius_ of the group," she smirked at them.

"Vic," he managed to get out, "there is _no way_ that you are coming with us!"

"Really? _Why not_?" she asked looking between the two of them. "Do you think that this is a trap and that Rumlow is _actually_ lying in wait on the Raft on the _off chance_ that the two of you bring me out there _with you_?"

They knew that was not the case. Vic then continued...

"Or, do you think that it's more likely that he may head to New York City, and lay in wait for the Quinjet to take off with every available Avenger nearby hoping to recapture him, knowing that the two of you would leave me there, _like always_ , guessing that I'd be safe in the Tower, so that he and whoever in _hell_ probably helped him escape could storm the place to get to me?"

Steve then mumbled out, "Fuck."

"Language," Vic then smiled up at them knowing she had won.

* * *

**The Quinjet Hanger**  
**Just After Breakfast**

Steve lifted his shield to the hooks in the Quinjet, hanging it up for the flight. He still couldn't believe that they were allowing this. He didn't know what was worse: that Victoria may be right about Rumlow or that Tony, Nat, and Wade agreed with Victoria. After trying to get the three of them on his and Bucky's side, the one that had Victoria secured safely somewhere, even if it wasn't at the Tower, they pointed out that the safest place would be _with_ all of them. He could still see the smile on Victoria's face at winning _that_ argument.

Picking up the bag with his uniform, he tucked it into one of the storage drawers, hoping that wearing it would not be a necessity on this trip. Bucky was still gathering up even more guns and ammo, determined that everyone, including Victoria, would be well armed. He couldn't blame him one bit though. Since she was indeed going, she needed to have access to a weapon in case something did happen.

Nat and Wade walked up the ramp together, both of them with their own bags. He could only guess what the two of them would consider a necessity for this information gathering trip. Bucky had mentioned after they had first met Wade that he had been traveling with his own arsenal, just in case Victoria had been in trouble. Knowing that there was now the actually chance that Rumlow was coming after her, he was sure Wade, with Nat's help, had probably snuck a few of Tony's new items aboard.

Of course, Tony had no real problem with Victoria coming with them. He was more insulted that he and Bucky had started to consider the Tower not secure enough for her to stay at, after Victoria had brought up the chance of Rumlow trying to assault it. The only thing Tony really complained about was that she would not be here to cook him a homecoming meal, to which Steve had only rolled his eyes.

Bucky finally appeared at the base of the ramp, looking towards the elevator, waiting for Victoria to appear. She and Pepper had disappeared after a quick breakfast while everyone started to gear up, saying only that they would be back in a few minutes. Making his way up, Bucky stored his bag in another bin.

"All of you do realize that you will not be able to take any of those weapons onto the actual Raft once we get there, right?" he asked now that the three of them were all within hearing shot at the same time.

"Doesn't mean that we won't need them," Bucky replied heading back towards the ramp to lay in wait.

"We are only going straight to the Raft to find out how Rumlow was able to escape and then we are heading right back here," he informed them, as Wade headed to the pilot's seat to start the engine prep for takeoff. "We will _not_ be heading _anywhere_ in Rumlow's direction while Victoria is with us."

"But that does _not mean_ that Rumlow will not head in _our_ direction," Nat pointed out.

"That is _not_ helping, Natasha," Bucky called over his shoulder to her.

"Just pointing out the obvious," she said with a twisted smile as she took the seat closest to where Wade was. "Can I point out that Victoria insisting on staying close to the two of you might be her own way of keeping herself calm, and not getting overly emotional, or frightened, with the possible outcomes from Rumlow's escape?"

Turning towards her, Bucky asked, "You think that Vic is scared?"

They had not actually thought of that. They had seen how she handled different situations, but the only time he could remember her being scared was when Rumlow had threatened to put her in the Chair and erase the two of them from her memory. Every other time dealing with Rumlow, she had been angry, because of being taken away from them.

"Maybe. Her insisting on coming…not wanting to be _alone_. It _is_ a possibility," Nat pointed out buckling herself in to the seat. "So do the two of you think you could _try_ to make her feel welcomed?"

"We didn't think about that as a possibility," Steve said, hearing a ping from the outside room.

The elevator finally opened up with Victoria, Pepper and Tony, who was wearing his suit. They were chatting away and actually looked happy. This was a miserable Christmas morning. The only bright part of it was when Victoria looked over at him and Bucky, still smiling at seeing them waiting for her. She had changed her clothes, but she had not gone the way of Pepper or Natasha. Instead, she looked ready to go out on a motorcycle ride: black pants, riding boots, a band t-shirt (was that Tony's?) and her leather jacket. At least she didn't seem ready to go into a fight.

Wait…was that good or bad?

"Gradina, you seem to have forgotten the baseball bat," she pointed in the direction of his cubby, probably noticing every weapon missing from their holder, as she walked towards them.

"If I actually get to the point where I would need it, we are in _real_ trouble," he said as she stepped into his arm, giving him a kiss.

"Gross…break it up…" Tony said, passing them and heading up the ramp to his suit's spot. Stepping out of it, he then headed back over to Pepper. He could see him whispering something to Pepper, who only nodded before kissing him goodbye. He wondered what stashed piece of jewelry Tony was going to have to pull out to make up for today.

Bucky and Victoria came over to where he was standing, with her reaching out her hand for his. He lifted it and kiss her knuckles, really hoping that this entire trip was the most boring, uneventful, dull one he had ever been on. She then took the seat next to him, with Bucky on his normal side.

Everybody slowly finished doing whatever they needed and strapped in as Wade closed the ramp, leaving Pepper alone in the Tower for the next few hours. As the Quinjet started its roll out to the end of the launch ramp, he began to worry for Pepper. Was there even the slightest chance Rumlow _would_ try to attack the Tower? If so, Pepper would be defenseless.

"Tony, is Pepper going to be alright here on her own?" he decided to ask, worried that if he didn't and something happened, he could have prevented it.

"Yes. For one of her Christmas presents, I made Pepper her own suit."

"Really?" Bucky asked.

"Yep. She's had to wear mine before, and this way, I know that she's safe," Tony said strapping in as the Quinjet took off. It must be nice to be able to do something like that. "She already chosen the name 'Rescue' since she keeps claiming that she's had to bail me out a few times. I don't think that has ever happened…especially since Pep has no proof."

At least Victoria was much better prepared now than she had been back at the park that day she had been taken. He and Bucky had been pushing Victoria with her training for the past few months. She was now proficient with all of the guns that Bucky used on a regular basis. She and Nat were almost at a draw when they did one-on-one training. Nat always seemed to be able to get the upper hand, but Victoria had down a lot of her moves, it was just applying them at the right times. Then there were the times that he had made her go up against him.

Steve had used the shield on a few occasions, with Victoria managing to disarm him just for fun the first few times, earning a round of laughter from Bucky. But she was able to dodge most of his punches and kicks. The times when he _had_ made contact, it scared him into halting the exercise. Just the idea of hitting her made his blood run cold. Bucky had pointed out that training against him was very similar to training against Rumlow, since when he had been working with SHIELD that Rumlow had shown him a lot of new tactical maneuvers after waking up. But it just felt so wrong.

* * *

**Mid-Air Flying South  
Hours Earlier**

"So where exactly are we going?" Brock asked a couple of minutes after the jet Sin had called a Viper had taken off from the Raft. It was a bit larger than the Quinjets SHIELD had normally used, but he could see a lot of similarities. There were eight HYDRA agents, none of which he recognized, as well as the pilot and Buddy/Max. Not a large tactical team for taking down the entire Raft, but somehow they had done it.

"My castle," Sin replied as she made her way over to where he was sitting. Without even bothering to ask, she lifted her leg over his and sat down on his lap, straddling him. One hand of hers held onto the back of his neck while the other ran over the burn scars that covered the left side of his face, gently caressing it.

"You have a castle?" he asked trying to decide if he liked the touching or not.

"Of course. You don't expect the daughter of the Red Skull to live in anything less, do you?" she smugly asked him.

"Alright, then where is this castle?" He decided that he was beginning to like the touches, he just wished he could feel them better.

"Argentina. A lot of HYDRA fled there after the war, including my cell," she answered, making him curious about something.

"How could you be the daughter of Red Skull?" he asked.

Sin then leaned in to whisper in his ear, "Because daddy fucked a maid who reminded him of his own mother."

Brock drew back at hearing that, not exactly getting the answer he needed, but now having more information than he ever wanted.

"Daddy wanted an heir, and of course just assumed that any child of his would be male. Talk about an _ego_ ," she said with a grin. "But mom died giving birth to me, and daddy had me learning the ways of HYDRA from a young age."

"But how are you still this young?" he asked running his own hand over her cheek, as Sin closed her eyes and seemed to enjoy the feeling.

"When the Valkyrie went down and Captain America killed my daddy, my personal agents and I were able to get to Argentina. At that time, HYDRA went underground, waiting, and planning on building itself back up. I went into a cryostasis chamber to wait for HYDRA to reform to what it once was," she told him as she squirmed on his lap.

"Cryostasis? You mean just like the Asset?" he asked not believing someone would do that willingly.

"Yes. His original chamber was modeled after my own."

"When did you finally come out?" he asked.

"After the fall of HYDRA in D.C.," Sin was now leaning over to lick on his deformed ear. "With our exposure, my cell felt that I needed to know what had happened and they also began my instruction on all this new technology."

"If you've been awake since then, why didn't you try and contact me while I was free?" he asked mad and aroused at the same time.

"Because I had no idea you were my soulmate until you were captured a few months ago," she informed him, leaning back and rubbing her fingers over the soulmark on her exposed chest. "When you were captured, the World Security Council's arrest files on you included a picture of how your soulmark looks _now_. Before D.C., it was not an _exact_ match. But when their file was uploaded, it triggered a computer program that my cell set up while I slept to search for my soulmate. You had only been pinged as a _close match_ when you were with SHIELD."

Did that mean it had been destined for him to have suffered the way he had in D.C. so that he could find his soulmate? He guessed so as Sin then kissed him, once again forcing her tongue inside.

When they finally came up for air a few minutes later, he asked, "So is there an actual plan? Because I've had a lot of time to come up with a few of my own."

"We're going after the man who killed my daddy," she evilly grinned at him. "I want to hurt Captain America like he hurt me."

"Then I have the perfect solution for us both…" he said before running his tongue over her soulmark as Sin ground her hips into his hard cock. When he was done, Brock asked, "Tell me, what do you know of Victoria Roth?"


	84. The Raft Incident

Arriving at what was supposed to the location of the Raft, Vic looked out of the front window of the Quinjet at nothing but open ocean. The waves were more than a bit choppy with whitecaps as far as her eyes could see, but there was nothing else in view but a couple of rain clouds out on the horizon.

"So…where is this Raft?" she asked looking back over her shoulder at Steve and Bucky who were still sitting in their seats. They had finally stopped brooding about her coming once they had taken off. Which was a good thing since she had been planning some form of revenge on them if they irritated her for too long.

"Just keep watching," Steve informed her.

Wade was watching the console in front of him as clearance codes flashed across the screen before a green indication notice appeared. Seeing that, something out of the window caught her eye. The water at an area just ahead of them started to lift up and push away as a large cylinder tube lifted out of the water. As it rose, the full understanding came to her. The prison, the Raft, was submerged. Then how did Rumlow escape?

"It looks just like a hockey puck," she told them watching the item draining water from side vents.

"Of course _that's_ what you would think of first," Bucky teased her, so she stuck her tongue out at him.

Within minutes, the Quinjet had landed on the platform between the opened folding doors. There were a couple of armed guards in the hanger area. They would have been useful a few extra hours ago, she thought.

"Alright, let's go annoy Secretary Ross…" Tony said with a grin and clapping his hands.

Making her way back over to Steve and Bucky, she asked, "Who's that?"

"The Secretary of Defense. He's the one in charge of the Raft," Steve told her.

With the ramp was down, Tony was sauntering over to an older looking man in a business suit which she could easily guess always looked like he was scowling.

"I don't need you all here second guessing my decisions," the man said with as his greeting.

"We just want some answers," Steve responded. He was right behind Tony with Bucky falling back to his left and her on Bucky's right. She could barely see Ross' head from around Steve's head, as if he were trying to block her.

"You do know that this is not a tourist attraction, right, Rogers?" Ross asked as he sidestepped to get a look at not only her but Wade, who was finishing up on the Quinjet.

"Well, maybe it needs to be since it sure isn't that good of a prison," she flatly stated, earning her a cold glare from Ross, warning matching eyes from Steve and Bucky, and an outright laugh from Tony.

"Victoria has a point, Rossie," Tony told him. "One prisoner, one escape. That's a pretty bad batting average."

Ross then looked past her to where she could hear Wade's steps on the ramp coming towards them.

"Who is this?" Ross asked.

"I'm the fucking chauffer," Wade said coming to a stop next to Tony. " _And_ Stark's body guard. I'm also the _tactful_ one."

"Great…" Ross groaned then looking back at her with snooty smile. " _Civilians_ will have to stay on the _plane_."

"Good thing that I'm _not_ a civilian anymore," Vic said with a grin, getting curious looks from her guys.

"That's right…I forgot to mention to you that as of this morning, I've made Miss Victoria here an honorary Avengers' trainee," Tony smirked at Ross, whose face turned red fairly quickly. "She is also our official translator."

"What…does she speak 'Kardashian'?" Ross asked trying to be cute.

"Actually, I fluently speak over four languages," she smiled at him, as he glared, probably trying to figure out if she was lying to him or not. Vic didn't feel like bothering to mention the exact number of languages she spoke. That was information reserved for a few key friends. Even Tony had no idea, but only because she liked the idea of being able to irritate him every time he learned of a new one. But Ross was already annoying her enough that she would love to put him in his place if he questioned her abilities.

"Sir, can we _please_ head inside and hear how Rumlow managed to escape out of here?" Steve then asked.

"If it wasn't for the fact that you caught Rumlow once, none of you would be here now," Ross said starting to turn away. That was when Bucky spoke up.

"Actually, it was Vic who caught Rumlow the last time."

Ross stopped and turned around, giving Bucky a very cold stare now. "What did you say?"

"Didn't you read the report as to _what_ led to his capture?" Steve asked the man.

"I don't have time to read _every_ report that crosses my desk. Rumlow was captured, without casualties, and that was enough for me," Ross stated sounding a bit high-and-mighty with his tone.

"I wouldn't necessarily say that there were _no_ casualties," Nat said, tilting her arms to indicate Victoria's direction. Did this idiot really have no idea what had happened to her?

"Even with all of the injuries that Rumlow had inflicted on her, Victoria managed to take him down with one well-placed strike," Steve pointed out, sounding very proud.

"I didn't know that _she_ was the one responsible for putting him in the infirmary," Ross plainly stated.

"Well then, I suggest that you hold your tongue when speaking if you are _ignorant_ on a subject," Bucky glared at him with enough venom in it that Ross physically backed up a step, especially when the sound of his arm calibrating echoed through the closed off chamber. She was not sure if he and Bucky had ever met before, but Ross knew enough about him to be cautious when the Winter Soldier used that tone and told you to do something. Ironic since that was what she had just not done hours before.

"{Don't make the grumpy old man piss his pants, sweetie,}" she smiled at Bucky speaking in Russian, just to prove a bit of her claim to Ross. From off of Wade's other side, she heard the sound of Natasha coughing away a laugh at hearing her comment. Ross then glared at Nat before turning and heading towards the door again. Tony gave her a fist bump as they passed, probably having had FRIDAY translate her comment for him.

They made their way through a couple of hallways until they reached a larger conference room with a couple of screens mounted to the wall. A very sharp military man walked through the door right after them, heading to the front of the room.

"This is Colonel Mitchell. His team were the first ones on the scene. They were sent to investigate why the Raft missed its scheduled check-in," Ross informed them while moving towards the back of the room. They had all taken seats around the large conference table, Tony at the head, with Nat and Wade sitting opposite of them. Her warriors, of course, boxed her in.

"Scheduled check-ins are every twelve hours. When the Raft failed its zero hour's communication, with repeated request also failing, my team was sent to ascertain why. When we arrived, the Raft was wide open. Upon landing, we found all the guards, but one, dead scattered throughout the entire facility. Almost none of them looked like they had been able to put up a fight," he said as the screens behind him then activated. On it were pictures of bodies on the floor, beds, staircases…none with weapons drawn. They were still holstered on their sides.

"Moving on to the security cells, we found three more dead guards, all killed execution style," with the picture of them now visible. "Rumlow's cell was left wide open."

"So who specifically helped him escape?" Nat asked. "I haven't seen any reports on any HYDRA cells still powerful enough to be able to manage something like this.

"That's where it gets interesting," Ross said speaking up at the screens changed to a stilled video. "I'll let you see the security footage of what happened, then we can discuss it."

They watched as different videos played simultaneously on the screens, but they all showed something similar: guards seeming to fall over on their own. On one of the screens, they saw a single guard working at the main controls to have the Raft rise up and open for a modified Quinjet-looking plane to land.

A couple of men, all in black tactical gear with red HYDRA symbols on their arms, stepped out before a final figure emerged: a strangely dressed woman in red leather. The tact-team then made their way through the Raft as the remaining Raft guard and woman talked, with her getting an amused laugh from something told to her. They were too far from a camera to pick up their conversation.

Only three guards were subdued and taken prisoner, with any other found alive instantly killed while the group winded through the Raft towards Rumlow's the cell block. They watched as the three guards were then executed by the woman, joking the entire time with Rumlow, before kissing him. It made a horrible creepy feeling slither all over her at seeing that.

But when she said her name, she saw Steve become visibly shaken at hearing it.

"There's no way," Bucky then added as the video ended, looking over at Steve to see what he thought of the revelation. "How could she be?"

"I'm not sure, but why would she _lie_ about something like that?" Steve asked looking over the rest of the group for answers.

"She'd have to be as old as the two of you are," Nat added with a sly smile.

"Unfortunately, you are right," Steve pointed out. "But we are dealing with HYDRA, so _anything_ is possible."

"Who is the guard that helped?" Tony asked.

"Max Lohmer. He's worked here since right after the Raft first went active with Rumlow's arrival. It seems that he has been a sleeper HYDRA agent the entire time," Ross responded not sounding happy at having his secure facility compromised so easily.

Vic noticed that Bucky's face made a quick furrowed brow ' _look'_ as if something bugged him, but it quickly passed and he didn't speak up. If it was something significant, she was sure he would have said something.

"Why did the guards just fall down? Were they unconscious or dead?" Tony asked thinking about the rest of the video.

"It seems that they may have been poisoned, but we have yet to figure out how. They shot any that were still alive, wiping out the entire Raft," Ross answered.

"It couldn't have been anything in the air since Rumlow and Lohmer were not affected, as well as the other three guards. So it stands to reason that it was probably ingested," she began to muse out loud. "How much time passed after the last meal was eaten?"

"Roughly two hours," Mitchell answered.

"Everyone here was served the _exact_ same meal, guards and prisoner. If it was _poisoned_ , then Rumlow would have died also. The footage has been _rechecked_ and _nobody_ warned him about anything," Ross pointed out smugly. He had not sounded that way with anyone else's questions.

"Can we see the footage from Rumlow's cell for the last time he was served a meal?" Steve asked taking her side.

A few moments later, the video started to run, showing the two guards, Lohmer being one of them, walking towards the cells.

"You didn't find it _strange_ that it just _happened_ to be _Lohmer_ that delivered _Rumlow_ his meal?" Tony then asked Ross, pointing out what should have been obvious.

"We had a man go back and check the records. It turns out that he delivered the meals every time he was on shift," Colonel Mitchell answered. It sounded to her like Lohmer wanted access to Rumlow for some reason.

Lohmer and the other guard were now talking and taunting Rumlow on the video. He only indicated to Rumlow that _something_ may go down that night, but with the joking way he had done it, the other guard's suspicions were never raised. Neither one of them had given a verbal warning to him about poisoned food in any way they could hear before he started eating but she had noticed something that nobody else seemed to have picked up on.

"Rumlow sure got his evil little Christmas wish," Tony chimed in.

"See… _nothing_ on the video, girl," Ross said to her smugly, which brought a smile to her face.

"The mashed potatoes."

"What?" Bucky asked.

"Lohmer, the HYDRA guard…he spit into the mashed potatoes. It's an old schoolyard bully tactic. Rumlow sure was not going to eat them after that. Instead of doing it for just the benefit of the guard with him, say out in the hallway before entering, Lohmer did it _in front_ of Rumlow to make sure that he _saw_ and would _not_ eat them. If you let the video roll, I'm sure you'll see that he doesn't touch them," Vic told the assembled table.

Ross then had the video continue to run at a bit faster speed, and they all saw that Rumlow never touched them at all. That probably was how the guards were poisoned.

"So then the other three guards still alive that Sin killed must not have eaten them either," Nat deduced as the rest of the table agreed. "The other ones who didn't immediately die must not had ingested as much as the others."

"Good catch," Bucky said with a smile, while squeezing her hand under the table.

"It doesn't matter _how_ they died," Ross chimed in, getting the attention back on him. "Rumlow is now _free_ and he needs to be _stopped_."

"See...I knew that you would _eventually_ say something intelligent," Tony smiled at Ross. "I'm guessing since nobody has ever heard of this Sin woman, that there is no file on her with SHIELD or anybody else?"

"None. We don't have any record of her even being born," Ross stated. "So you are now back to square one when it comes to finding Rumlow again."

* * *

Bucky walked over to where Vic was looking at the cell Rumlow had occupied for the past few months. He glanced down at the wet spots on the floor from where the blood of the guards that were killed had been cleaned up very recently. Wrapping his arms around her, he put his head on her shoulder, looking around at the small cell areas. He could now remember very similar rooms where he would stay between being woken and heading out on a mission until returning and being frozen. Rumlow's was actually a lot nicer.

The only strange cell was the one right next to Rumlow's that had a blacked out front wall for some reason. Almost as if it would possibly be used for solitary confinement. There _was_ an adjoining door from Rumlow's cell to it, so that must be the answer.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked quietly Vic, knowing that they were more than likely being watched.

"That it's going to be a long time before I see daylight again. Maybe you and Steve could ask Ross if they have an available room," she sadly joked. "At least you know that Rumlow isn't _here_."

"Do you think he would let us?" he asked earning him an elbow to the chest.

"Not funny."

"Vic, we are not going to _actually_ lock you in the Tower," he told her, taking her hand in his and turning her around. He could see the look she was giving him meant she didn't believe him. "There _will be_ such a thing as not going _anywhere_ outside the Tower alone, and at _least_ one bodyguard, but probably more, though."

" _Great_ …" she sarcastically mumbled. "How do we even know that he's _still_ mad at me? He _could have_ gotten over it."

"Sorry, but he _hasn't_ ," Steve said coming over to them.

The other Raft guards who had been off for Christmas week had been brought back in. He, Nat, and Tony had been questioning them as to anything Rumlow or Lohmer may have said or done that would give them at least a starting point on finding the two homicidal criminals. "Turns out, one of Rumlow's favorite past times was to arrange his mattress as a punching bag. He would spend a few hours at it since there wasn't much else to do. Some of the guards could hear him mumbling the name _Victoria_ over and over."

"But I already _have_ a stalker, I don't _need_ another one," she sighed leaning back into him as he looked worriedly over at Steve. She may be joking about this, but he and Steve were not going to take this lightly at all.

"Did the guards have anything useful to say?" he asked Steve.

"Not really," Steve said solemnly. "Lohmer was actually well liked, and none of them had anything bad to say about him. One even had to be shown the video to believe he was involved."

"A nice HYDRA agent…just what we needed," Bucky mumbled as his grip on her tightened just a bit.

"Bucky, is there anything that you may remember from your time with HYDRA that dealt with Sinthea? Hearing her name, seeing that red hair of hers…" Steve asked trailing off as he start to think.

The only woman with red hair that he could ever remember seeing before was Natasha, on his mission to kill the scientist. No other red haired woman came to mind. As for her name, it was just as unfamiliar, even if he had heard coincidentally heard the name Lohmer seventy years ago. Unless there was something that Wanda had possibly missed, there was nothing. They had finished their last session months ago, so his memory should now be back to what it had been before the Chair with all his missions in tact.

"No, not a thing comes to mind. If I do think of something, I'll let you know."

Steve looked a bit disappointed, not at him, but at the situation overall. These next few days were going to be difficult with the adjustment to their lives with Rumlow having to be taken into account for anything they did. Vic would not even be able to go to the grocery store as she liked to do. No more walks down the street to the bakery for pastries in the morning. No more trips to the bookstore. Every time she set foot beyond the lobby…hell…were those windows even bullet proof?

They didn't know _what_ Rumlow would want to do to her _now_. Would he just shoot her and make it quick? Would this Sin person let him go through with his original sick sexual plans? Would he want to put her in the Chair which they were never able to recover?

Letting go of Vic after a quick kiss on her cheek, he headed for the door. He needed a few minutes to vent. The overall situation was suddenly crashing in on him. How their lives were suddenly going to be getting a lot smaller and complicated since they were not going to leave Vic along for any long stretches of time. Even if they got called away on a mission, remembering last time, he would make sure that only one of them would go on it. Even their new home was going to have to sit empty, while keeping Vic at the Tower, where they felt more comfortable about the security measures.

He heard Steve talking to Vic behind him as he stalked away. Taking one final glance behind him before he turned into the hallway, he saw that Steve had already wrapped his arms around Vic, holding her as he had. Rumlow was not going to get his hands on her…ever again. There was a gym for the guards around here somewhere, and he _really_ needed to _punch_ something.

* * *

"They're going to be having one hell of a New Year," Wade told her, as they saw Bucky stomp past the door to the room they had been questioning the guards in.

"But maybe this time, knowing that there _is_ something looming ahead of them, they will be prepared for it when it happens," Nat said but even she didn't feel better with her own comment. "We need to make sure that Vic is always armed when she leaves the Tower."

"I'll have FRIDAY set up a new training regimen to keep Victoria occupied since I don't see them going back to the house anytime soon," Tony said, getting their attention with that idea. "But if they try to ' _lock her in'_ as she mentioned on the Quinjet, and I can _easily_ see the two of them doing that, then Vic's going to go stir crazy eventually, and there's no telling what she might do."

"He's right," Wade said. "Vic's always been restless to begin with. If they try to confine her there, she may go off on them."

"I'd _love_ to have _that_ on video," Tony quipped.

* * *

Ross folded down the screen on his laptop as he leaned back in his chair at his desk in the Raft. He didn't have to use this office often since Rumlow was the only prisoner, so it was very sterile with not a personal touch in sight. After the comment by the Winter Soldier, he had decided to go back and read the report on Rumlow's capture, and what had led up to it. The entire file that he had access to contained the World Security Council's full account of criminal charges brought up against him, one of them being the details of Victoria's kidnapping.

After reading the report, he had just associated the listed abuse she had taken to being the likes of minor slaps and groping. But then he had seen the pictures of the aftermath of that abuse. There were also attached videos of when she had been kidnapped, from the warehouse, as well as the penthouse. He had then seen the strikes Rumlow had given, truly understanding the force behind them and seeing the pictures of what she looked like after being rescued. It perfectly showed the brutality that he had wanted to use Rumlow for.

Ross had just guessed that the man had become infatuated with the female. But now, after deciding to go through the _entire_ file, he knew that it was not just a quick fuck now and again that Rumlow had wanted. When he had first arrived, Ross had been trying to convince Rumlow to work for him, off the books of course, and no matter what he had offered Rumlow, the only _payment_ that he would accept would be Victoria Roth. Rumlow had informed him that the only way he would agree to Ross' terms was if Victoria was turned over to him, to be held here on the Raft as basically _a prisoner of a prisoner_.

At first, he had flat outright refused. But as he continued negotiating with Rumlow over the coming weeks, they had come to a partial understanding and he'd ordered the necessary work on the adjoining cell to begin. Rumlow had pointed out that since the Raft was a private facility, nobody would ever find her here or know that Ross had been affiliated with her disappearance. For months, the cell had remained ready and empty. Sitting right now in a secured file here on the Raft was the final document necessary to put their agreement into place, _if_ he ever had a mission arise that he felt only Rumlow could accomplish.

Now, it looked like the cell would never be used. And right now that was a good thing thanks to the headache it would have caused him. What would have happened to Victoria if Rumlow had been freed from here _after_ she had been locked up? Would he have taken her with them or left Victoria for him to deal with? Or just put a bullet in her head? Luckily a burial at sea would have been easy for him to achieve.

"Sir," a private knocked on the door frame to get his attention, "they are gathering now to leave."

"Very good," he said standing up. He would go and find out if they found anything useful by questioning the guards. At least they didn't understand what they were looking at when they saw the cell next to Rumlow's.

A little while later, after the Quinjet had left, he didn't feel optimistic about Rumlow being found anytime soon. The only thing he was sure of was that wherever Victoria Roth was, that Rumlow was sure to eventually follow. But how many innocent civilians would pay the price in Rumlow's personal vendetta against her? Hopefully none, if he had anything to do about it.

If Rumlow started his terrorist activities on American soil, in the hopes of either getting his hands on Victoria, or trying to kill her, no matter what she may have been through in the past, he would gladly hand her over to prevent more loss of life.

Soulmate of Captain America and the Winter Solider be dammed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hmm…Bucky recognized the name Lohmer. Die-hard MCU fans may also recognize it if they read the movie comics, but it will a while before the full story behind it is revealed…so just remember it for later.
> 
> Also, I've always hated Ross so it was easy to turn him bad (worse?). As for what he was doing and planning concerning Vic? Well, that will be expanded on much later, but you will not be left hanging...although Ross might hang for it ;)
> 
> Thanks for the continuing reviews. I would love to hear from some of the others out there...


	85. Time Flies...and So Does Vic

The trip back to New York City was going very uneventful, just like Steve had been hoping it would be. The moment the Quinjet touched down, every of them planned to gather and try to make the best of the remaining time of Christmas Day. Wade and Nat had originally been planning on driving out to their new home for dinner, but now they were all back where they normally were. Victoria had such a special surprise for them, then Sin and Rumlow had to go and ruin everything.

His mind kept going back to what they had learned during their trip. After talking with the guards, he had found that the Raft had been scheduled to be minimally staffed for the week around Christmas, making it the perfect time to pull the jailbreak. Fourteen guards and maintenance workers had paid with their lives just to retrieve a single terrorist from custody.

Sitting back staring at the Quinjet's ceiling, with Victoria leaning up against him as she read a book, her legs across Bucky lap who was also reading, he really started to wonder about that. Why would Sin go through all of that trouble for Rumlow? And then there was the fact that she had seemed sexually interested in him, even going so far as to kiss him. There was something there that just didn't add up entirely. Especially since Rumlow even had to ask her who she was. Why would she had done what she had for him?

"Tony," he called out to get his attention away from the handheld gaming device he was currently yelling at, "Can you pull up the video clips from the Raft that shows Sinthea in them? There's something I want to see."

"Of course," Tony said moving to the center console. "I love hacking where Ross doesn't want me."

As he worked to get the files, Steve moved from beside Victoria so that he could get a better look at the video. It only took FRIDAY about two minutes to have the files downloaded from the previously secured Raft server.

"Now, can you find a SHIELD file that has a picture of Rumlow's soulmark?" he asked.

"Thanks to Natasha here, I should be able to," Tony told him as his fingers typed away furiously.

After a few moments, a skull and crossbones picture taken when Rumlow had joined SHIELD was on the screen before them.

"Now, play everything that shows Sinthea from the moment of arrival to when they leave together," Steve requested as everyone else now took an interest in what he was doing.

The security footage was usually taken at a distance, showing a larger area of the different areas of the Raft. But eventually Rumlow and Sin passed through a corridor that happened to have a lower lying ceiling mounted camera. It was able to get the best shot of the item he wanted to see.

"Right there, Tony," he said pointing at the woman's visible soulmark. "Can you enhance this to get a clearer picture of it?"

"Give me a moment."

"Why are you thinking that his woman is Rumlow's soulmate?" Nat asked sounding like she did not really believing it could be possible.

"Why else would she go to such lengths to free him, especially when he had no idea who she was?" pointing out to them what he had through of. Then Tony was able to get the shot as clear as it was going to get, but the two pictures were a close match but not a perfect match, like soulmarks always were.

"So then they are _not_ soulmates," Nat stated, but not sounding as sure of herself as she usually did.

"To be so close to _almost_ being a match…" Bucky said before asking, "Why does her soulmark look like that?"

"I think I have an idea," Victoria sighed. "FRIDAY, does Rumlow's file from the Raft include a _recent_ photo of his soulmark?"

" _Yes, Miss Victoria_." The requested image appeared on the screen.

"I got this," Tony said moving his fingers quickly over the different frames until the two soulmarks where side-by-side, unfortunately forming a matching image.

"That's got to be the most fucked up thing I've seen in a while," Wade commented from the pilot seat that was turned so he could face the group during the flight.

"Are you kidding me?" Victoria then added as everyone digested this new information. "She was possibly born ninety years ago with a _scarred_ soulmark that didn't match until _after_ Rumlow was bitch-slapped by a Helicarrier?"

He nudged Victoria in the side for the curse word, but she just stuck her tongue out at him. Great…they were back to her cursing thanks to Rumlow.

"It looks like it," Bucky said. "Why did you think of Rumlow soulmark being scarred up?"

"I remembered asking him how far down his burns went. Seeing her soulmark just now made me think about what his might look like _with_ the scars."

"At least now we know a bit better about what, or who, we will be dealing with," Steve sighed. This could actually be _worse_ than dealing with just Rumlow.

Originally it could have been a single man's vendetta against Victoria, but now…it could be a psychopathic killer soulmate who may want revenge for what Victoria did to Rumlow. He had seen Rumlow walking with the slight limp as they had made their way to the strange Quinjet to leave the Raft. Add on top of that with Red Skull being her father, knowing how messed up _he_ had been, they were in for a _lot_ more trouble than they had initially thought.

Once the Quinjet finally landed, everyone took the rest of Christmas Day as the calm before the storm. Vic raided every available refrigerator in the Tower until she had found enough ingredients to cook side dishes to go with the honey-baked ham that Tony had bribed someone to deliver to the Tower. He had taken Pepper to an ocean-front villa for the week, and they had come back to the Tower due to the emergency call, so nobody had planned to be here to need real food. Even Nat and Wade were staying somewhere special, but nobody had been able to find out where.

Overall, the atmosphere had been a fun one, but all of them would agree that there had been an ax waiting to drop the entire night.

* * *

The next week was hectic and quiet at the same time, Vic thought.

It was quiet because after getting free for the first time, there had not been a single recorded sighting of Rumlow anywhere. As if he had dropped off of the face of the planet, which she was not lucky enough to have actually had happen. She began to wonder if the two of them were on some creepy honeymoon vacation. In a strange way, she hoped they were and would forget all about her even existing.

It was hectic because the next morning, everyone started to split off and work on different ways of trying to track down Rumlow and Sin. Tony had FRIDAY working on trying to track the strange Quinjet they had been traveling in. Nat started reaching out to old contacts to see if any of them had ever heard of Sinthea. Steve started to go through SHIELD and HYDRA files to see if there was anything in them on her or a possible location that Rumlow would go.

And then there was Bucky, who had decided that the training they had managed to have do the past six months was not enough, using Wade and Steve as backup to force even _more_ onto her. Which led to what was currently happening.

"No, I am _not_ going to do it again!" she stated while lying on the floor of the training room after four hours of hand-to-hand training against the LMD's, as well as the earlier weapon's training against them. Bucky had finally pushed the level from four down to three after the first three months of her training had shown major improvement. Now, he was trying to test her before moving it to two. It wasn't that she _couldn't_ do it, she just didn't _want_ to do it anymore.

" _Vic_ …"

"No...!" she stopped him, sitting up on her elbows to see Bucky and Wade staring down at her. "No more ' _Vic_ ', no more ' _Victoria_ ', no more ' _darlin_ '. I'm _sick_ of being in _here_ …and by _here_ I mean specifically this _damn_ training room inside of this _damn_ Tower!" she called out to the two men staring down at her from the observation room. "This is the _fifth_ fucking day in a row, and the four previous ones were for almost eight hours _each_ …and I'm _sick of it_! I'm not doing _that_ again!"

She _really_ needed to get out of here. With that thought, she stood up and walked towards the locker rooms…close to her _real_ destination.

* * *

"Son, you better figure out somewhere for the three of you to go for a bit," Wade told him as Vic started to cross the room, dropping all of the weapons he had her stash on her body, leaving a deadly trail behind her.

"I think you're right," Bucky told him with a heavy sigh. Steve had warned him that he was pushing her too hard and too fast, but they didn't know how much time they really had before Rumlow and Sin came after her. But after Steve had shared his worry about Sin being a soulmate on a vendetta, he _really_ began to worry. Vic needed to be prepared for any possibility.

And now, she was _cursing_ at him.

By the time that he had made it down to the training room's floor, he saw no sign of her. Moving to the doorway of the gym, she was not in there also. He had not heard the elevator ping which only left the ladies locker room.

"Vic?" he asked barely pushing the door open a crack so that he could hear a response. Nothing. She would be the only one here, so he took a step inside wondering if she was pouting and refusing to answer him. But there was no sign of her in any toilet or shower stalls. Where was she?

Heading back out to the open floor, he knew that he had not heard the sound of the elevator opening, so where had Vic gotten to?

"FRIDAY, can you locate Vic?"

 _"Yes, Sergeant. Miss Victoria is in the east staircase, proceeding down,_ " the AI said, causing him to panic. Running to the stair's door around the corner from the elevator, he pushed it open and went to the railing. Then he heard it…the sound of feet moving at a quick pace. "Ah, hell!"

As he started to race down behind her, he pulled an earcom from his pocket, "FRIDAY, page Steve immediately!"

"What's wrong?" he heard Steve ask, already sounding worried at being paged to begin with.

"She's making a run for it!" he huffed out as he grabbed a hold of the railing and vaulted over to the other side, taking a floor in a single leap. "We're in the east staircase, still high up in the fifties. I'm guessing she's heading for the lobby so you should be able to get there first and catch her. I'm a couple of floors behind her but she's moving too quick."

Continuing his downward trek, he ran skipping steps, vaulting when he had the opportunity, but she had a good head start from him searching the locker room first. If only she would put this amount of energy into her training, he thought as he vaulted to land on another floor's landing. Then he heard the echoing sound of her smacking open the door's push handle with a lot of force.

Vic had already reached the lobby.

Steve would catch her.

* * *

Steve knew that the guards watching were trying to figure out why he was just staring at the door before him. But with his hearing, he could tell that the sound of pounding feet echoing in the concrete tube was getting louder. Victoria was heading right for him. He was standing back a couple of feet so avoid the door when it swung out as well as the impact of Victoria as she unknowingly ran straight for him.

With a violent burst, the door slammed open, striking the wall and echoing throughout the lobby, startling everyone in the vicinity. Victoria was now running right for him with a _very_ determined look on her face. They had started out only feet apart, but as he bent over slightly to grab her around the waist, a favorite move of Bucky's, he found that she was ready for him.

Reaching out with her left hand, she placed it on his left shoulder at the crook of his neck, pushing towards his right side which redirected his forward motion just a bit, making his outstretching hands miss her. Victoria then twisted and gave him two sharp gabs to his left shoulder blade with her right elbow, causing him to go down from the unexpected pain. His body fell forward, his momentum sliding him towards the stair's doorway.

From the staircase's opened door, he heard the scream of, "What the hell, Steve?", as he lay on the ground, trying to recover. Bucky had felt the strikes, letting both of them know she was actually mad. Rolling onto his side, he could barely make out her form as she left through the closest side door, as he started to try and get up. That was when Bucky's form surged through the door, running right into him.

They impacted and both went down, Bucky managing a rolling tuck, able to recover some as he skidded on his side before rolling into a crouch a few feet away.

"Why are you _lying_ on the _floor_?" Bucky angrily asked him.

"Because _someone_ was actually _paying attention_ during her _training_!"

They both got up as Steve pointed at the door leading out to the street that Victoria had gone through. The moment they opened the door, they started searching for her. There was a light snow falling and the streets were packed with people heading places, most likely restaurants since it was now lunchtime. With the crowds of people moving in all directions, he could not spot her at all.

" _Damn_ it!" Bucky as he took a couple of steps forward, still searching. That was when Steve began to think about what he had seen just before she had taken him down.

"Buck, is Victoria wearing nothing but shorts and a tank-top?" he asked to confirm his suspicions.

"Yeah, we were in the training room still when she headed for the stairs. I think she even discarded every single weapon I had given her to train with today," he was scanning the area, still moving forward a few feet.

"So Victoria is out here, in the falling _snow_ , without proper clothes, _no_ money, and _no_ way to _defend_ herself?" he asked coming up next to him.

"I wouldn't _necessarily_ say that," Bucky replied with a grin. "She sure got past you _without_ a weapon."

That earned him a firm punch on his shoulder.

"Alright, then…let's think of this logically. Where could she go that's nearby? She's not going to stay in the cold for long. You know how she hates it," Steve started to think of the building close.

"Grand Central," Bucky answered, pointing to the side of the Tower that led directly to the building next door. "It's close, warm, and large enough to lose us in."

As they started to quickly walk in that direction, he added, "At least she doesn't have any money for a train on her."

* * *

Vic didn't know exactly what she had expected to happen as she ran from the Tower, being outside in the fresh…well, New York City…air for the first time in a week. All she knew was that if she stayed in that training room for one more minute, she was going to scream her head off.

Making her way swiftly through the people on the sidewalk, she knew that she was getting stares for the minuscule clothing she was wearing, considering it was in the high twenty's, and lightly snowing on top of that. Then there was the fact she still had on the knife and gun holsters, but at least they were empty, so no police should bother her.

Heading inside of the large terminal building, she kept walking until she was in the middle of the open cavern. People were hustling everywhere, most giving her strange looks. Taking stock on her situation, Bucky's voice echoed in her head that she was too exposed here, too out in the open…she needed cover and limited routes for enemies to approach her on. She then headed for the stairs that led to the lower level closer to the trains, restaurants, and shops.

After walking around for a few minutes, she found just what she needed. Near a short ramp for commuters to use, there was a knee-wall about four feet high, rounding outward, making a small decorative alcove on the lower floor.

Putting her back to it, she slid down to the floor for privacy. Nobody would be able to see her from behind, the round wall covered her from gunfire, and she had a clear view ahead of her to the end of the short dead-end space that had no exit and was free of commuters.

Now, she just had to figure out what to do.

* * *

"Here," Steve heard Bucky say as they looked around the massive terminal for Victoria. Looking over, he saw that there was an earcom and a small double-bladed knife being offered to him. Taking the earcom and putting it in, Bucky said, "I'll check up here and the upper level, you check the lower levels."

He reluctantly picked up the blade, saying, "I don't use these."

"This is for Vic, if you find her before me."

"This is not going to work," Steve sighed as he considered the overall situation.

"Why wouldn't it work? Vic knows how to use it," he asked thinking he meant the knife.

"No…not the knife. Keeping Victoria sequestered the way we have for the past week. If she's willing to run like this after only five days, imagine what she might do after a month," he told him, still scanning the upper balconies as he slipped the blade into his pants' pocket.

"Wade suggested going somewhere for a while. Do you think that the house is _really_ that secure?" Bucky asked making him wonder if that might be possible. They had originally planned on staying there for at least a week. Pepper had helped to set it up for privacy, so they would need to talk with her about what was done. If they could add just a bit of their own requirements for security, the house may be the perfect place to hole up for a while, and to get Victoria out of the Tower.

"It could be. We need to know more about how it was set up, and maybe add our own precautions," he said. "Let's find Victoria and get her back to the Tower. We'll need to talk to the group about our decision."

They then split apart, walking and scanning the commuters and tourist. They kept in touch for the next fifteen minutes as they searched the multi-level building for any sign of her. Between all the corridors, shops, bathrooms, and restaurants, not to mention the train accesses, there were numerous places for her to hide. _If_ she were actually here.

Steve had already begun to doubt that she would have stayed here, maybe jumping a turnbuckle and taking a train somewhere, but she had left the Tower without any real plan. He didn't see her straying that far away alone, even if she was mad at them.

The hallway opened up to overlook a large sitting area with kiosk scattered around. There were so many people lounging before him that Victoria could hide in plain sight. Steve walked over to where the downwards ramp began, stopping there so that he could scan the area better. That was when he saw the bit of white barely visible underneath him. Leaning over the edge, he peeked down the side and saw her.

Victoria, sitting down on the floor, had found a nice little out of the way spot to hide in. Walking down the ramp, he stopped just behind her, leaning on the ledge of the wall on his arms.

"How mad is Bucky at me compared to you?" she asked without him even having let her know he was there.

"We are not mad at you," he said calmly. "We pushed you too hard because we are worried about you."

Walking down the ramp, he circled the wall so that he was now standing above her. She once again looked small, and it was not something he ever liked seeing. Holding out his hands for her, she reluctantly took them as he help her into a standing position. The second she was, Victoria began an almost painful hug to him. He wrapped his own arms around her, not as tight as she was doing. When she looked at him, he planted a solid kiss on her lips, giving her an easing smile. Steve then relaxed his hold, running his hand down her arm.

"I can't keep doing this…being reminded to be scared from the moment I wake up until I fall asleep. Not being allowed to take a step outside because of a sniper possibly waiting. Spending the entire day training, over and over," she was sounding exhausted. "Rumlow's starting to dictate our lives again, and I don't want that. I want our old life back. The one we had a week ago."

Steve knew that she was right. None of them could keep this up without falling apart. It had just taken Victoria a shorter amount of time. She was the one who always was cheerful and happy, trying to make them enjoy life. And now, they had brought her partially down to their level. They had started telling her to always be careful, worry, and know her surroundings…to be paranoid. This was not how they wanted her to have to live. But what other option did they have with Rumlow on the loose?

She needed to be prepared for anything. And unfortunately, between the two of them, they could think of a lot. So they had tried to train her for everything…even the outlandish. They both had military backgrounds where they were pushed hard, and that doesn't even include the training that HYDRA had put Bucky through. He would outlast them both when it came to breaking down.

"Come on," he said taking her right hand in his. "We're going home."

Victoria gave a whine, "I don't _want_ to go back to the _Tower_."

"No…I mean the three of us are going _home_."


	86. The Calm Before The Storm

Bucky heard their conversation over the earcom, knowing he had pushed the training too much. They had both wanted Vic further trained, but he _always_ pushed her harder than Steve did. She had to be prepared for whatever Rumlow decided to do, which was going to involve ' _pain_ ', according to his final threat. Anything that he could do to prevent Rumlow from getting his hands on Vic, would be done ten-fold. And he had made Vic suffer for his fears.

" _Bucky, meet us at the same entrance we came in at_ ," Steve told him over the earcom.

Walking back across the upper balcony, he saw them emerging from the lower steps as he made his way down from the upper flight. The moment his eyes locked onto her, he could see how much she regretted running from him the way she had.

Without a word, he wrapped his arms around her, both of them trying to outdo the other with the tightness of their hugs. Eventually, Steve cleared his throat to get their attention.

"Let's get back to the Tower and discuss some plans," Steve was glancing around the large area to see if they had drawn any attention to themselves. At least he and Steve were wearing normal clothes, if not coats since they had run out without them.

They wrapped their arms around Vic as they walked to try and help keep her a bit warmer against the lightly falling snow. Heading down the sidewalk at a fast pace, they were back to the Tower within two minutes. Stepping into the private elevator in the main lobby, FRIDAY came over the intercom system.

" _Laurel and Hardy, and Miss Houdini, the peanut gallery would like to talk with you when you have a moment_."

"Give us fifteen minutes and we'll meet everyone in the common room," Vic told the AI. "Where did Tony come up with _these_ names?"

"I'd guess that he saw what happened in the lobby earlier," Steve told him, which brought a groan as he pictured what the security cameras had picked up.

"What happened?" Vic asked looking between both of them.

"Trust me, Tony will be showing you… _repeatedly_ , if he follows his _usual_ behavior," Bucky grumbled.

Once they had reached their floor, the three of them headed to the bathroom, Steve turning on the hot water in the shower while Vic began to remove the few clothes she had on. Not only did she need a shower since she had been training the past few hours, but he knew that she would be cold after being outside. As she stepped into the warm shower, they saw the large smile appear on her face as the hot water ran over her, warming her up.

"So, is there an actual plan?" he asked Steve, who was probably fantasizing about getting into the shower with her if he read the look on Steve's face correctly.

"Of course there is…look who you are talking about," Vic flicked her wet finger in Steve's direction as she let the hot water wash over her head.

"I want to talk with Pepper about how the property was set up, to make sure the paper trail can't be followed in any way. Next, I want to know about all security measures that are already at the property. _Then,_ I want to see what Tony might have that we can use as additional precautions," Steve stated as he and Vic listened.

"You _sure_ you don't want to ask Ross for a cell on the Raft for me?" she joked again. "Because it's _really_ starting to sound like I'm just trading the Tower for the nicer hoosegow."

"Victoria, we are _not_ going there without _some_ assurance that if Rumlow does find out about it, that it can be _defended_ and you will be _protected_."

" _Fine_ ," she whined as she again flicked water with her fingers but this time at the two of them. Turning the water off, he handed her the towel from the bar so she could dry off.

"If we can work this out, then we will spend most of our time there, only coming to the Tower if it becomes necessary to head out," Steve said while grinning as he watched her.

"Hopefully on a mission to take Rumlow out of the picture…one way or another," Bucky coldly stated. Right now, he wished that he had just ended this months ago in the Penthouse. Then none of this would be necessary.

At the end of the fifteen minutes they had given to FRIDAY, they stepped out into the common room to find Pepper, Tony, Nat, and Wade waiting for them. On the monitor screen, they could see Clint was on a video chat with Nathan sitting on his hip as Nat made baby words at him.

"There's my new favorite comedy act," Tony smiled at them with his arms spread wide as they headed up the stairs towards the group.

"Alright…let me see," Vic then requested, not knowing exactly what had happened.

Seconds later the screen showed the lobby, with Steve clearly waiting at the door for Vic. He watched as she suddenly emerged, then proceeded to use her training to evade and take Steve down. Bucky gave a snort at watching him fall, earning him a shove from the object of his amusement. Then, he watched as the two of them collided, with Vic and Clint now laughing aloud. The others had probably been shown the clip numerous times by now, since they were only smiling.

"At least now we know Vic _has been_ paying attention with her training," Nat pointed out with a grin.

"That's _exactly_ what I said," Steve informed her.

* * *

During the discussion of the house and property, they were getting a much better understanding over everything that had gone into purchasing it. Pepper had told them that when Victoria had come to her with the idea of getting it, she had contacted Clint to find out what had been done to keep his own off of the grid. Pepper had then called Fury, who had actually given her a contact number after the incident last Christmas at the Gala. He passed along all the necessary information and instruction on how to keep the property's paper trail clean.

Besides the wooden fence surrounding the entire property, Victoria had informed them that there was a barbwire barricade just inside of the tree line, at ground level, partially covered to prevent it from being easily seen. Even if someone got over the fence, it would not be easy to traverse the perimeter.

"You're welcome!" Clint commented sarcastically from the screen, getting their attention.

"For what exactly?" Bucky asked.

"Who do you think I got to help me put that out? Clint _owed_ me _big time_ for helping with all that insulation under his house," Victoria said pointing at his image on the screen.

"Why did you even think of putting out barbwire?" Steve asked curious.

"She remembered one of my stories about a drop we did. The guerillas had put the stuff around their campsite and it gave us a fit trying to get past it," Wade told them. "Still have a few cut-marks noticeable."

The house alarm was the best that they could install, minus FRIDAY, and was on every entry point. It was linked to FRIDAY so that in case something happened, Tony and everyone at the Tower would be informed. But the AI was not actually accessible by voice command like at the Tower. Victoria had wanted more of a traditional home for them.

The only thing that he and Bucky decided needed to be done was some sort of video feed and motion detection on the perimeter. Tony said that before they left that afternoon for the house, that he would have wireless devices that could be mounted into the trees with a tablet to connect them.

"How about this?" Tony began with a glint in his eye. "I'll send one of the Iron Legion out there with you. You can set it on guard mode at night to walk the property while the three of you sleep. _If_ you actually do that sort of thing…"

"Ooo...that's a pretty _weak_ sex joke," Victoria told him, sounding disappointed, probably to annoy Tony. "I hope for _Pepper's_ sake, that only your _jokes_ are weak when it comes to _sex_."

"I'll have you know…" Tony began before Pepper wrapped both of her hands around his mouth to prevent any details from escaping and burning their ears and brains up with horrible visuals.

"Thanks for the offer, Tony. That would be a _big relief_ until we get used to being there," he told him, moving the topic back to the security that was going to keep Victoria safe.

The other thing that was agreed on was that once the Quinjet exited the platform, it should always head east before activating stealth mode, then it could make the course adjustment towards the house. They remembered Rumlow and Weiss having someone watching it last time, and there was a good chance he would do the same. It would also stay gone a minimum of two hours, unless it was necessary for an emergency to come back to the Tower. This would seem that the location was much further away than just the fifteen minutes flight time that it actually was.

By the time that they left later that afternoon, they had all the security measures packed and ready to be installed. Victoria had a week's worth of groceries delivered and Bucky had an extra arsenal packed so that weapons could be stashed in every room. He heard Victoria grumble about homes not needing that, but he had quieted her up with a couple of kisses. They even planned to purchase a small, more discrete used car to move around locally with, since her Jeep was pretty noticeable with a large dragon going down the side.

It looked like they were prepared to live in their new home. Hopefully everything went fine.

* * *

 **Sin's Castle** \- **Argentina  
Less Than An Hour Later**

"Ma'am, we have some footage from one of the surveillance camera set up to watch Stark Tower," Max Lohmer said coming to a stop next to the ledge of the indoor pool that he and Sin were currently relaxing in. Well… _making out in_ would be more accurate. He had just been planning to move on to the next step, if Max hadn't interrupted them. But, after learning how dedicated his entire family had been to HYDRA for generations, he could only slightly admire him. Max had, after all, set himself up with the job on the Raft for Sin so that he could keep an eye on him and make sure that none of the other guards got violent with him. "I thought that the two of you might find it interesting."

"What do you have?" Sin asked as she pushed off of him for a moment to rest her arms on the ledge.

Max bent down between them, holding a tablet where they could both see it. Hitting play, they watched as a door to the Avengers Tower's lobby opened, revealing Victoria, dressed very inappropriately for the weather, emerged, looked around, and then ran as fast as she could from the building. A few moments later, the good Captain and Asset emerged from the same door, obviously looking to try and find her. They talked for a moment before they then headed in the same direction as she had run away.

"That's her?" Sin asked, sliding her finger over the screen to replay her emergence onto the sidewalk.

"That's the _Bitch_ ," he answered as he watched her run again. He knew that Sin had watched the surveillance videos of the warehouse and penthouse, and he also knew the irritation in Sin's voice was due to his previous threats to her. She had not admitted to it but he knew that Sin was a bit jealous of Victoria. But now, he had finally met his soulmate, so revenge on the Bitch no longer held any sexual nature from him.

"Looks like she's starting to _not enjoy_ being with her soulmates," Sin said expanding the picture to see her face better. They could see that Victoria was not happy at all.

"They are probably driving her crazy. Keeping her locked in the Tower for her own protection, worried that I'm around every corner, just waiting to take her again, or even kill her."

"Let us know if there is anything else, Max," Sin waved her hand to dismiss Lohmer, and as he walked away, she reached over and took a hold of his arm, pulling herself back against him. He felt her legs lock around his waist, her body pressing hard against his groin, rubbing as they floated in the water.

"That's some impression you made on them," she said now rubbing her breasts against his chest.

"With the beating she took, and what would have happened to her before they got there, they have _plenty_ of reason to be scared for her."

"You do know that I am _not_ going to share you with her," Sin informed him, taking a hard bite on his right ear, making sure that he felt it. "You are mine. Torture her, beat her, but no fucking…that's what I'm for."

"Absolutely," he grinned, crushing his mouth onto hers. When they drew back, he gave a chuckle. "I'm not even on the same continent and they are tormenting her for me. I wonder how bad it will get until we are finally ready to deal with the three of them."

"My men arrived at the location this morning," Sin said reaching down to pull his swimming trunks off, exposing his hard waiting shaft. "Between packing the Chair up, getting it here, as well as having my technicians being property trained, we will be ready to go in less than two months."

"Maybe Victoria will have been driven crazy by the two of them before then, hopefully," he laughed as he pushed his finger inside of Sin, as she held on to the ledge behind him, grinding her hips against him.

"Are you sure about this guy you contacted to help out?" Sin asked as he slid her bikini bottoms out of the way. He then pushed himself inside of her, not wanting to wait any longer.

"Yeah…I went up against him once while still with SHIELD. Trust me, after what happened to his family, he has no love for the Avengers. With the gadgets that he can put together, he'll be a great benefit when it comes to taking them out."

* * *

**Koa 'Hale  
A Week Later**

At the end of their first week living at home, they were no closer to finding Rumlow than they had been the day after his escape. Steve was able to set up the office just how he liked it since he was the one who used a desk. Bucky tried to not do _any_ paperwork, passing it off to him instead, and Victoria preferred to sit on the couch between them on her laptop. As he looked out of the window after glancing at his phone and waiting to be distracted by it yet again, he kept thinking about how nice the past week had been overall.

They spent most of the days inside, either watching movies or shows, or making a long list of items that they wanted to get to personalize their new home. Victoria told that she had held off getting small personal items so that seeing something familiar wouldn't spoil the surprise when she brought them here. That was what the bedroom and bath upstairs was for. When he had finally seen the devil's head match holder, it explained the basic elusive comments that Victoria had made that day in the kitchen when they had accidentally seen it.

Out in the barn, he and Bucky had been surprised to find three dirt bikes ready to go with the first good melting of snow. Victoria had pointed out that there were already paths cut into the woods, looping all around the property from her, Tony, Pietro, Clint, and Natasha having fun for the past few months while working on the house. Then she had gotten the idea to set up a small race course off to one corner of the property. When Tony had found out that there would be an excavator on site to dig their own motocross track, she told them about how he had faked being sick for a mission so that he could come with her and play with the massive digging machine. He hadn't minded that Tony played hooky since Victoria had not been alone that time.

Victoria had brought in actual contractors for the large projects, such as the kitchen and bath remodels, but she had done the interior painting herself, as well as restoring the front doors. One of the upstairs' small bedrooms had been converted into their new large master closet. Another had been set up with a bed for any occasion when a guest or two needed to stay over, meaning Wade and Nat, while the third was left empty for future use. The basement was nothing more than an empty space with a concrete floor and stone walls. Bucky had decided that it would make a great place for a weapons locker and had been purchasing items to set it up the way he wanted. Victoria seemed fine with him doing so.

The countdown alarm on his phone finally went off again, so he hit snooze and picked up the small black, two button remote that Bucky had brought to him almost an hour ago. He had been given strict instructions to press the left button when the alarm beeped at him, so he went ahead and did so. The other button just said random and he was told not to mess with it. When he had asked what it was for, all he received was a, "Just do it, Punk," from Bucky, who had hurriedly left with a grin.

Now, dealing with this alarm every ten minutes was becoming an annoying distraction from finding nothing on Rumlow. He had known that the alarm was about to go off, and that was why he had started to watch the snow fall, waiting for it to happen.

Holding onto the remote, he walked around the downstairs, looking for Bucky to demand that he tell him this time why he needed to do this annoying job for him, but both him and Victoria were missing. Heading up the stairs, rounding the turn, he was met by Bucky who came from the master bedroom after hearing his footfalls on the wooden steps, shutting the door behind him.

"What are you doing in there?" he asked, noticing Bucky was still fully dressed and looking over at the closed door. "Where's Victoria?"

"Vic…she's fine," he answered with a devious grin plastered on his face. Taking another step up, Bucky moved to intercept him, stopping him from getting to the top of the stairs. "Anything on Rumlow?"

Steve narrowed his eyes as he was barely able to pick up a very low sound coming from the bedroom. Bucky's head scarcely turned so Steve knew that he had heard it to. He also noticed that Bucky's grin got wider.

Lifting the remote up so that Bucky could see it, he gave it a gentle toss toward the spare bedroom's door, in the opposite direction of their bedroom. Doing what he figured Bucky would do, he watched as Bucky made a stretching grab for the remote before it hit the wall or door, moving the devious soulmate out of his way. He used that distraction to get past him and open up the bedroom door.

Lying on the bed was Victoria. Her arms and legs were spread wide, towards the four corners of the bed's frame and held like that with the soft silk rope that Bucky had ordered from online. She was dressed in a black set of lingerie, a lacy strapless bra and matching panties, with stocking held up by garters. Over her eyes was a blindfold and a hot pink ball gag was in her mouth. The sound that he had heard was from her loud moans as her body squirmed erotically on the bed, as if she were being aroused.

"Is there something you need to tell me?" Steve asked as he moved further into the room, not to help free her, but to watch the show that Bucky had been enjoying by himself.

"She can't hear us either," he said coming to stand next to him. He gave him a look that he knew meant he wanted more detail. "Foam earplugs. They block out sound."

"And exactly _why_ is Victoria like this?" he asked moving to sit in the chair that Bucky had turned so that it faced the bed. He noticed that she suddenly quieted down, her swift breaths starting to slow down.

"It's her punishment for running from the Tower, knocking you in the back, _and_ _especially_ giving Tony blackmail on us," Bucky said taking a seat on the armrest next to him.

"So, what is the remote for?" Steve asked as he watched Victoria testing the bonds.

"Here," he said offering it back to him.

Taking it, he gave the same button a press, and saw an immediate reaction. Victoria started to squirm on the bed again. Moaning lovely sounds from behind the gag.

"Are you telling me you found another toy?" he sighed.

"Oh, yes…" Bucky smiled as he watched Victoria start to gyrate her hips. "Someone came up with a remote control vibrator. Every time you've pressed that button, it's set to turn on for a random time between three and seven minutes."

"But I've been pressing the button every ten minutes for almost an hour," Steve pointed out, which only got him a wider smile from Bucky.

"Yeah…you've been driving Vic crazy."

"And she agreed to this?"

"Yep. The only stipulation was that once you got curious enough to find out what the remote did, that we would have to finally have to let her orgasm. By the way, she's been on the edge since the second pressing."

"The two of you and your games…"

" _Three_ …you _know_ that you are _always_ right there with us…"

Steve smiled knowing that Bucky was right, then stood up and went to sit on the bed next to Victoria. She felt the mattress move as she turned her head in his direction. He decided to let her know it was him. Bucky may like to do his finger down her spine, but he always liked rubbing his finger over her soulmark. As she felt the familiar gesture, he saw her visibly relax a bit, probably knowing that she was about to have the sexual torment ended.

Running his hand down her chest, he only stopped once he reached the outside of her panties. He could feel the slight vibration coming from the device stimulating her.

"Interesting…isn't it?" Bucky asked coming to sit on her left side.

"Get her other leg while I get this one," he grinned, bending over to start releasing her ankles.

Once her legs were free, he hastily removed his clothes before moving onto the bed just between her now partially closed legs. Laying down on the bed, he gripped the top of her panties in his hand, and slowly pulled them down, taking the vibrating item with them. Tossing them somewhere to the side, he then slid a bit higher on the bed, pushing her legs back wider with his hands. Bucky moved to sit closer to her head, watching the show once again.

"Since you've been enjoying this for the past hour, I'm going to reap the benefits," Steve sternly told him, but Bucky didn't complain. Giving between her legs a long steady blowing breath, he watched as her hips started to gyrate from knowing what his tongue was about to do.

* * *

**Avengers Tower  
January 16**

As the morning alarm went off at seven a.m., Steve and Bucky both woke with a start, turning to automatically look at Vic. She had not stirred at all from the noise, or their movements. He didn't know if he should be happy or sad. Her coma day was here again.

They had arrived back at the Tower yesterday afternoon after having been at their house for just over two weeks now. It had taken a bit of convincing to get Vic to agree, but they finally managed to get her to come here for today as opposed to staying at home. They had both wanted the extra security that the Tower would offer since she would be so vulnerable for the next twenty-four hours.

At least this time, they remembered about it happening, knew what to expect, and had a good idea as to _when_ it was going to happen. It looked like FRIDAY had been correct last year as to the first new moon after the New Year started as being the target date.

"I'll go put the dish in the oven," Steve said giving Vic a kiss on the forehead before getting out of bed.

She had insisted on making them breakfast, some kind of casserole with sausage, eggs, cheese, and bread in it. They had already placed their orders for lunch and dinner to be delivered later. The best improvement was the large screen television now sitting on the dresser at the foot of the bed so that they could watch something today as they kept close to her.

"Nat paged while I was in the kitchen. She and Wade wanted to know if Victoria was asleep and I let them know that it was time."

"It doesn't seem like an entire year already," Bucky said moving some loose hairs from around her face out of the way. "I'm glad that we were finally able to convince Vic to come on her own."

"Did you ever tell her that we were planning on bringing her anyways once she was asleep if we _had_ stayed at home?" Steve asked getting back into the bed, and placing a timer on his phone for the oven.

"Do you think I'm _actually_ crazy?"

"Just curious."

"I really don't like this happening with Rumlow out there," Bucky told him, leaning back down onto his arm so he could place his left arm around her waist.

"At least he has no idea about _this_ happening to her. He probably doesn't even understand what happened to her that morning when she woke up healed," Steve said laying back down also. "He was so mad, I wonder if he even noticed the bruises were gone? Or did he think she had just used makeup?"

"You know what I wonder…how can people as blood thirsty as the two of them are stay invisible for so long?"

"Maybe they _are_ planning something," Steve unfortunately pointed out. "Remember how quiet it got the months before he took Victoria. And then we got that _great tip_ that turned out to be a decoy. We need to be careful this time. No running off at the first sighting without a bit more planning."

"We will be careful. There is _no way_ that bastard is laying his hands on Vic again."


	87. Intimidation Works Great

**Sin's Castle - Argentina  
** **Early April**

"Why the hell can _nobody_ around here find any _fucking_ trace of that _Bitch_?" Rumlow bellowed towards the gathered HYDRA agents in the courtyard of Sin's castle. For the past seven weeks, they'd had the Chair and Faustus Machine up and ready to go. The only thing missing were the humans to go inside of them.

The last known sighting of his Asset, the Captain, and the Bitch was the video taken a week after Christmas, when Victoria had run from the Tower. After that, the three of them had somehow managed to drop out of sight entirely. There had been no lead for them to follow to whatever location that they had stashed their soulmate away in.

All of the slacker agents before him looked nervous. The remaining few of his, that he had managed to find upon his breakout, had been brought here to work with Sin's. They were probably the ones who had warned the others about his temper.

"We have had surveillance on the Tower for months, but Victoria Roth has not been spotted at that location. And if she is there, then she has not left it through any of the entrances being watched," the agent in charge of putting together the Avengers Tower reports told him. "Either they have a secret entrance, or she has been taken to another location we are unaware of. And even with their Quinjet leaving and arriving numerous times during that period, there have been no confirmed sighting of her."

Rumlow stomped away, unfortunately knowing that the agent was probably right. After watching that video of Victoria freaking out after only a week, there was no way that she would allow herself to stay locked up inside of that place for that long without being allowed outside.

"Maybe we need to handle this another way," Sin's voice was behind him now. Seconds later, he felt her hand on his shoulder, using it to turn him around to face the agents once again. "It seems that the Asset and Rogers have stashed the Bitch somewhere. So, since we are not able to go to her, how about we figure out a way to make _them_ come to _us_?"

He felt the smile creep across his face, thinking of tricking them into bringing her to a location where they could capture her. With a grin, he asked, "Do you have something in particular in mind?"

Sin then put her arm around his and started to lead him away from the assembled agents. With a flippant wave over her shoulder, she dismissed the assembly so that they would have a bit of privacy. He heard the scurrying of numerous boots across the stone behind them.

"I know that you want to hurt that Bitch _very_ much," Sin started while running her hand over his soulmark, making him a bit uneasy already with how she said that, "but, it is _Captain America_ that _I_ have been wanting to hurt for the past _seventy years_."

"Taking her _would_ hurt him."

"But _not enough_ , I think," she said as they started to circle the courtyard. "I've been wondering about a way to hurt _her_ instead. Isn't that what you wanted? And I have even thought of someone who could help bring them out of hiding, giving us a chance to get at them."

Rumlow stopped walking and turned to look at Sin. So far, she had not steered him wrong with anything they had planned. Taking a breath, he told her, "Tell me what you want to do."

Sin gave him a wicked smile before leaning over and giving him a hard kiss.

* * *

Arriving home to an empty dark house, Sectary Ross put his briefcase down at the entrance to his home office. He was quickly beginning to get sick of this job. He had spent the better part of today dealing with the World Security Council wanting to know what he was doing, personally, to get his escaped prisoner back. No matter how many times, and in numerous different ways, he had informed them that he not only had the Avengers working on the situation, but his own numerous resources were actively looking, they had not been satisfied.

At one point, he had actually asked them if they expected _him_ to get out into the field and track the psychotic man down. They had only demanded that he double his efforts, while not actually answering his question.

Moving into the kitchen to try and scrape together something to eat as a late meal, he froze as he opened up the refrigerator. Inside of it was a note saying: Look behind you.

Turning around slowly, he was greeted by the smiling face of Sin and the masked face of Crossbones, both standing in his kitchen, both with their weapons drawn and aimed directly at him. The overhead lights then turned on, revealing Max Lohmer who had helped Rumlow escape the Raft, a mystery figure aiming something at him, and five more HYDRA agents, that were further back in the dark den, where he had not been able to see them.

"I've spent all day getting yelled at for not knowing where you were, and now, here you are, standing in my damn kitchen," he told the masked face angrily.

"I'm like a hemorrhoid that just pops up one day, being a pain in the ass," Rumlow told him.

Ross was sure that he was grinning under that horrible mask.

"What do you want, Rumlow?" he decided to ask. Snidely requesting, "Here to turn yourselves in?"

"Definitely not. In fact, we need _your_ help," Sin then informed him with a wicked grin.

"Why the _hell_ would you think that I would _ever_ help the two of you with _anything_?"

"Because, it's your job to keep the good citizen of America _safe_. And if you _don't_ help us, then a _lot_ of them are going to _die_ ," Rumlow answered, lowering his guns a bit.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"I've had my men set up a couple of bombs across New York City, all in different _public_ locations. If you don't agree to help us, then we will shoot you right now, and then tomorrow, when there would be the _greatest_ number of casualties, the bombs will go off," Sin informed him with a sinister smile. He knew that between the two of them, that they would absolutely not have qualms about doing what they had just threatened. It was his job to keep the people safe. And, he already figured that he knew _what_ they needed his help with.

"What do you want?"

Rumlow then removed his helmet, telling him with a grin, "We want _you_ to get Captain America, the Asset, _and_ that Bitch of theirs back into the city for a couple of days."

"They have been in hiding for too long, and now, it's time for them to emerge from whatever _hole_ they have disappeared into," Sin said, then tiling her head while staring at him. Pointing her gun a bit higher towards his head, she asked, "You wouldn't, by chance, already know exactly _where_ it is that they have been hiding?"

"No," he told them honestly. "Rogers has only been contacting me, or others in my office, through a secured channel during video conferences for the past few months."

"That's a shame," Sin then said, lowering her gun a bit.

"Then what we are going to need _you_ do to is contact him, and have Rogers come back into the city for a face-to-face meeting. You can use any excuse that you think would work, but you will have to make sure that he knows that this is not going to be a few minutes. I doubt that he would leave the Asset and Victoria _alone_ for multiple days _wherever_ they are while he is requested to be somewhere by the Secretary of State," Rumlow pointed out.

Ross thought about what they were requesting, and he knew from what he had heard from his own staff members, that they were probably right with their assumptions about the Captain not leaving them alone. After the hellacious meeting that he'd had today, it would give him the perfect reason for requesting his presence. Thinking about it, he could easily set up a meeting between the different multiple departments working of find the pair standing in his own damn kitchen.

He had considered something like this as a possibility months ago, right after Rumlow had escaped. There was no way he was going to allow multiple innocent people to be killed when he could prevent it by just turning over one person. Ross had no qualms about giving Victoria Roth to Rumlow and Sin.

"I think that I can work with your request, as long as I have a _guarantee_ that no _innocent_ lives will be lost…that you will _not_ set off any sort of bombs in the city," he told them.

Seeing the evil twin smiles at hearing his words, he almost started to feel a bit of regret for giving into the demand…or maybe that was just a hunger pain.

* * *

**Koa 'Hale  
The Next Day**

The past three months living at their new home had been wonderful. They had each had some input into the decorations around the house, with Bucky choosing items in which he could hide guns, like hollowed-out books, wooden boxes, decorative couch pillows with secret pockets (where had he actually found those?). So now, their house really did feel like a home.

Victoria has been safe, there was not a single incident that had worried them, and for the most part, they had just lived as a family, for the first time ever. There were no missions that they had been a necessity to gone on, allowing Clint, Pietro, and Wanda, to take their places with the team. Sam had even been able to recruit a new guy, Scott Lang, to help out on occasions.

Tony had requested that the group evaluate a new possible recruit named Peter Parker, who had been running around New York fighting street criminals, but when everyone learned that he was only a teenager, a unanimous vote stated that he was too young for their line of work, even given the incredible powers that he had. But they had agreed that Peter could work with them in the training room, to help him learn how to use his powers with a team until he was old enough to join them.

But that did not mean that Steve hadn't been trying to do his part in finally capturing Rumlow. Working on his computer, with FRIDAY helping him go over files and incidents to see if he had a hand in them, Steve was becoming disheartened a bit every day at not being able to take care of their greatest threat.

But the fact that he was now still sitting and being lectured about him needing to actually _do_ something, was becoming very irritating very quickly.

"Yes, Secretary Ross. I can be back in New York by tomorrow morning for this meeting," Steve told the scowling face on the screen. He hated the idea of actually leaving home, but it had been months that all of the different departments, as well as the Avengers, had been looking for Rumlow and Sin with no luck. Maybe a physical meeting between all of them would help them come up with some new tactic of finding them.

"Good, then I will expect you be at the Javits Federal Building by nine o'clock for this meeting. I want all possible departments in on this, working to get Rumlow and Sin off of the streets as soon as possible. The World Security Council has been breathing down my neck since Christmas, so now, I'm going to be doing the same to everyone. Expect to be here for a couple of days, at least, if not longer."

"Yes, Sir," Steve said as the screen then went dark.

Taking a deep breath, he allowed his shoulder to finally drop from the stiff posture that he'd had them in for the past ten minutes while Ross practically yelled at him. He rubbed his hands over his bearded face while knowing that he had been doing everything he could to find Rumlow with the information that he had been given. None of the other agencies looking for him had a clue either, but somehow he felt that Ross considered it Steve's _personal fault_ that he had not been recaptured.

" _That_ went well," Victoria's sarcastic voice said from the hallway leading to the small library. Spinning around in the antique wooden office chair that they had found a few weeks back at a local antiques mall, he saw her leaning on the door frame with her arms crossed. Even though she was smiling at him, he could tell that she was not actually happy.

Holding out his hand for her, she walked over and sat down in his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck before giving him a long kiss. He liked the way her hand began to stroke through his slightly longer hair. Why had Bucky not told him it felt so nice? They both had agreed that since the facial hair had worked as a disguise on their camping trip, that while laying low here that growing them out again would help hide them a bit more.

"At least I feel better now," he smiled at her once they broke apart. "You do know that I'll have to shave and groom for this meeting?"

He liked the small frown that appeared on Victoria's face at hearing that.

"So, feel like heading into the city with me for a few days while we see if this meeting _actually_ accomplishes anything?" he asked her, running his finger over her pouty lip.

"Sure, maybe we could even go out one night and do something. _Having date nights be nothing but sex, sex, sex, over and over again, is getting boring_!" Victoria said that last part in just a bit louder tone, most likely on purpose as…

"I heard that!" Bucky screamed from somewhere else in the house.

"I can have FRIDAY see if there is a play or musical that we can go to and get us tickets," he told her with a kiss as she started to rise out of his lap.

"Yes, do that," Victoria grinned while steadily moving towards the front door, trying to get a head start, as he heard the sound of Bucky's footsteps getting louder. He then watched as she ran through the front door and across the porch, jumping over the railing to the ground close to where she had her dirt bike parked after having ridden it earlier this morning.

Bucky came to a halt in the hallway for as long as it took to open the front door and ask him, "Aren't you going to get in on this?"

"Nope, some of us actually have work to do," he told him with a smile, turning back to the computer screen.

"No! You don't!" Bucky was stomping over towards him. Grabbing a hold of his shirt's collar, he pulled Steve up out of the chair and towards the front door. "That why we're having to head to the city. Right now…it's playtime!"

While Bucky had been grabbing him, they'd heard the sound of Victoria starting up the dirt bike to try and make her get away. Standing on the front porch, they listened as she went down the side of the house, heading for either the woods or dirt track, but there was no way she was actually losing them, she was only just delaying the inevitable.

"Come on, Punk. I'll hold Vic down while you strip her. I know how much you like doing that," Bucky grinned while patting his back before he leapt off the porch and took off running after Victoria. The wide smile on Steve's face made his cheeks slightly ache as he also took off running after the two of them, thinking that this was the life he had always dreamed of having as a young boy. Two soulmates, all together, healthy and happy.

Deciding as he ran, he would definitely work with FRIDAY later to see if there was anything happening over the next few days that they could do for date night…not that this wasn't just as much fun.

* * *

 **New York City**  
**Two Days Later**

"We've been at this for nine hours. Let's call it a night," Thompson said over the large conference table at the assembled group. Steve totally agreed with him. "This is the same information we had yesterday. Nothing new has come in."

"I agree," Steve told everyone. The only person who did not look pleased was Secretary Ross. He had been at the meetings for the past two days on and off, depending on if he had other business to attend to, but a large portion of his day was spent here.

"Fine, but I expect everyone back here tomorrow, eight a.m. sharp," Ross stated firmly.

The entire table then started to pack up their laptops and cellphones, while Steve stacked his notebooks into a pile, and collected his scattered pens and pencils from around his sitting area. He had gotten a couple of strange looks yesterday at using ' _primitive technology_ ' but it was what worked for him during the war, and it would be good enough for right now. He didn't mind using his own laptop at home, but with the other twelve people all having them, he felt it was a waste to even pull his from the bag at his feet.

Besides, he couldn't doodle on a computer the way he could with paper, even with the program Victoria had put on his laptop.

"So, Rogers, doing anything while you are in town?" Ross asked as he passed his own laptop back to the quite shadowy male assistant that was constantly at his beck and call mere feet away.

"Yes, Sir. Victoria and I are going to see an opera tomorrow night, so if we could have tomorrow session not run this long, that would be great," Steve told him, which seemed to ease Ross' stance some.

"It does seem that even being together working on this, that we are collectively getting _nowhere_ ," Ross grumbled.

"If they would just get spotted one time, that might be all that it would take to bring them down," he told him, hoping to make him a bit happier.

"We can only hope that happens _before_ they start any form of terrorist activities," Ross said glaring at his assistant, handing him a stack of notes. "Well, see you in the morning, Rogers."

"Good night, Sir."

* * *

"Was that sufficient?" Ross asked his assistant once they had reached the private office that Ross had been using since they had arrived in New York.

"That was perfect, Rossie. Especially since it may just be the two of them," Rumlow grinned through the Nano mask at him. Acting as this jackass' personal assistant and body guard for the past two days had finally paid off. Being so close to Rogers, and not doing anything, like putting a bullet into his brain, had been nerve wracking. "Now, in the morning, you will make your excuses for not being able to attend tomorrow's session. Our agents will guard you at your house until the rest of our plan is completed, and then you will be allowed to go on your merry fucking way."

"Just make sure you keep your end of the bargain, Rumlow. _No_ civilian casualties, only Victoria," Ross said, pointing a finger at his chest, trying to seem intimidating.

"No casualties, but one," he smirked at the asshole while wording his statement carefully. Even though they had never stated _who_ they were after, Ross had just _assumed_ it to be Victoria.

The idea that Sin had come up with had been _even better_ than his original one of taking, torturing, and then killing the Bitch...taping it for her soulmates of course. But Ross didn't need to know any more about what was going to happen. If he actually suspected what they were really going to do, he may just try and stop them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello to everyone out there. Thanks for all the reviews, I'm glad you still like the story...because come the next chapter, you might be mad at me. Have you taken a guess as to what's about to happen? Scream and rant at me if you need to vent, I'll understand. The next few chapters will be a bit darker.


	88. A Night at the Opera

**The Next Evening**

"Next time, I'll _make_ you come with us," Victoria was teasing Bucky as she put her coat on over the sleek, black evening gown.

"You don't even _want_ to know how much of a _bribe_ it would take to get me to sit through _another_ opera," Bucky told her as he lay reclining on the couch in their Tower apartment. He had flat out refused to go with him and Victoria when they decided to see ' _Oedipus Rex'_ in French as a date night option. Bucky had fallen asleep during the last two opera that Victoria had dragged him to last year. Steve didn't mind at all about getting her for himself for the evening. Not with that dress on.

"We'll see you in a couple of hours," Steve told him as he waved his hand over his shoulder while yelling at the umpire on the screen, calling him a blind bat. It seemed like some things would never change no matter how much time had passed.

FRIDAY had gotten them seats in the back of the orchestra section in the center so they had a great view of the stage without craning their necks having to look up the entire show. As the curtain rose, the music started and the actors appeared, he reached over and took Victoria's hand in his as she then leaned over a bit, resting her arm against his.

As the curtain fell to signify the end of the first act, Steve leaned over and gave Victoria a kiss on the cheek. Half of the opera house attendees were already standing.

"I need to run to the men's room," he whispered to her.

"You better hurry then, there's a line forming," she said pointing at the moving loud crowd heading up the side isles.

"I'd feel better if you came with me," Steve said looking around.

"And lurk outside of a stinky bathroom…no way," she said with a disgusted look on her face. "I'll stay right here until you get back."

"Alright. I'll be as quick as I can," he said giving her a chaste kiss on the lips as he stood and headed down the row to the isle.

There indeed was a line already waiting but he noticed a long time ago that a men's line moved much quicker than a woman's bathroom line. After washing his hands, he was reaching over for a paper towel when he heard a voice from next to him.

"Captain Rogers."

Turning around to see who the male voice belong to, he saw an unfamiliar man standing next to him. He was dressed in a tuxedo, as were most of the male attendees for tonight's performance. He had a smile on his face, and an air of confidence about him.

"Yes, can I help you?"

"My business partners would like to have a word with you," he said with a smile. Steve heard a eastern European accent in his voice.

"I'm afraid that now is not the time. If you will excuse me," Steve said taking a step to the side.

"Maybe this will change your mind," the man said pulling a cellphone out of his pocket.

When he turned the screen so that he could see it, there was a live video feed of Victoria sitting in her seat reading the program, taken from somewhere up high overhead near the ceiling. His blood ran cold. Looking up at the man, he was smiling at him, knowing that he now had Steve's full attention.

"What do you want?"

"Please, follow me. Oh, and obviously, do not try anything," the man explained exiting the mostly empty restroom. None of the other patrons had even noticed the exchange.

Staying close to the man, he led him up a couple of flights of stairs to the highest level towards the private boxes. As they reached their destination, he saw that the box had two other occupants sitting in it. It was the one with bright red hair that got his attention.

"Please, have a seat," the man said, indicating the empty chair against the wall behind Sin. Looking over at the other occupant, he was surprised by the appearance of Rumlow. His face showed none of the burn marks that it usually carried. He looked just like he had during his time with SHIELD. Steve moved over to take the far seat which boxed him in as the man took the one behind Rumlow.

"This has to be the worst night of my life," Sin said casually throwing her arm over the back of her chair. "How can you stand to listen to this crap?"

"What do you want?" he repeated his question now looking between Rumlow and Sin.

"Right to the point, Cap," Rumlow replied with a smirk. "First, the good stuff. We have a man positioned with a sniper rifle aimed right at your Bitch's chest. One false move by you and…bang," Rumlow said with a sneer.

"You, handsome, are going to voluntarily come with us," Sin then said running her hand over his knees, which he pulled back from as he felt the touch.

"As you can see," Rumlow said pointing down to the orchestra area where Victoria was, "the Bitch is being delivered a package with instruction to open it at the start of the next act. That way she doesn't cause a scene of her own."

"Stop calling Victoria that!" he growled out with his teeth clenched shut.

Reaching over and digging her nails painfully into his leg around his knee, Sin said, "My man will call her _anything_ he want to."

He had no idea how to get out of this situation with the gunman aiming at Victoria. With his first move, she would be shot before he could get to her. She had no idea the danger she was currently in. Rumlow then got his attention back to him.

"What we need you to do is this…the _Bitch_ is getting an earcom in the envelope with instruction to put it in. When she does, you will tell her to stay calm and not move or say anything, then we will give her further instructions."

"Our man is listening in on this conversation and if you don't do exactly that, or try to give her a warning in any way… _bang_ ," Sin grinned at him while making a gun sign with her finger in Victoria's direction to prove the point.

* * *

Vic saw the usher making his way down the row towards her with a small envelope. It didn't worry her at first but she would have thought that Steve would have been back here by now. The usher came to a stop next to her.

"Miss Victoria Roth?" he questioned.

"Yes," she hesitantly confirmed.

"A gentleman requested that I give this to you," he said handing her the package before turning around and moving away.

Looking around one more time for Steve, she then saw the writing on the front instructing her to wait until the performance restarted. Feeling the envelope, she found that it contained a very small single item. She sat nervously for the next three minutes until the lights dimmed, curtain started rise, and Steve didn't return.

Ripping open the envelope's end, she allowed the item to drop into her hand…an earcom. Staring at the familiar object, she placed it in her ear as she wondered if this was just another playtime game.

"Victoria," Steve's calm voice sounded in her ear. Hearing him, she felt some of the tension in her body ease. "Do not say anything. Do not move. I can see you. Nod if you understand."

She slowly nodded her head, trying to glance around to see where he was. There was a noise in her ear for a moment.

"Hello, Bitch," an unfortunately familiar voice said with a chuckle that made her blood run cold. Rumlow was here, and he was with Steve. "Look down at that precious soulmark of yours."

Vic carefully glanced down and easily spotted wanted Rumlow wanted her to see. There was a red laser targeting dot, the kind snipers used, and it was aimed directly at her chest.

"Now, you are _not_ going to move from that spot and you will _not_ cause a scene. Otherwise, I'll have a bullet put in _you_ , and then another in your _precious_ Captain's head. Nod that you understand _that_."

Vic nodded her head slowly, starting to panic a bit.

"To show you how serious I am…" Rumlow said as she felt a sudden thump on her seat. Looking at where it came from, she saw the bullet hole right next to her right thigh. The sniper had taken a warning shot. There was an angry voice sounding from far away in her ear, probably Steve at what had just happened.

"Now…this is your first lesson in pain…the _Pain of Loss_ ," she heard Rumlow chuckle after saying that, as well as another nearby giving a gentler laugh, a feminine sound…Sin. "The Captain is coming with us!"

Hearing that phrase, she began to shake her head in denial of that. They couldn't take Steve…they were supposed to take her.

"Oh, don't worry…we'll take good care of him…that is, unless you don't do as you are about to be instructed. If you so much as look like you are trying to move or contact anyone before the fat ladies finish singing, then plan on an open coffin funeral for yourself."

Vic could feel the tears starting to well up in her eyes. She could hear mumbling in the earcom for a few moments.

"Victoria," Steve's calm but firm voice appeared. "Please listen to me carefully. I need you to be safe...so I am going to go with Rumlow. You _will_ stay seated. No moving, and no outside communications like they requested until the performance is over. The sniper will be watching you until it is…then you can move and leave. Place your hands on the armrests and do not move them. Promise me that you will listen to me. Whisper it."

"Promise," she very lowly whispered, not disturbing the lady on her left at all. She put her arms where she was instructed.

"I lov…" Steve's voice was cut off before he could finish, causing the tears to start to run down her cheeks.

* * *

"How fucking sweet," Sin chuckled as she looked down at Victoria who was sitting stiffly in her seat.

"Pass over your cellphone and any other items or equipment you have," the man next to him requested. Steve then took out his cellphone and wallet handing it to him. If it had been Bucky, there would have been a lot more items to pass over, but he never cared to carry the extra equipment. The man then casually tossed them underneath his chair onto the floor.

"Time to go, Captain," Rumlow said standing up and offering Sin his hand.

Standing up, Steve watched Victoria the entire time they were leaving the box, hoping that she did as he instructed, keeping herself safe so that she was there for when he made it back to her. They led him through the empty hallway towards an emergency exit door. Instead of heading down, they went up, towards the roof. Reaching it, he found that they had the same jet from the Raft escape landed and waiting for them.

"Rumlow," he said getting his attention, "I want you to guarantee me that Victoria will not be harmed, that your man will _not_ shoot her because you feel like it. Guarantee me that and I will not give you any problems."

Hearing that, Sin walked over to him and gave him a punch to the face.

"You will _not_ give us any problems at all, even without that stupid _guarantee_. The only way that _Bitch_ will be injured is if she doesn't follow _your_ instructions," Sin told him as she smiled at him. "Now, get on the _fucking_ Viper."

Rumlow just smiled as he took the abuse from her, not wanting to put Victoria in any more danger than she already was. He watched as Rumlow then reached up to his face, pulling away the Nano mask he was wearing to look like his old self. With that technology, Rumlow could hide in plain sight. They had no idea that he was in possession of it. He must have taken it with the fall of SHIELD.

"Have a seat, Captain," Rumlow then smiled at him.

Holding his tongue for Victoria's sake and sitting down inside, the man who had first approached him grabbed a pair of specialty cuffs from a spare bench. They were the same kind that Rumlow had put on him in D.C. As they locked into place, he didn't care about what the three of them were discussing as the ramp closed up, sealing him inside and away from Victoria.

They never saw something like this coming. The entire group had been so sure of an upfront firefight. Not a quiet kidnapping, especially of him and not Victoria. He was supposed to be her guardian, not the one needing rescuing.

As the jet Sin had called a Viper took off, he wondered where they were taking him. It had to be wherever they had been holed up for over the past four months. Rumlow only had Victoria in his clutches for part of a day, but there were no clues for him to have tried to give her. How long would it take them to find him? They had not been able to track the Viper's route after leaving the Raft…and they would probably not be able to track it now.

* * *

Vic let the tears fall after Steve's voice had been cut off from her. How could he be gone? How could he make her give that stupid promise? Now, he was in Rumlow and Sin's custody. It was not supposed to happen this way! They were supposed to come after her! That's what all that stupid, useless training had been for. But now, it had all been for nothing.

As the opera continued, she ducked her head and kept a watch on the single red dot that was aimed at her chest. The sniper was still there, waiting for her to disobey Steve's promise. Rumlow and Sin had no idea of the meaning behind it, probably thinking that it was just a silly bit of wording, but over the past year, she had never broken a single one. Her warriors would only use them when necessary, but they had never before been used to safeguard her in such a way.

This time it meant her life.

Needing something to do, her eyes began to roam over the high balconies, as well as upper stage and ceiling rafters for any sign of where the sniper may be perched. It wasn't like she could do anything about it, but when she could finally move…what? She didn't have a weapon on her. Even if she knew where the sniper was, by the time she could get to there, he would have been gone, blending in with the exiting crowd. All she could do was sit and wait.

The moment that the audience started to rise and clap for the actors and actresses, the red dot disappeared. She had never been able to find his perch for the longest stretch of time in her entire life. Grabbing for her small handbag, she watched as the rows quickly emptied. Hitting Bucky's cellphone on speed dial, she started to stomp her foot, as she waited for three very long seconds for him to pick up.

" _Hey there_ ," his voice had never sounded so good, and happy, with the sounds of baseball announcers in the background. He was still safe at home, where they had left him.

"Buck!" she managed to get out before she lost it, starting to cry again. She could hear him calling her name, loudly and demanding for a few seconds before she could do anything about it. "Opera house…now!"

* * *

As he jumped up from the couch, he heard Vic telling him that to get to the opera house immediately, but something big was wrong. He could hear her crying, but she did not answer him at first.

"FRIDAY, page everyone…we have an emergency! Have everyone meet at the Quinjet now!" he said getting into the elevator and heading up. Tony, Nat, and Wade were the only ones here right now. But hopefully they could take care of whatever problem had Vic so upset. It could only be Rumlow. That brought a chill to his bones.

"Vic, I need you to tell me if you are injured," he calmly demanded into the cellphone.

" _No_ …" she said between her sobs. At least he felt a bit better hearing that.

"Vic, where is Steve?" he then asked.

" _Gone_ ," she simply said.

What the hell did she mean 'gone'? Why would Steve just leave Vic stranded on a date? Fuck…she didn't mean gone as in dead, did she?

"We're coming, Vic," he said not knowing what else to say to comfort her right now. What had happened?

Stepping into the mission prep area, he went over to his cubby and grabbed a gun holster, putting the phone between his shoulder and head, to hold it in place. Wrapping the holster around his chest, he put another one on his waist. As its buckle clicked closed, Nat and Wade appeared from the stairs next to the elevator. It must have been quicker since he had it occupied. Vic was still crying on the phone, but other than the sound of her misery, the background was quiet…no gunfire, no sound of a fight…nothing.

"Something wrong with Vic and Steve," he said loading the empty holster with guns, checking the magazines to make sure they are loaded. "Wade, you need to put us down on the street out front of the Metropolitan Opera House."

"I'm on it," he said running up the ramp to get the Quinjet started.

"What do you know?" Nat asked grabbing her Widow Bites and guns.

"Vic's crying on the phone, saying Steve's gone," he spit out moving toward the Quinjet. "Where the hell is Tony?"

"Put your earcom in," Nat told him as he grabbed one from his pants' pocket he kept for emergencies like this, and then promptly forgot about.

" _About time_ ," Tony's voice said. " _I'm already in my suit, heading for the Met. I heard you talking with Wade_."

"Tony, I don't know exactly what we are walking into," Bucky said as Nat came up the ramp and closed it behind her.

" _I can handle anything…alright, maybe not anything, but fat ladies singing…that I can do_ ," Tony joked.

"Tony!" Bucky growled as the Quinjet reached the end of the launch ramp. He couldn't handle joking about anything right now.

The flight would take less than two minutes, a lot shorter of a time than driving would have been, but even those two minutes were too long for him. He held to phone to his ear the entire time, just listening to quiet sobs.

"Vic, we are on the way. We'll be there in no time," he told her wishing that she would just talk with him, tell him what was happening. "Are there hostiles in the area?"

" _No…it's not 'Hound Dog'_ ," he heard her say, falling back on Wade's training a bit. So, she was alone, no Steve and no hostiles.

As they landed, with a lot of confused well-dress people pouring out of the building in front of them, they all ran towards it. None of the other people seemed alarmed about anything as they exited the building. Whatever had happened, it had not disturbed them.

"Vic, where are you?" he asked entering the door. Tony was up at the top of the stairs already moving toward the interior.

" _Orchestra section_ ," she told him, so he called it out for the rest to know where to go.

Running up the stairs, as he went through the doors, he saw Tony flying over the rows of chairs, already having found where Vic was. He landed next to her in the row as she stood up and turned to look at him across the chairs, her face red with streaks of tears running down it. He and Nat were running to her as quickly as they could.

"Vic, what happened? Where is Steve?" he asked as he worked his way down the aisle towards her.

"Rumlow…he was here. He took Steve," she said barely able to stop herself from losing again.

"FRIDAY, do a scan of this entire building," Tony said from her other side.

"They're gone by now," she said as she took a step towards him, laying her forehead on his chest. "I'm sorry. He made me promise."

"What?" he asked, not understanding her meaning.

"Steve gave me instructions. Then he made me promise to obey them."

"Why would he do that?" Bucky angrily asked.

"Because of the sniper who had a lock on me," she said, making his blood run cold.

"Vic, can you start from the beginning?" Nat then asked as Wade made it to their group, a row over as to not crowd them.

They all calmly listened as Vic told them of Steve leaving for the restroom and never returning, then receiving the envelope, and finding the earcom. At that time, she pulled it from her ear, handing it to Tony, who began to run a trace on the frequency. When she told them of the sniper, she turned and pointed at the seat she had been in. They all looked at the bullet's hole in it, so close to where her leg would have been.

"Rumlow said that this was _my_ first lesson in pain…the _Pain of Loss_ ," Vic coldly stated. He could hear it in her voice. Vic was starting to blame herself for what had happened to Steve.

"Vic, listen to me…everything is going to be fine," he said lifting her chin so that she had to look at him. "We are going to find Steve and get him back. That Punk can take care of himself."


	89. The World Crashes Down

**New York City  
Later That Night**

Vic wasn't sure how long she had been sitting on the floor of her shower stall at the Tower, but when she lifted her hand up, she saw that the tips of her fingers were prunes. The hot water kept raining down on her, but she barely felt it. Her entire body felt cold. Steve was gone. Her mind kept repeating the same line over and over… _it was supposed to have been her_. No matter what Bucky or the others said, it was her fault!

It was her fault they had gone to the opera. Steve had just wanted a date night. He would have been happy if she had just suggested a picnic on the roof, but no. She had chosen for them to leave the protection of the Tower, and go out in public. Where Rumlow had been able to take Steve without a single shot or punch being given, all because he had been scared for her. She had gone from bargaining chip to leverage.

The others had tried to comfort her at first before moving on to trying to find out what exactly happened with Steve. Tony and Nat had gone to the Opera House's security office, partially explaining that there had been an incident and they needed access to their footage of tonight's house footage. They did not state that Captain America had been kidnapped. That would have brought on a lot more attention and problems than they were willing to deal with right now. Instead, they would try to handle it all internally, with only other Avengers' knowing the truth about what had happened tonight.

Bucky had wrapped his arm around her shoulder as they stood together watching the security footage of Steve leave the restroom, following an unfamiliar man up to a private box. There was no footage of the inside of the box, but the hallway footage showed them all leaving by a stairwell a short time after the start of the second act, when she had last spoken with him. Nat headed to the box, finding his wallet and phone lying on the floor. Steve had probably been ordered to turn them over and they had been discarded like the useless items they were.

Bucky left her with Wade while he went up into the high ceiling area, trying to find where the sniper had been set up. After only a few minutes, he told them over the earcoms that he found the spot, but there was nothing offhand that he could find to be useful.

Tony had gone into aviation tracking for the city to try and find out where the jet they had taken off in had gone to. There had been a couple of witnesses who had seen the thing, but had just assumed it was the Quinjet, not knowing the minor difference in the shapes of the two items. So far, the only thing he had managed to find was that it turned south before disappearing from the radar. That didn't help much since most of the country was south of them in some way.

By the time that they had left the opera house, they didn't have a single real lead to go on.

The water turned off suddenly, startling her with the immediate quietness that doing so brought. Lifting her head, she saw Bucky reaching over for her towel. As he did so, he curled his fingers upward, silently indicating for her to stand. She did only because of how cold it was now becoming without the heat of the water. Taking the towel from Bucky, she slowly dried off as he didn't say a word.

Starting to head for the bathroom door, she softly says, "I'm sorry…it's my fault he gone."

A strong arm unexpectedly grasps her upper right arm, a very cold metal one.

"Vic…what happened tonight is _not_ your fault!" she heard him say, but she knows not to believe him.

"Yes, it is!" she says firmly, yanking on her arm to try and free it from his hand, which it does. Vic can't turn to face him, so she just points out, "I'm the one who wanted to go out tonight. I'm the one who injured his leg. I'm the one who smashed the glass on his head. I'm the one who broke his nose. It's all my fault!"

Bucky took a step forward, putting his arms around her and she gripped the towel tight.

"You seem to have forgotten that Rumlow was already a bit mad at Steve for dropping a building and Helicarrier on his HYDRA ass. Not to mention killing Red Skull…"

"Rumlow said that taking Steve was _my_ ' _lesson in pain'_ ," she pointed out to him. "Not Steve's, not yours, _mine_!"

In a low voice, she admitted, "It should have been _me_."

"Vic! I'm telling you right now to stop thinking like that," he demanded of her, which only helped to bring on the waterworks again.

Standing there, hearing him, she couldn't help but think, "You're mad at me for losing him."

"No!…no, no, no…Vic," Bucky said squeezing her tight, his own voice wavering a bit. "Never! I could never be mad at you."

"But _I_ lost him. Rumlow turned me into leverage! They _used me_ to take Steve away from you…"

" _Us_. Steve is just as much yours as mine," he firmly said, getting her attention a bit. "Rumlow took him from _us_. And _we_ will get him _back_. I _promise_ you that!"

* * *

"How is she?" Natasha asked him as Bucky rejoined them in Tony's lab to go over what little information they had. He had left Vic, with her saying she wanted to take a shower.

Bucky had set up an alert to be notified if Vic tried to leave their apartment, even to just come to where they were. After almost an hour had passed, with Vic not coming to join them, Bucky had questioned FRIDAY as to her whereabouts, being told that she was still in the shower sitting on the floor.

"Not too good right now," he said sitting back down on the stool at the screen he had been using. "She didn't want to come here and face any of you. She's blaming herself for Steve being taken."

"Why the hell is she doing that?" Wade asked from his own terminal. He was trying to use some of his old military contacts to see what they might be able to find out.

"Because of how Rumlow said this was a ' _lesson in pain_ ' for _her_ ," he told them, sounding tired. "I talked with Vic for a while. She kept saying that it should have been her, and that he only took Steve to punish her for taunting him."

"That doesn't make a lot of sense," Tony chimed in from his three terminal screen.

"Vic's not going to be all there tonight. She's upset. It's still too early for her to process it all completely," Nat told them. "By tomorrow, she'll have gotten over most of the guilt she's hanging onto right now."

"I hope so," Bucky said going back to work on his screen.

After a few minutes, Tony spoke up again.

"Bucky, what did Vic mean at the Opera house about Steve making her give a promise?"

He turned away from his screen, but facing the floor to explain to them.

"After the Fury incident at your Gala, we made Vic give us her word that if Steve or I ever asked her to make a promise, for any reason, that she would _always_ follow through with it, no arguments."

"Why would you do that?" Nat asked a bit curious about doing such a thing.

"Like in the case _of_ the Gala…say something like that happened while we were out in public, an attack of some kind. If we needed Vic to do what we said, like leaving the area for her own safety, then with that promise, we would not have to worry about her doing her own thing, like trying to stay near us where danger possibly was."

Nat thought about them asking Vic to do something like that, needing that guarantee that she would be safe while they dealt with a fight. It would have helped to keep them on the task in front of them, not worried about Vic hanging around to watch, or doing something else. And she could easily see Victoria originally arguing against leaving them.

"Well, that little promise helped to give Rumlow and Sin time to take the good Captain from us," Tony snidely remarked.

"Hey!" Bucky said coming up off of his stool and taking a couple of menacing steps towards Tony, his finger pointing him right in the face. "Steve knew that without Vic making that promise, that she would try and stop them from doing just that! Even with that sniper putting a warning shot into her seat, she would _still_ have attempted to stop them, getting a _bullet_ right through her _chest_ for her effort!"

She stood up slowly, not sure exactly how mad Bucky was right now at the remark blaming Vic for giving them time to escape.

"We understand what Steve did. And I agree. We all agree. Of course Vic would have tried to stop them, just as any of us would have. Vic would never let them take Steve, or you, without a fight," she said, putting herself a bit between Bucky and Tony.

"Look," Tony sounded a bit tired now, "We are all a bit stressed about what's happened. I don't really blame Vic at all, no matter what stupid words come out of my mouth, Abominable Snowman."

Bucky groaned at the nickname, which Tony did not do for him normally too often, and he seemed to take stock, looking at the two of them, before nodding his head in agreement.

"The only thing we have to go on right now is trying to identify this man," Nat said pointing at the man who had confronted Steve. "Maybe once we ID him, it may help to lead us to where they've taken Steve."

"What else do we need to do in the immediate future?" Wade asked the small group.

"What do you mean?" Bucky asked.

"Except for Clint and the kids, who are on the way here now, we are the only ones who know Steve is missing. Is there any type of protocol to follow in a situation like this?"

That gave her another direction to go at this from.

"I'm going to call Fury. SHIELD may not have all the resources it once did, but right now, we need all the help we can get. Maybe he can even start scanning for Steve just like they have been doing for Rumlow and Sin," she said pulling out her phone and walking to a private spot to make the call. "I'll also call Secretary Ross and let him know what happened so he doesn't think that Steve is skipping out on tomorrow's meeting."

Hopefully getting Steve back will be just as quick as it was when they got Vic back.

* * *

Three mornings after Steve had disappeared, Bucky woke to find the bed empty again. This was the second morning in a row that she had risen extremely early to probably do the same thing that she had been doing yesterday. Going over all the files from the Raft that pertained to Rumlow, the guard Kramer, and the old S.S.R. files on the Red Skull, trying to find a mention of Sinthea.

"FRIDAY, where is Vic?" he asked seeing that it was barely past six am.

" _Miss Victoria is in the same room as yesterday, the small office on the fifteenth floor_ ," the AI informed him.

"Is she still going through the same files?" he asked starting to get up.

" _No, Sergeant_ ," she replied.

"What is she doing?" he asked pausing his trip to the bathroom.

" _She is learning German_."

He knew what he had heard, but it didn't exactly register to him for a moment.

"What?"

" _Miss Victoria asked for a language program that would teach her German after she became angry at not being able to read some files that Director Fury sent over on the Red Skull_."

"How long has she been awake?" he asked dreading the answer.

" _Since four a.m., Sergeant_."

Damn. He had barely gotten her to go to be with him last night at eleven pm after she had been sitting in the small empty office all day with the files. Five hours of sleep was not good. That was the same amount of time she had slept for the previous two nights since Steve went missing. Without him being here, she had lost two hours of sleep time, immediately. He knew that there was something different about it this time than when they went on missions. Even if they went on missions, she didn't lose four hours with them gone, but only two, one for each of them.

A little while later, standing outside of the small office Vic had taken a claim to, he stood watching her through the small window on the wooden door. She was sitting on the desk chair, her hands flying between the keyboard and mouse, as words kept jumping across the screen from the language program. Last year when she had decided to learn Sokovian, she had taken her time (her words) while doing to, and she still managed to shrink the time to only eight days. With her feeling the need to do this because of Steve missing, he had a feeling that it was going to be more like when she went through his HYDRA files. He could see a difference now that he was here, more of an intense focus.

"I tried asking her if she wanted breakfast and Vic yelled at me… _me_ …her lovable, more than mildly handsome boss," Tony jested coming down the hallway towards him.

"She's not going to be acting normal for a few days…not now that she's decided to do this," Bucky told him.

"Do what?" Tony asked, thinking that she was just going over files.

"Learn German so that she can read the files," he explained.

Tony tilted his head to look inside, blocking his own view of Vic before he asked, "Is this how she was when she learned Sokovian? I don't remember her holding up like this at any point."

"No. She was doing that language for fun. But we did make her _promise_ to not go overboard and try to not cram her ' _project_ ' into a few short days. That's why it took her eight days. Now, she feels it's a necessity to help find Steve. And since she had already started, we can't stop her," he explained.

"Why not? I can have FRIDAY just pull the plug on the computer," Tony pointed out.

"Don't!" he defensibly said. "Wade told us about how he tried to so something like that with one of her other ' _projects_ ', Japanese I believe, when she lived with him. He felt that she was ' _drowning_ ' herself in learning it, so he hid the computer's power cord for a few days, making her take a break. He said that she couldn't do anything else…cooking, training, her laundry, sleep…right until he let her finish. Then Vic was fine. It was ' _all-consuming_ ' he said."

"Creepy," Tony said looking through the window again. "So tell me, since Vic would not give me a straight answer…"

"Alright…"

"Just how many languages can she speak?" Tony asked getting a curious look. "To get her on the Raft without Ross being able to stop her, when I asked her for some talent that she could prove to Ross, she said to list her as the team translator. I know about Hawaiian, Morse code, Russian, and now, Japanese."

"Don't forget Sokovian," Bucky pointed out.

"My point exactly…so, care to enlighten me. It's not often that someone get the chance to…"

"If I remember the rest correctly…Polish, Mandarin, Sign language, Gullah, Latin…oh, French and Spanish."

Tony looked at him like he was trying to decide if he was lying or not, the he looked at Vic again.

"But she's my mechanic...!" gesturing with both arms stretched out in her direction. Bucky wondered what he'd do if he told Tony about Vic's investments.

"We know," he just said with a smile, automatically including Steve.

"And what the hell is Gullah?"

"It has something to do with Southern states here in America. Other than that, ask Vic."

"Why wouldn't she just tell me this? I've known her for over a year now," Tony asked shaking his head. So he decided to let him know.

"Vic says it's fun to annoy you. And by not telling you, it would irritate you when you learned about a new one."

" _That_ is so mean. And so her," Tony sighed. "Well, everyone else is upstairs eating. Let's head up and you can fix Vic a plate. I know that Nat had a hard time getting her to eat yesterday. Maybe you'll have better luck."

"Is Sam still planning on leaving in two days unless we can get a lead?" Bucky asked as they headed for the elevator.

"Yeah. He says to call him the moment we get anything, and either he'll come here, or we can pick him up on the way," Tony said as the doors opened. "Clint said that he and the Lannister Twins can stay for a week, but hopefully all of this will be over before they want or need to leave."

"Yeah, it probably will be," Bucky agreed on the ride up, trying to stay hopeful. "And you better not let Wanda and Pietro hear you call them that. If _I_ get that reference, then you know _they_ will."

"Scott is still out in California with his daughter for a few more days."

"Unfortunately at the rate we're moving, it doesn't seem that he needs to rush back," Bucky had to say out loud. He could see that Tony also didn't like it verbally stated.

"How about getting the kid in on this when it's time to move?" Tony asked.

Bucky thought about the young recruit, Peter. He was incredibly strong, but one of the reasons that Steve had given was his inexperience going up against serious targets. He may not have a problem with local thugs, which Bucky had read the reports on, but this was major HYDRA.

"No," he finally stated. "Let's leave him out of this. If they were able to get to Steve, they would not hesitate to put a bullet into him if they got a chance. I'm not going to have that kid's death on my conscious."

"Has anyone ever told you how much you can sound like Steve sometimes?" Tony asked him.

"Only Vic when we're in bed together," Bucky stated to shock him.

"I did _not_ need to know that, Bucky!"

* * *

 **Sin's Castle**  
**Unknown Day**

Steve wasn't sure if he had actually managed to fall asleep during what he suspected was nighttime. But after days of being sleep deprived, he began to suspect that his body had in fact shut down on its own for a bit. The loud, screeching metal music that had been constantly playing since the moment he had been put inside the cell was still going. The first day he had been in here, Steve had found himself laughing at one point thinking about how Victoria would probably be able to name either the song or band. He was almost sure that thanks to her habit of singing them some of them were at least familiar sounding.

Rumlow had mentioned on the very long flight here that they needed his mind softened up before they could start the real work on his reprogramming. Days of sleep deprivation, as well as the cold air being pumped into his cell, were surely doing that. His body was slightly achy all over. It almost reminded him of the Arctic, when he had crashed the Valkyrie, except then, it had been eerily quiet, with only the sound of the wind blowing.

Trying to stand, he found that his mind swirled, as if he were back on some of the rides from the amusement park that they he had gone on...how long ago? He knew that it was a long time, more than just years, but he was sure that at some point he knew just how many. What was wrong with him? It had to be due to not sleeping. This is what Rumlow wanted.

Making his way to the thick, metal door, he began pounding on it…again, right? He had banged on this just a little while ago. It was the only thing he could do to keep warm. Or had that been yesterday when he had done this? Why couldn't he suddenly remember?

From the corner of his eye, he spotted the food tray sitting on the floor, near a small panel that lifted on the outside so guards could put it in the cell without having to open the door. Grabbing it up, he tossed it against the wall across the cell.

"I'm not eating your damn poisoned food," he screamed at the door, feeling dizzy enough to put his forehead against it, as his fist pounded without meaning. Was there anyone coming for him? Bucky? Victoria? Where were they?

* * *

"I think that the prisoner has been deprived of sleep long enough for us to take the first steps," Friedrich Vogel said sitting in his desk chair, watching the video surveillance from Captain Rogers' room. "It's been four days, and I see fatigue, body aches, dizziness, paranoia, not to mention the fact that he sometimes refuses to eat. All should help to make him more susceptible to his initial sessions in the Chair."

"I expect it to do more than just make him _susceptible_ ," Rumlow was looking over the shoulder of the scientist that Sin had put in charge of Rogers' reconditioning. "I've waited too damn long to have this. I want him to be nothing more than a _mindless slave_ in a matter of _hours_. I saw what the Chair did to the Asset and I expect the _same_ for Rogers."

"The Asset had years of torture and wiping to achieve his unconditional obedience to HYDRA. The Captain is just as strong willed as the Sergeant was _before_ his turning. It may take a minimum of weeks to months, even _with_ the additional use of the Faustus method on him after each session," Vogel said turning to face him. He must have seen the anger on his face at hearing that because he quickly added, "I'll have a better idea of the time period for full compliance after a couple of sessions."

"But it can be done, even if eventually?" Sin asked, rubbing her hand over the back of his neck as a nice distraction.

"Yes. It is only the uncertainty of the _amount of time_ it will take," Vogel guaranteed, looking back at the monitor as the Captain stumbled towards the bed before sitting down with his forehead on the mattress. Rumlow smiled at how pathetic he looked. "The Chair will help to eliminate his mind's connection to his memories, slowly wiping him cleaner with each session. The Faustus machine will allow us to implant loyalty to HYDRA with a sophisticated form of hypnosis. We can implant any suggestion we need into him to ensure compliance. But, I would like to also test the solidification of the programming by instituting a memory trigger assessment."

"What the fuck does that mean?" Rumlow spit out.

"After a couple of sessions, once the process seems to be holding, I would like to show him a picture of someone familiar and judge his reaction to it," Vogel said in his most laymen terms. Rumlow hated dealing with scientist. "It will allow me to judge how well the procedure is taking."

"You mean like either the Asset or Victoria?" Sin asked with a scheming smile.

"Yes," he responded, "A strong personal connection would be the best."

He watched as Sin then began to slowly pace back and forth as she looked to be contemplating something. She then asked, "Could it be possible to implant the suggestion of _breaking_ the conditioning using a _visual aid_?"

"Yes, that should be no problem, but why would you want to?" Vogel questioned.

"What are you thinking?" Rumlow asked Sin who was grinning at getting Vogel's answer.

"Start the procedure immediately then, Friedrich. Your father Gerhard would be so proud of you," Sin said before taking his arm to led him back towards the hall. "I was just thinking about the possibilities that we can accomplish to help further torture the poor Captain."

"You've got a painfully, nasty idea, don't you, Baby?" he asked as Sin roughly pushed him up against the wall, pressing her body up against his.

"Oh honey, I think I may have just found a way to have a bit of fun with the Captain once the procedure does start to take hold," Sin said running her hand over his crotch. "I have a feeling that _you_ are going to love _this_ …"


	90. Slipping Away

**Over the next few days to weeks...**

* * *

"His name is Helmut Zemo," Natasha informed them as the man's file started to expand across the screen. It included a picture of him wearing military fatigues. "He was leader of a Sokovian paramilitary tactical unit and intelligence officer up until a few years ago."

"Why would he be working with Rumlow?" Tony asked now accessing the file on his tablet to look this man up himself.

"It turns out that he _used_ to have a family…living in Novi Grad…until the Battle of Sokovia…"

The meeting included everyone in the Tower, including Victoria who was silently brooding at the far back of the war room's table, glaring up at the picture of the man who had helped to capture Steve. Nat could see a cold hatred in her eyes during the entire meeting as she gave her briefing of what she had been able to learn from working with FRIDAY and Fury's intelligence from Europe where Zemo had been living. They had been able to track Zemo's movements since Novi Grad for the past three years all the way to the pile of nothing that was his current known location. He had dropped off of all radars during January and not surfaced anywhere, just like Rumlow and Sin.

It was only days since Steve had been taken, but unless they had a bit of luck, it may turn out that he might be missing for a lot longer.

* * *

Victoria was sitting at her desk, going over the files before her. Nat was not sure if they were new, or if they were the same ones that she had been looking at for the past two days. She wanted to ask, but the last time she had tried to interrupt her, Vic had begun to berate her in Russian for the action that was stopping her from finding Steve. Instead, she now made her way to Vic's side and placed the sandwich and glass of water on the only available space not covered by the decades old paperwork.

Exiting the room, Wade took her hand into his as they watched Vic through the window. Since the night he'd gone missing, she had noticed Vic had problems trying to focus while communicating with people...that she would hole up during the day alone. Nat had her own suspicions but she would never voice them aloud. The thought behind them too horrible.

"She's taken the feeling of blame for Steve and allowed it to fester," Wade pointed out when they walked away after three minutes, waiting to see if Vic would eat the food next to her, which she indeed had picked up. At least that was something, Nat figured.

"Vic's not going to be the same until Steve comes home," Nat said as an agreement but for a different reason as she hit to button to call the elevator.

"Hopefully, we will get both of them back soon," Wade stated, but she heard the heartbreak in his voice at having lost Vic, with her being so close.

"Clint and the kids said to tell you that they _will_ come back when we need them," she told him, using Wade's nickname for Wanda and Pietro. Everyone was hating the fact that it was taking this long to find a trace of Steve. They had stayed over a week with the hope of a rescue mission, but so far there had been nothing. The two of the knew that the entire group could not just sit around the Tower and wait now with the possibility of weeks looming ahead of them.

* * *

Lying on the cot, Steve covered his ears with his hands, trying to drown out the pounding music. His eyes hurt from being open, without sleep, for too long. Just how long had it been…days…a week…a month? He couldn't tell how long he'd been here. He couldn't remember. One day's torture was the same as the next, and the next, and the next. The room was much too cold and the simple shorts and t-shirt he was wearing were not warm enough. He wanted to go…somewhere, not here…so badly.

As the song ended and the next one started to play, for some reason it drew his attention. Rolling onto his back on the uncomfortable cot, he listened to the lyrics as he stared at the concrete ceiling...

 _"…Close your eyes,_  
_look deep in your soul,_  
_step outside yourself and let your mind go,_  
_frozen eyes stare deep in your mind as you die…"_

Hearing the chorus section, he began to laugh hysterically. He recognized this song for some reason. Out of the nothingness that his mind was seeming to become, he was sure he'd heard it before. Someone, a female, was playing it while she was…running…on something, as he was nearby…watching her. He was almost sure that he recognized it…and he could _almost_ remember her.

Who was she?

He could almost picture her in his mind…as if it had been so long ago since he had seen her, where he couldn't truly think of what she… _who was she_ …looked like.

Then as the chorus repeated, he remembered watching her sing this part…he knew who she was, or maybe he didn't…

She was important to him, right?

What was her name? Why couldn't he remember her? Why was his mind slipping away from him?

Is this what going mad felt like?

* * *

As the guards came to get Rogers for another treatment of his horrific daily sessions, Rumlow stood at the end of the hallway and watched. Too close and he'd feel the cold air that was constantly pumped into the cell. According to the doctors, it would help with weakening his mental state even more, causing a decline in judgement, slurred speech, poor coordination. Then add on top of that the irritating metal music that was being constantly played with prevented him from sleeping.

The guards carried stun batons, as well as a Night-Night gun, in case he tried to make a run for it like he did a few days ago. But leaving his cell was the only time Rogers was free from the bombardment of irritants. This actually made him more compliant when it came time to leave, so that he would have a reprieve of silence.

He had been here just over a week now, knowing only his cell, the Chair, and the Faustus Machine. Over the past few days, he noticed a change in Rogers. A lost look that would come over him from time to time, as if he were trying to remember something. He had seen the Asset with the same look back in the Vault. The procedure was starting to work.

Rogers looked miserable as he willingly held his hands in front of him for the cuffs to be secured into place. They had already started inputting him with compliance commands to allow himself to be secured. He was pleased as he saw that the conditioning was working.

Rogers had not had a shower since coming here, Rumlow realized, as he saw his hair was greasy-looking and ratty. His face was also covered in a week's worth of growth. He had large dark spots under his eyes from not sleeping. With the pathetic portioned meals they supplied him to also help weaken his body, and the fact that he had refused to eat many of them at one point, even his super-soldier body seemed thinner, frailer.

Once the procedure held better, showing positive improvements towards his newfound loyalty to HYDRA, and more specifically, Rumlow, he would receive better treatment.

Rumlow couldn't have his Operative physically unable to do his bidding.

Following the group down the hallway, they entered the chamber where the Chair had been set up after being brought here months ago. At the time, between setting it up and training Sin's scientist on how to operate it, it had seemed that he would never get to this moment. If they could only have found the scientist he had originally trained, then they would have been at this months ago. But then there was the fact that they had to use Ross to even get to Rogers.

He smiled, watching as Captain America was now being dragged forcefully across the floor to the waiting device. All it took was actually seeing the Chair for his memories of it to kick in. Today they were starting him on willingly complying to orders to sit in it. He had been assured that this behavior should only last for another a day or so. Rogers would then calmly comply, just as the Asset had, while under their control. The combined treatments he was receiving were working much faster than Vogel had expected, bring another smile to his face.

Being held down by numerous guards after an abundant amount of strikes with the stun batons, they were able to get the metal restraint bars across his chest and waist. There were binders for his legs, but they were easier to get into place. The hard one was the band across his neck, since he would actually bite at the guard's hands. Who would have thought that Rogers would be _that_ desperate? He almost pitied the guard who was now trying to insert the rubber bite guard. The guard holding his head barely had it any better. Finally, they managed to shove it in with no bitten fingers…this time.

As the sound of the Chair's computers starting up the program, he watched with glee as the orbital arms rotated into position. When they stopped over his head and face…that was when the screaming started. Instead of having to leave the room due to obeying Pierce, he was able to stand off to the side and watch as more of the memories of Victoria were ripped from him, the Captain's access to them being destroyed for now.

Once enough time had passed, he had been assured that with the additional Faustus method, which was waiting right down the hallway for him to be subjected to after his morning sitting in the Chair, that eventually, he would only retain the memory of Victoria the way Sin had thought of…a most creative technique to torture his Operative.

* * *

It started again...the emptiness that would wash over her every day now. The feeling that reminded her of being at that exact moment right before you fell asleep. That one second when your mind suddenly stops and everything goes away.

Only this time, she was awake for hours in the empty voids.

The first time it had happened she was going over the files at the desk. Vic wasn't sure how long she had looked at the letters on the paper, trying to keep their meaning inside of her. Hours passed before she became aware that she was still looking at the same page. The next day, she had been trying to talk with Tony about something he was working on when it started. Eventually she had to excuse herself when she found that it was impossible to hold a normal conversation.

But then her mind would clear. She could focus again, to try and find some way to get Steve back. It only took the first few times for her to realized that it had to be their connection. Something was wrong with Steve.

There would have been many times during her life when Bucky had been put into the Chair, and she had never felt anything like this. During the day was when they would happen. There was no way for her to tell Bucky what was going on. He was already so stressed with Steve being missing, she couldn't put this burden onto him as well. There was nothing that anybody could do to stop it from happening if it really was due to the soulmark. Vic's only comfort was that it at least let her know that Steve was still alive.

* * *

Tony threw the bag of dried fruit across the room, making it impact on the glass partition, spilling the contents all over the lab floor. He had not felt this frustrated in a long time. He had barely slept at all for over two weeks as it was, and with the tracking on the Hydrajet not getting any hits on any of his algorithms, it looked like it was going to be another long night of trying to write more…new ones that _would_ work this time.

They had to…

* * *

Victoria glared down at the paper files scattered on the floor into another patterned group. There was _still_ something not right with the timing, or the dates, or the names…something was not right with the _pattern_. What was it?

Trying to do anything during the day was becoming impossible. There were too many hours of the void. Once the sun set, her mind would clear and she could work until Bucky came to make her go to be. It was hard to keep it from him, in more ways that one. But what could she do? Tell him every time that Steve was possibly being tortured? She wouldn't hurt him like that.

No, she just needed to use the few hours not in the void to find him.

Gathering up the files, she began to resort them again…

* * *

Natasha and Tony silently sat at the conference table after the monitor had turned off. They had just talked with Secretary Ross again about locating Steve, along with Rumlow and Sin. Of course he had _again_ demanded that they all be found _immediately_ and said that _he_ held _them_ responsible since it had been _their job_ to recapture them since the escape from the Raft.

"I'm getting real tired of these calls every few days," Tony told her as he picked at a spot on the table's surface. "How did Steve stand to deal with him all the time?"

"I could deal with him," she started before giving him one of her smirks, "but it would be on a more final, permanent basis."

"Don't tempt me, Nat."

"I almost pointed out again that it was his security that failed to discover that Lohmer was HYDRA."

"Then we would still be sitting here listening to him whining," Tony told her, which he was probably right about. "I'm guessing that your contacts haven't found anything either?"

"No, and that kind of worries me," she admitted. "If they wanted something, there would have been a ransom demand by now."

Tony continue to pick at the spot and Nat could see that he wanted...

"Just spill it, Tony."

"Have you noticed Vic? How she's...having a problem?"

"So I'm not the only one to notice?" she asked a bit relieved that someone else noticed.

"It's not that difficult if you try to talk with her for any length. But she's very good about bowing out at the first sign. I'm not sure that Bucky or Wade have really noticed. Either they don't want to talk about it, or are just in denial. What's your theory?"

Nat stood up and closed the door before sitting back down, wanting to make sure that this did not go beyond the room.

"There's only one thing that I can think of. Taking into account that we know Rumlow had a Chair at some time..."

"You think he's using it on Steve?" Tony's voice sounded worried, but not shocked at the idea.

"That's what he was planning the first time. But we know thanks to Bucky's files that it took a very long time for it to start to work on him. Steve's just as strong mentally, if not more with that stubborn streak of his. Hopefully he's able to resist them until we can find some kind of lead as to where he is."

"Then Vic is possibly feeling the effects due to the soulmark," Tony said but he didn't sound too sure of himself. "Wouldn't Vic have felt that at some time during her life because of what Bucky went through?"

"Maybe they were too far apart, she didn't realize or tell us, or the sessions were too short. Maybe there's something different this time."

Tony sat thinking about something for a bit before saying, "Think of an Evil Steve..."

"Evil Steve?" she hated to ask knowing that with Tony it was going to be...

"Yeah, with a cute little mustache and everything."

And there it was.

* * *

Bucky woke up but not really sure what had made him do so. Opening his eyes, he found that instead of having a hold on Vic, that she had slipped away from the bed, again, and that she had put her pillow under his arm, also again. She had found out that by doing so, he would not notice her sneaking away immediately.

"Vic's location?" he tiredly asked after having set FRIDAY up last week to keep track of her at night.

" _The Captain's closet_."

Getting up out of bed, he wandered out of their bedroom, and into Steve's. Opening the closet door, he found Vic sleeping in one of Steve's button down shirts, lying on the floor, his brown leather jacket covering her as she slept.

The nightmares had started not long after Steve went missing, and then the sneaking away had begun.

Bending down next to her, he carefully lifted her up.

"Come on, Sugar," he whispered his new term of endearment to her as she barely became conscious to his presence carrying her over to Steve's bed. It was a way for her to know that it was really him, and not another bad dream. Vic's nightmares consisted of not only Steve being taken from her again, but eventually he had made it inside of her subconscious.

The first few times she had woken up after such a nightmare, it had taken him twenty minutes to convince her that he had not been captured by Rumlow, that he had not been put in the Chair, that he knew who she was, and he had been safe the entire time.

FRIDAY had done some research for him and suggested that something new, such as a nickname not previously used, would help her to be able to distinguish from the nightmares to the real world. It was not much, but he would take it. Since she had not had a long panic session after waking up in a matter of days, it seemed to be helping.

He had stopped trying to count the number of times he'd had to retrieve her after wandering off over the past two weeks plus since Steve went missing. Lying her down a bit onto Steve's bed, he got in right behind her. She instantly grabbed Steve's pillow and holding it tight to her chest, strangling it with the affection meant for their missing soulmate.

Pulling the cover up over them, he wrapped his arm around her, keeping her body spooning him so that she couldn't leave again.

* * *

Sin looked at their Operative strapped into the Faustus machine, his eyes taped open as he struggled to try and close them. His breathing was hard, as he was starting to panic once again, as his free-will slipped away. The screen in front of him swirled with pattern which she made sure to avoid staring at for too long. The sound was being sent through the earbuds that had been taped into place, so that he was unable to dislodge them again. She watched as the technicians finished prepping the machine to include today's new set of conditioning commands.

They'd had to upgrade the restraints required to hold Rogers in the machine, since he was much stronger than they had anticipated. Not only were his arms secured in double braces, as well as his hands, but his legs and waist were now secured with steel bands. But all of that strength would soon be to HYDRA's advantage…her advantage. The Operative, along with the Asset, once he had been recaptured, would be the keys to helping restore them to what they had been under her daddy's rule.

Vogel had worked with this method over the past few years, since the passing of his father, whom had come with her after fleeing Europe, and had conversed with numerous HYDRA scientist on how to operate the machine to achieve the best hypnosis technique to entire obedience from their subjects. With his mind cleaned from the Chair, it had been much easier to install the compliance phrase. They would not need to override his memories since they would not be there to begin with.

All except for the memory trigger. Victoria.

When she had told Rumlow of her idea of how to torture Rogers over and over again, while still having the Operative work for HYDRA, he had found it such a cruel and devious plan, that he had started to cry from laughter at the idea of being able to accomplish such a hateful act.

Sin had hated Rogers for years after the Valkyrie had gone down, taking her daddy with it. When she had been woken from cryofreeze and been told that Captain America had been found frozen, but still alive, in the Arctic, she began to wonder if SHIELD had also found her father with him.

But, after holding out hope for three years, and finding nothing to indicate that daddy had been with Captain America, Rumlow had confirmed that during his time with SHIELD, that Red Skull's body had not been recovered. Still, Sin held out hope that maybe he had gotten free of the wreckage, wandering away, before succumbing to the cold. With the fall of SHIELD, she had her own team scouring the area around the Valkyrie, in the hopes that her daddy was there, waiting for her to find him.

As she began to leave the room, a smile on her face as she heard him starting to whimper from the programming taking effect on his newly wiped-clean mind, she hoped that her daddy would be proud of her.

* * *

"No, I will _not_ remove the safety from the training room!" Bucky informed Vic as she stood on the floor below him. "So stop asking!"

Seeing her dressed for a battle still worried him as to what use she may have for the uniform in the future. She had taken one of Nat's spare outfits and modified it just a bit to her own liking. She wore extra gun holsters and knife sheaths, whereas Nat preferred other weapons, such as her Widow's Bites, which had been removed.

The one item he approved of was the thin armored interior lining, a thin, flexible polymer bullet resistant liner that Tony had constructed. The bullets would still impact, bruising the area, but they could not puncture the material. It was the best protective measure they could do for her.

"Run the simulation again, if you want, but at level one!" he firmly stated.

Vic glared up at him now, mad that he and Tony had taken the notion to ask FRIDAY to not allow her to override safety controls, or get away with setting up any of her famous Protocols to trick FRIDAY into helping her achieve a goal. She turned away as the room began to reset.

Vic had come to him nine days ago, demanding that she be trained even more. He had agreed to do so since it got her out of that office and away from the files after so many weeks of spending all day uselessly holed up alone rereading them. It had taken some time and a lot of video feed watching, but he'd seen that she was more 'hiding' sometimes. Hoping that it was only guilt, he had allowed Vic to dictate what type of training she had wanted to work on, happy to be able to interact with her again in some way.

The entire team had found over the past few weeks that the best time to hold a normal conversation with Vic was when she was in the training room, which had become an evening ritual. She could focus her mind on the training, and not the ' _pattern_ ' that he heard her mumbling about around the apartment. He had given up trying to understand the short clipped sentences that Vic would mutter every so often aloud during the day, as her mind constantly tried to work something out.

Bucky then started to realize that she no longer needed to go to the office to look at the files, she had memorized them, and was mentally searching for a way to find Steve using the information in them. Some of them were decades old, most likely useless, but she had insisted that Fury and Tony give her access to everything HYDRA and Red Skull that they had. Anything new that SHIELD sent over, Vic would read over carefully, adding it to the rest of the information she had mentally stored away. If it interfered with her during training, he could not see any sign of it doing so.

They had run a scenario together a couple of days ago where she had shot the LMD that had been formed to appear as Rumlow over twelve times, some of them in the face, stunning _him_ a bit with her viciousness. Vic had then said that if given the chance, that Rumlow would _not_ be spending any more time on the Raft, and that Sin would have the same fate. He had ended their training for the day at that point.

Vic had indeed become the trained killer that he had worried about that night while her body healed itself almost a year ago. But she had pointed out that it was so that she could get Steve back for him. Bucky had talked with her about how they both needed Steve back, not just him. He could see the guilt still festering in her as she continued to blame herself for him being taken to begin with.

Now, she was physically pushing herself to the brink of exhaustion while her mind worked over the problem of finding Steve.

And he was letting her. None of the others could come up with a way to stop her.

He wondered if somehow she could do it. Could she find Steve?

But he could still see that every day, a little more of Vic slipped away.

* * *

Vic knew that it was only a matter of time. The voids were still there, but they were growing shorter, sometimes with days between them. What did that mean?

* * *

"Operative…again," the training officer commanded of him.

Resuming his stance, he began the series of punches on the dummy wearing the orange prisoner jumpsuit. He had been doing different training for hours now. But if he did not comply, he knew the guards surrounding the training area would use the electric batons on him as punishment. His compliance was expected without betrayal. For the past few days he'd noticed that his daily meals servings were increasing. He had also been moved to a better room, one with its own bathing area. Yesterday, a man had come in and measured him for a new outfit. He was not sure what all of this meant, but he must be performing his tasks properly.

"Is he ready for the test?" Herrin, his female Handler asked after entering the room with Meister, his male Handler. He instantly dropped down to one knee, his left hand fisted on the ground, his right behind him, as was expected of him when in their presence. They had both looked over at him, with a mixture of expectancy and disgust…had he taken too long to kneel?

"I believe so. The conditioning is holding up very well until the trigger is viewed, as requested," he heard the trainer say, but he did not understand the reference.

"Good. Bring in the prisoner," Meister called out. "Operative, rise."

As he stood, the doors his Handlers had entered through once again opened, but this time it was due to a prisoner in an orange jumpsuit being dragged in with a black hood over his head. The prisoner had black leather straps secured tightly around his waist and chest. His arms were bound behind his back. His knees and ankles also were surrounded by straps.

Bringing him over to the other side of the training area, a guard took hold of another chain dangling from the ceiling. Doing something to attach it behind the prisoner's back, they then could release him, the chain holding him in place as his waist straps were attached to two floor chains. The ceiling chain was then cranked a couple of turns so that he was lifted up off of the floor a foot. He was now positioned just like the training dummy he had been punching on for the past hour.

An orange dangling punching bag came to mind.

"Operative…" Herrin said, getting his attention as she stood next to the prisoner, her hand touching his shoulder as he struggled to free himself. There were muffled sounds, as if he was gagged behind the hood. "This agent of HYDRA's failed his mission, costing one of his teammates to lose his life. For his punishment, you will strike him until I command you to stop. Will you comply?"

"Yes, Herrin," he obediently agreed, before stepping towards the prisoner.

Looking at the hooded man before him, he wondered what the mission had been, but with little care he then took his first punch. Over and over he punched, working his stomach and lower rib cage the most. The chains on his waist held him in place, preventing him from rotating upon the impacts. He was sure that at least two of his ribs had cracked with his impacts.

"Enough," Herrin demanded of him after a minute or two, and instantly he went back to his kneeling position.

"Was that sufficient?"

"Yes, Operative…that was just how we wanted you to comply," Meister grinned as he and Herrin started to leave the training room, laughing cruelly as they stood at the doors waiting. "And compliance will be rewarded."

"And what do you say, Operative?" his trainer asked after a few moments.

"Hail HYDRA."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song lyrics quoted are from Slayer's Seasons in the Abyss. I felt they would be slightly appropriate for this scene for two reasons, the overall music as well as the lyrics. Also, the 'Evil Steve' comment with the mustache comes from Star Trek - the Mirror Mirror universe.
> 
> Now you know (partially) what Sin and Rumlow have been doing with Steve. Curious about Evil Steve's programming? Anxious for him to be rescued?


	91. A Credible Threat

**May 6**

* * *

" _What I **want** you to do is get your asses **out** of that Tower and **do** what I put you together **to do**_ ," Nick Fury chastised them over the large monitor in the Avengers' mission war room. " _It has been just over a month, with no good leads on Rogers to go on. This is a **credible threat**_ _that needs to be addressed_!"

"Why can't _your_ agents handle the security?" Tony asked knowing that he sounded annoyed. He had been pulled away from another new computer trace on Zemo for this? "Look, I _appreciate_ the fact that you brought us together, but right now, we are one man short…"

" _And unless, by some miracle, you get a lead on him in the next twelve hours, you still will be. But we are talking the lives of over two hundred representatives from around the world who will be at this meeting, not to mention the possible civilian casualties_."

Tony looked over at the rest of the table to see what they thought. Nat sat looking at the tabletop, but with her closed off expression, it was hard to tell what she was thinking. Sam's expression was about the same as Nat's, hard to read. Fury had called him and requested he be at this meeting. Bucky was also quiet, and he could guess that there was no way he was leaving the Tower unless it was to find Steve.

Clint, whom Vic had contacted and asked to come to the Tower for a week of training, would not want to go. He only had a few days left before he was supposed to be home. Wanda and Pietro had come with him, wanting to spend some time in the city and enjoy a bit of freedom from the cows and chickens, he guessed.

"I'll go," Nat then spoke up, getting the attention of everyone at the table. "There's nothing more here I can do for Steve, and he would be mad if we let something happen when we had the chance to stop it."

"That's for sure," Sam said taking a deep breath. "Alright, I'm in too."

Wanda and Pietro looked at each other, speaking quietly in Sokovian for a moment before Wanda spoke up, "We will join you."

"They'll need a ride," Tony spoke up, getting Fury's attention. "The Quinjet stays here, in case it's needed."

" _At least it's something_ ," Fury mumbled on the screen. " _I'll expect you all here in the next few hours. Transport is on the way. The mission report will be sent over_."

With that, the screen died and a silence fell over the room. They had been able to avoid going out on any mission for the past month, letting SHIELD take care of things, choosing instead to stay at the Tower and try anything to find Steve. No matter how many scans, or what programs or how many algorithms he wrote, nothing every came back with a solid lead.

Just like when they had disappeared after the Raft breakout, Rumlow and Sin were not just below radar, they'd dropped off of the damn thing entirely.

"Are you two sure you don't want to get out of here for a bit? Bashing in a couple of bad guys heads may make you feel a bit better," Nat asked with a sly smile.

Bucky shook his head, "No, I can't leave Vic alone. I don't even want to imagine what would happen if…" then he trailed off, not wanting to voice aloud his fear.

Tony knew just what he was talking about…if something happened to Bucky. The Victoria that was probably still in the training room was not the same one they had met a year ago. He and Bucky had a couple of long talks about her erratic behaviors since Steve went missing. He still refused to bring up the specific strange behavior that he and Nat had discussed. And Bucky did not mention it either. If he hadn't guessed the reason, Tony was not about to be the one to inform him of it.

After their talk, they had then instructed FRIDAY to keep track of how long Vic spent on different tasks. A couple of days later, they had learned that Vic was sneaking training room time in the middle of the night while everyone else in the Tower slept. Including Bucky. She had figured out a way to get out of bed without disturbing him, train for a few hours, and then slip back next to him before he woke up. Tony had then put additional safeguards on the training room LMD's to prevent Vic from removing individual safeties on them.

During the day, she would then train with Bucky there, acting as it the night session didn't exist. They debated on telling her that they knew, but decided against it. As long as she did not get injured, they decided to let her vent the only way she wanted to.

Less than two hours later, they were in the Quinjet hanger as the group loaded up, Wade electing to go with Nat and the 'kids', pointing out that Sam was included in that statement, saying that they all needed a babysitter. Pietro had then quickly braided Wade's hair in two seconds for the comment before the grumpy man even knew what had happened.

Tony noticed that Vic, even though she was there, refused to step towards the edge of the hallway. If she had, she would be able to see Steve's shield and uniform, which was still hanging at the far end, displayed in his own cubicle visible to anyone in the prep room. Bucky and Wade were now chatting quietly as Wade tried to remove the braids, most likely discussing Vic.

"Is there anything that you need help with?" Tony asked coming to stand next to Vic, on Steve's side.

"No…I'm still just…there's something not right…something…" was all she said before dropping off the thought.

He wasn't sure if he really wanted to know how she was trying to process all of the files that she had gone through. When she was not actively training, this was how most conversations went with her. He had noticed that most of her 'distractions' happened during the day, telling him that Steve may be in a close time zone, but that didn't really help when you had the entire world to hide in.

Bucky shook Wade's hand before coming over to take Vic in his arms, hugging her. Tony remembered a time when Bucky doing this would bring a smile to her face. Now, it just seemed to point out that someone else was not there. They quietly watched as Fury's Quinjet left with the rest of their broken up team.

* * *

When he rolled over, he knew that he was not going to find Vic next to him. Reaching out with his right hand, he found that her side of the bed was cold, meaning she had not been in it for quite a while. Damn it, he'd had enough. She needed to sleep.

"Vic's location?" he asked the empty room.

" _Training room_."

"For how long?"

" _Almost three hours, Sergeant_."

Looking over at the clock, he saw that it was almost five-thirty am. She'd been doing training since two-thirty.

"Damn it! That's it! No more!" he growled out while getting up and storming out of the apartment. He was so mad, that he opted to take the stairs instead of the elevator, feeling like he could not just stand still for that long.

Punching open the stair's door on the level, he made his way to the protective glass surrounding the training room. Vic was indeed inside, while pounding metal music reverberated off the walls. He watched as she used the metal staff to take out two LMD's that were holding knives, knocking the weapons away before jabbing the end through their chest to knock them down.  There were also four more already on the floor, two with swords sticking out of them. If it didn't make him so sad knowing why she was acting this way, he would be so proud of her.

So would Steve, his mind added.

As soon as the last two LMD's were down, he flung the door opened and headed right for her. Vic was covered in sweat and her skin had a heavy red glow to it. He could tell that she had been pushing herself too hard.

"Cut the music! No more!" he stated, grabbing the staff and tossing it away. "I'm putting a stop to this as of _right now!_ At the rate you are going, I'm surprised that you haven't already collapsed with exhaustion days ago!"

"What else am I supposed to do…I can't figure out how to get Steve back!" she yelled at him, and he could see that with one sentence Vic looked ready to lose it.

"It's not just _your_ problem to solve. _Everyone here_ has been steadily working on different ways to find Steve. We just have to give them _time_ …"

"No! There is no more _time_. Steve was out of _time_ the _moment_ I stayed in that fucking seat," Vic said looking like the adrenaline rush she had been on was quickly wearing out. "If I had just let him shoot me, then Steve could have run…"

"Vic, no! Never say that again! You did _exactly_ what Steve needed you to do. To stay _safe_ , so that when he comes _back_ , that you will _be here_ for _him_ , just like you promised," he told her for the umpteenth time over the past month. "Now, if you don't get your _ass_ back upstairs and into the bed for a few hours of sleep, then I _swear_ , I will go to _Siberia_ and get that _damn_ cryostasis chamber of mine and _throw you in it_!"

The stunned expression that came across her face worried him. Her eyes started to dart back and forth, her lips whispering out a mixture of Russian and then German words that he didn't understand. She started to pace around in a small area, pointing to invisible spots in the air and on the floor. Vic looked like a mental patient with the strange behavior that had come over her.

"Vic?" he called to her, trying to get her attention.

"Siberia," she said stopping and looking right at him.

"Yes…?" not understanding.

"Where you were held prisoner…where Zola tried to use different controlling techniques on you…"

"Yes, that was in Siberia."

"Where he was just about to start a new technique, before the Chair worked on you…" she said with a creepy smile. Why would she be glad about that?

"I need to see the files again," she said heading quickly for the elevator.

"Why do you need to see the files?" he asked following her while trying to figure out what she was processing. The words coming from her may make no sense to him, but after the was she had been acting for the past month, he knew that something new was going on in that head of hers.

"The dates…the address…I need to make sure they are wrong and right," she simply told him, which did not help at all.

He had expected them to go to her office, but instead they were now standing in the archive room which contained all of _his_ files.

"How is anything in _here_ useful?" he asked as she began to glide her fingers over the paper files in the tall cabinet.

"Here's one…and another…and this one," she said pulling out three folders, seemingly at random. "Come on."

Vic then led them down to the other office she had been using. Folders were scattered open all over the desk and floor. If there was a pattern to it, he sure could not figure it out.

"HYDRA had a habit of staying in the same location for long periods of times when they had to go underground after the war. Your own base in Siberia was active for a total of 77 years, 7 months, 11 days…years before you even got there," Vic said rattling off the exact operational time while pulling a couple of more files with S.S.R. symbols on them. "And if Sin really _is_ the daughter of Red Skull, and she was _trained by him_ , then it stands to reason that she would have been holding up in the _same location_ for all this time _since the war_."

"How would she have done that?" he asked.

"With her _own_ cryostasis chamber," Vic smiled.

Dropping a folder on the desk, he saw that it was a maintenance material request from his Siberian base to a foreign HYDRA base, needing supplies for his cryostasis chamber to be shipped in due to a malfunction with a defective cooling line. Looking over the report, he saw that he had been woken from hibernation and put into training for five weeks while the part came in, along with the cryogenic technician to install the part. This was only a few years after his programming had taken effect.

"So…HYDRA could have just gotten _anyone_ to do this?" he said, to which Vic shook her head.

"No, this was _HYDRA_ technology back then. Only one of their own, and _highly trusted_ , would have work on _your project_. Look here," she was pointing at the maintenance report from the repair being completed. "His name was Gerhard Vogel. _He_ did the repairs."

He saw that the signature for the report was signed by him. "I'm still not seeing…"

"Vogel was also the one who was about to be brought in to use a new brainwashing technique on you before they showed you the newspaper…about Steve and the Valkyrie going down. He was already on the way to Siberia when the Chair finally started to work."

He could see that she was trying to get somewhere with all of this.

"When he arrived, HYDRA then had to turn him right back around and send him home," she smiled at him, "Along with the experimental Faustus Machine that he had shipped with him to use on you."

Picking up another file, she opened it up to show him.

"Arnim Zola was arrested by the S.S.R. along with a couple of other scientist after the war ended. Johann Faustus and Zola were held in a prison together for a time before being recruited into the newly forming SHIELD. He could have gotten the device specs from Faustus in prison."

"Alright, but how does this lead to Steve?" he carefully asked.

"HYDRA files recovered from Siberia made note that Vogel was part of an independent cell under the immediate command of _Schmidt_. When I read that one year five months and thirty days ago, it didn't mean anything. But this was _after_ Red Skull was killed…months later. And then, when he came to do the repair, _years_ later, he was _still_ listed as part of _Schmidt's_ cell. But now, knowing that Sin is alive and well, it stands to reason that he worked directly for Sin, _not_ her father as I had assumed then."

He started to follow her line of reasoning, but he didn't see where this was leading. Pulling out another couple of pieces of official looking paper, Vic passed them over to him so that he could read one of them.

"HYDRA was still trying to build themselves back up and so they had to rely on public logistics to move such large equipment at that time. Here are the bills of lading for the containers that Vogel traveled with, listed as electronic devices, on his initial trip to Siberia, from public customs records. HYDRA's internal files list it as a Faustus Machine."

"Alright then, so how does that help us?" he asked again.

"Right here," she pointed at a box on the bill of lading. "This is the _address_ where the containers came from _and_ were shipped back to. This has to be _Sinthea's base_."

* * *

Clint looked over the table at where Tony was sitting…quietly pondering the complicated dot-to-dot trail that Vic had worked out, somehow in her head. He had followed Victoria's explanation of where she now believe Steve to be located. She had numerous files, paperwork, documents, all in three languages. Vic had followed a seventy year old paper trail to a possible modern day prison.

After completing a long yawn, due to the extreme early hour, Tony said, "Let's say that this location that you have an address for _was_ Sin's base of operations back in the late forties. There is no guarantee that it's _still_ there, that _she_ is there, or that _Steve_ is there."

"Fine, Gimcrack!" Vic said, giving Tony a deadly stare that he recognized from Natasha. "If you don't want to go and at least check it out, then I'll go alone!"

With that, Vic turned towards the door, as Bucky, who had been standing right next to her during her spiel, grabbed her around the waist as she went to walk past him, lifted her up, turned her back towards the table, and plopped her down onto her feet.

"I _don't_ think that was what Tony was _exactly_ trying to say," Bucky stated as Vic crossed her arm in anger at being stopped from going after Steve. He was a bit amazed that she had been able to hold a normal conversation after so long. She already seemed a bit more normal...just a bit irritable.

"I just want you to at _least_ take it into consideration that this location," Tony said pointing at the manifest in front of him, "could have either been moved or disbanded years ago. Hell…they could have even moved once they took Steve…to somewhere else _not_ in an old file."

"Fine," she huffed out, but it was in that same tone that Laura used on him sometimes that really meant the exact opposite of what had been spoken. Tony had better be careful.

"FRIDAY, can you get any secure satellite pictures of this location?" Clint requested, wanting to see exactly what they were dealing with.

After a few moments, the screen behind Bucky and Vic turned on, showing an aerial view of a very large estate out in the western foothills in Argentina. The first thing was that the structure that they were looking at bared a striking resemblance to an actual castle. Acres and acres of nothing but undeveloped land surrounded the entire castle. There was only one road in or out, but there was a large paved area that could easily be used as a landing pad for the jet they used, with a smaller building next to it. If he had to guess, that would be the hanger where the Hydrajet was stored.

Tony stood up and walked over the screen, examining something in detail. Using his fingers, he expanded the screen and then huffed out loud.

"It's a moat! Sin had a freakin' moat? I don't have a moat. Now, _I_ want a moat," Tony whined for a moment, turning to give Clint a sly smile so that he knew he was trying to lighten the mood a bit.

"When was this picture taken?" Bucky asked looking at something else on the screen.

" _Two weeks ago, Sergeant_."

"It's still occupied," he said pointing out humanoid figures in the open center courtyard area, as well as on the flight pad.

"Does that mean we can go now?" Vic asked starting to move towards the door again. Bucky did the same move as last time to stop her.

"Oh, no! You will be staying here in the Tower!" he firmly stated.

Clint's eyes went wide as he saw the menacing look that crossed Vic's face. He actually pushed his rolling chair backwards away from where the two of them were standing. Making a _psst_ noise to get Tony's attention, the moment he looked his way, he jerked his head to try and tell him to move away.

"Is. That. Right?" Vic asked as Bucky then stood a bit straighter, focusing in on her.

Then it started.

Vic began to yell at Bucky, angrier than he had ever seen anybody. He remembered Nat mentioning that Vic knew Russian, but seeing her standing there yelling it at Bucky shocked him a bit. Bucky tried to argue back at her, but she was vicious with the string of curse words coming out of her mouth, some of the only Russian he knew, thanks to Nat.

Then, the gesturing started. Vic would point at the files, probably pointing out that she was the one who had found the place, inserting Steve's name while Bucky kept yelling Rumlow's name. Victoria obviously didn't care that he was actually a legitimate concern. One of the reasons he had taken Steve was to hurt Vic, not only for revenge for what had happened to him. If Rumlow got his hands on Vic again, there was no telling what he would do to her.

He noticed a change in her language for a moment.

Then Bucky yelled out in English, "I don't speak Hawaiian!", before she began again in Russian. He really hoped that FRIDAY was recording this so that he could get a copy.

Clint didn't know if anyone had ever bother pointing out that Rumlow had also said that taking Steve was her _first_ lesson. But it had been a month and nothing else had happened, but Vic had been contained in the Tower, mostly by her own doing. Had the threat just been Rumlow's way of messing with her?

During the 'discussion' going on, Tony had slowly backed away and was now standing next to Clint's chair, watching the exchange without interfering…which was so unlike him.

Bending over to say in a low voice, Tony quipped, "I kind of wish that I had some popcorn..."

And _there_ was the Tony he knew.

They were both then shocked as Victoria quickly drew back and punched Bucky in his right shoulder with a blow that made Bucky fall back two steps.

"Vic just punched the Winter Soldier," Clint muttered in disbelief.

" _And_ some Raisinets..."

As they now reached the three minute mark of the argument, Vic stomped her foot, balled her fists and then struck the end of the conference table as hard as she could, breaking off the end. As the severed piece of particle wood fell to the floor and the files scattered everywhere, Vic stomped out of the room, leaving Bucky standing there staring at the empty door frame.

With a heavy sigh, Bucky turned and informed them, "Vic is coming with us."

* * *

As he pulled his punch back from the strike to the failed agent's stomach, he felt an intense pain in his right shoulder, causing him to falter with his punches.

"What is wrong, Operative?" his trainer asked.

"I'm sorry, sir. I must have struck poorly with that punch. I felt a pain in my shoulder from it," he replied while rolling his shoulder as the pain quickly faded away. "It is gone now."

"Then continue," he was instructed.

Looking back over at the man hanging, the one he had been punching as a punishment…no, wait, it was not punishment…it was torture. He was torturing this person…HYDRA agent or not. That was not what he wanted to do.

"Operative, I gave you a command. Comply!" the man yelled at him.

This was not right. Why was he here? Why would he want to do this?

"No."

The moment the single word left his mouth, the two armed guards surrounding the room drew and aimed their weapons at him. He was not supposed to disobey. The pair of guards then approached with the cuffs that he was to always allow to be put on. Holding out his arms, they secured them.

"Take him back to Vogel. Let him know that he disobeyed and requires another session."

Turning towards the guard approaching him with the arm binder, he complied as he was supposed to, allowing himself to be secured into it. Disobedience would be severely punished. The guards then led him out of the room, glancing down into the deep round pit located in the floor of the room.

* * *

"Are you sure about this?" Natasha asked from over the monitor a few minutes after Vic stormed out of the conference room. He had tried arguing with her, to point out that it would be safer for her here, in the Tower, but _that_ had not gone well. She was determined to find Steve, no matter the risk to herself.

"We have to at least check it out," Clint told her from his chair while he sat down at the now shorter table, thanks to Vic. Bucky sighed, rubbing his hands over his face, but knew that it was pointless to try and stop her. She had taken the past month harder than anyone else, himself included.

Bending over, he picked up the piece of wood from the floor and laid it onto the table.

"What's that?" Nat asked seeing his movement.

"Bucky made Vic _mad_ ," Tony chimed in sounding amused at having a piece of furniture destroyed.

"Sorry about the table. I had no idea she would do that," Bucky solemnly said.

"Nat, how soon can you all get back here?" Clint asked her.

"The file that Fury sent over shows an immediate threat," she answered. "This is the same extremist group that bombed that chemical plant two weeks ago in Bratislava. If they use similar explosives, they could easily kill hundreds of people. We can't leave. Not until they are stopped or the conference is over in four days. Could you hold off until then?"

"No," Bucky answered, getting everyone's attention. "They've already had Steve for a month. And there is no way I'm going to tell Vic that we are waiting. Do either of you want to do that?"

Both Clint and Tony stood there looking scared, shaking their heads in the negative.

"The best we can do is get down there quickly and set up surveillance, take stock of what security the place has," he told them.

"They have a _moat_!" Tony happily told Nat with a smile on his face.

" _Tony_ ," FRIDAY then interrupted, " _Miss Victoria has activated three of your security measures concerning her."_

"Oh, no…which ones?" Tony asked.

" _Miss Victoria is in the weapons locker room, unsupervised, she had started to load weapons with ammunition, and she has just requested that the Quinjet have its initial preflight checklist procedure started_."

"Ah, hell," he said standing up. "FRIDAY, do not let that damn Quinjet get out of here!"

" _Yes, Sergeant, but Miss Victoria informed me that she is expecting the three of you in the next few minutes, and you all will be leaving immediately to retrieve the Captain_."

"Nat, just get there as soon as you can," he heard Clint tell her as he went to stop Vic and get his uniform. And guns…lots of guns. Hell, he may even consider taking the baseball bat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Definition: Gimcrack – a cheap/useless but showy ornament.


	92. Castle Schmidt

**May 7**

* * *

"Six hours, are you kidding me?" Vic asked him as his seat stared to rotate into the pilot position as she stood next to him, looking out of the window.

"Yes, six hours. Trust me, that is half of what it normally is," Tony informed her as he finished strapping in.

"Maybe if you worked on the Quinjet's engines instead of the Mark whatever suit you could cut..." Vic started to jokingly chastise him but then her voice dropped off. Turning his head, he could actually see a glaze come over her eyes, as if she couldn't remembered what she was about to say.

Lowering his voice to a soft whisper, Tony asked, "Vic, are we losing you again?"

Her eyes turned to him and he saw the emptiness forming in them. It had been almost a week since the last time he or Nat had seen one of the 'incidents' come over her. Tony could barely make out the nod of her head, as if she didn't even want to admit to it that way. He knew that she thought they hadn't noticed. Why was it coming over her now? What had changed?

"Vic, get over here and sit down," Bucky growled out, still not happy about her coming with them but none of them were about to try and argue the point, not after the table incident. Tony tilted his head towards where Bucky was sitting, indicating for her to go to him, which she did.

As they finally took off, he started to get the same bad feeling he'd had the day that Vic had been taken by Rumlow. But this time, she was with them. Did that make it better or worse?

Fifteen minutes after they had taken off from the Tower, Tony had them at altitude and headed almost due south.

"So, what type of shit storm do you think that we are walking into this time?" he asked as he hit the button to make his seat back up and rotate. But nobody answered him.

When the seat finished its turn, he head tilted to the side as he took in the sight before him. Clint was the only one still in his seat, and he was staring at the same thing that had drew his own attention.

Off near the back of the Quinjet, at the wall next to the ramp, Victoria was lying on the floor. Bucky was leaning with his back up against the wall and her head was lying on his thigh, a leather jacket being used as a pillow. She looked to be fully asleep. Weeks ago, Vic and he had modified one of Nat's suits for her to use, adding bullet proofing to it, and she was currently wearing it for the trip, as if she expected to need it. He hoped it didn't come to that, but how else would just three of them get Steve back. He had seen the videos of Vic training recently. With the skills she had acquired, she would be a huge benefit to this mission. Not that he wanted to point that out to Bucky and start a fight.

"Well…that explains why she stopped bugging me," he said trying to cover up what he knew had happened to her, getting up from the seat, taking one between Clint and Bucky to make it easier to talk in lower tones, as to not disturb her.

"Vic didn't get any real sleep last night," Bucky said as he stroked her hair away from her face. He didn't seem to have noticed the change in her before she laid down it seemed.

"Has she slept well at all for the past month?" Clint asked unbuckling himself to stretch out a bit.

"Not really…we never told the group this, but Vic's sleeping habits are linked to mine and Steve's presence."

"What do you mean?" he asked curious as to anything that had to do with the three of them and their strange connection due to the soulmark.

"Before Vic met us, she only slept for three hours a night, every night for years," he started telling them. Over the next few minutes, he explained how their proximity was key to the number of hours she slept, and how that had changed with Steve not being there. They found her early years' one-hour sleep time 'chilling' (Tony's word) due to their hibernation.

"So why tell us now?" Clint asked.

"Because you are risking your lives to help us get Steve back," he said looking up at the shield that Victoria had mounted in its usual spot during mission trips. For the past month, she wouldn't even look at it, but she was so sure they would find Steve that she had brought it with them.

"We'd do that because he's our friend, no matter what," Clint told him.

"Of course, having Spangles back will be nice," he joked.

"There is one other thing that we've never told you," Bucky started, looking a bit more worried at this admission. "When one of the three of us hits the other with actual anger, the third person feels it."

Tony thought about that for a second and he and Clint met eyes as they both thought of the same thing, as the same time.

"Are you saying that Steve felt Vic punch you in the shoulder a little while ago?" he asked, not sure if he could believe it or not.

"Yes, he would have felt that," Bucky admitted.

"How did you find out about this connection? I don't really see Vic getting angry at the two of you normally," Clint said with a smile.

"D.C." he simply said, making Tony's stomach do a backflip.

There had been civilian and street camera footage recovered of some of the altercation between Steve and Bucky back then on the Helicarrier. Not much, but enough for him to know that it would have been a fight to the death. And he had seen the results of Bucky's fighting skills drawn all over Steve's face and body. Steve and Nat had visited him once he got out of the hospital a couple of days later, telling him the full extent of what had happened with SHIELD, as well as what they had found out about his parents' death.

"Holy fuck! Are you telling us that Vic felt the two of you fighting…with you trying to kill Steve?" Clint asked looking a bit pale.

"Yeah. Every hit, every stab, every gunshot. She was in Seattle at the time. The doctors thought the chest strikes were a possible heart attack or a stroke. But after we stopped, she was fine. It didn't leave any lasting effects on her, just pain at the time of impact for a little while. Vic wasn't even mad at me for hurting her like that."

Tony sat back in the seat, glad that he and Pepper didn't have such a strong connection. But then, they didn't have a third person to have to deal with.

"Any more earth-shattering news that we should know going in?" he asked.

"No, that should be it," Bucky said as Vic's arm came up to wrap around his leg.

Stepping over to the storage drawer, he pulled out a spare blanket they had for times like this. Fluffing it out, he laid it over Vic's body.

"Thanks. I don't know how long she's going to be out. Vic doesn't normally just fall asleep like this," Bucky told him.

"Hopefully, she'll get enough sleep so that she'll be nice again," Tony said earning a smack from Clint.

* * *

After Vic woke up four hours later, they had an idea as to what they wanted to do. Clint had used his time to pull up a couple of more detail aerial photos, trying to see the terrain's layout better. He had found an area over a ridge that would be perfect for landing the Quinjet in. It was far enough up and off of the immediate property that it should not be guarded or watched. With the stealth mode on, they would be invisible to any guards anyways.

When they were ready to head towards the castle, if it was clear to do so, they could easily walk the short distance. Of course, Tony had to point out that he would have the worst part of the trip, as his suit was made more to fly than to walk distances. Vic had then told him to 'suck it up' and Tony actually had not complained anymore.

The high ridge overlooking the castle should give them a good view of the inner courtyard. It would be too far for him to be able to shoot anyone, but at least they could get a better idea as to the routine of the guards. As for the moat, they had not figured out how to get over it as of yet. Bucky had pointed out that he should be able to just jump over it. Tony said he could take him across but when Vic asked how she was getting over it, it had started a brand new argument as to Vic's involvement in this rescue.

Vic was determined to get to Steve, no matter the risk to her own well-being. He admired her courage, but none of them wanted even the possibility of her getting hurt to arise. Bucky had gone from her being at the ridge just watching them, to being back at the cover of the trees, to sitting inside of the Quinjet waiting to take off in case of an emergency. He was moving her further and further away from harm with each moment. Clint had finally calmed the argument by pointing out that it was something they would figure something out when the time came.

Now, they were five minutes from landing.

* * *

"Ma'am, one of our outer perimeter sensors was activated two minutes ago," the HYDRA agent informed them, after interrupting their meeting with Zemo to work on the next step of their plan...taking back the Asset.

"What do you have?" she asked as he handed over a tablet to her showing the layout of the surveyed area around her castle.

"Ground vibration over the north ridge, pinpointed to a small area. It is not large enough to be natural," he told them as she zoomed in on the area.

"This would be a good spot to land a Quinjet from view," Rumlow said as he looked at the image also.

"That's why we put the ground sensors out there a few years ago. Just in case SHIELD ever found this place," she told him. "So, it looks like we don't have to have this meeting after all. I believe the Asset has just come to us."

"I can have my device pulled from the storage area and ready in less than five minutes, but you need to have anything electrical you do not want destroyed turned off or disconnected," Zemo said rising from his seat.

"We need them to come to us," she mused out loud. "That way the Asset and whoever is with him will be in range of the device and can be easily and quickly contained once it goes off. Not all of them will be effected. They are here for the Operative. Should we use him as bait?"

"That would draw them in but it may seem too obvious given the situation," Rumlow said his eyes narrowing a bit. "I have an idea that may work. We need them to think they have the advantage over us…"

Informing them of what needed to happen, they left the table and started to work on their individual parts of his plan.

* * *

" _The courtyard looks like it has minimal activity_ ," Clint told them over the earcom. He had moved a bit off to the side to get a different angle on the interior walls and balconies. " _Just a couple of guards moving about. They don't seem to have been alerted to our presence_."

"Good, let's hope it stays that way," Bucky said as he looked over at her, yet again, but as instructed, over and over again, she was not leaving his side…and she was not leaving here without Steve. Which was why she had his shield covered and strapped to her back…for when they found him.

There was only a couple of hours until sunset. The cover of darkness would be a great benefit, except for Tony, who lit up like a Christmas tree in his suit. Bucky had pointed that out, so now he was lying on her other side a couple of feet away while his suit was just a few feet away below the ridge's viewpoint. Nobody in the castle should be able to see the glow from anything on it.

"Well, I hope we…have fun storming the castle," Tony quietly said to her, earning a groan over the earcom from Clint, as she turned to see his smiling face, looking expectant for the correct response.

"Think it will work?" she replied knowingly.

"It would take a miracle," he said happy that she had indulged him.

" _Bye, bye_ ," Clint then added over the earcom.

"What is _wrong_ with you people?" Bucky asked glaring at them.

"Raise your hand if you have never stormed a castle before," Tony requested, to which she raised her hand, but not Bucky.

" _My hand is raised also_ ," Clint added. " _I don't think that it counts since I got hit before getting into Strucker's_."

"This is not playtime!" Bucky pointed out, sounding a lot colder than he had earlier. She knew that he was fixating on the mission ahead, especially since there were so many unknowns. "Will all of you _please_ take this _seriously_?"

"As you wish," she had to reply, as Tony and Clint started to lose it.

* * *

"We thought at first that there were only three of them, but then we noticed him," the agent said moving the security camera to the farthest, highest edge of the ridge. There was Hawkeye, scoping out the area as he always liked to do. Zooming in on the group watching the castle, Rumlow smiled.

"They even brought the Bitch with them," he laughed out. "This is going to be too good. And so easy."

"Is everything in place?" Sin asked as she moved from the control panel over to him, wrapping an arm around his waist.

"Yes, Ma'am. Everything is in place," the agent replied.

"So now we wait," Sin said to the agent. "They will make their move at nightfall after the decoy leaves, using the darkness for cover. Everything of importance needs to shut down at that time, even the security system…but go ahead now and close down the Faustus Machine and the Chair, with all subsystems. It will only help to draw them further into the castle, where we will make our move. Make sure until time for the decoy that all guards follow normal activities."

"Yes, Ma'am," he said before heading off to inform the others.

Zemo then returned, informing him that the E.M.P. device was ready to be activated when they needed.

"Once they are our prisoners, I will bring her to the training room," Sin then told Zemo after glancing at him, "and then _you_ will be put in charge of that Bitch. You will then take her to the special cell that is just waiting for her once the show is over. There will be a guard detail on her at any time she is not inside of it. Nobody is to get near her."

Sin then turned and gave him a pointed look, letting him know that her final sentence was meant specifically for him. Rumlow knew that even though he had told Sin numerous times that he would not touch the Bitch in any sexual way, it seemed that she was not going to take the chance. Instead of repeating himself, he let the comment stand.

Rumlow watched on the video feed as the group outside was discussing something before they did an odd gesture.

"Why are they raising their hands?" Rumlow wondered out loud.

* * *

From his vantage point, Clint noticed that two SUV's pulled into the courtyard from the motor pool area. A small group of guards had been gathering there for the past few minutes, loitering around as if waiting for something. Now, it seemed like they had been waiting for the vehicles to arrive. They had all seemed to be in good spirits and having a good time. A few more guards then left an older section of the castle, dressed in civilian clothes, the same as the others who had been waiting.

"Guys, there's some more movement in the courtyard," he then informed the others over the earcom.

" _What do you have_?" Bucky asked, but Clint figured that he was getting the binoculars to see for himself.

"If I had to guess, I'd say that some of the guards are gathering to go into town for a bit of down time," Clint said as the group began to get into the vehicles.

" _How many did you count_?" Bucky then asked.

"Fourteen total, between the three SUV's that are just heading out now," he said watching as the main gate opened up to let them out. Once they were heading down the road, it closed back down, securing the castle again. "They were dressed in normal clothes. We may have an opportunity of a few hours before they get back. I'm not sure how many guards are left, but that's a lot less for us to deal with if we head in."

There was a few minutes of discussion between the four of them about trying to get inside while the group was gone. They had no idea how many guards were still left inside, but they didn't suspect that it would be too great of a number to handle, especially since the idea was to get in quietly. Bucky could easily take out any they found out without raising any alarm.

" _Clint, give a full recon of the entire castle. See if there is any way for us to get inside besides the front gate and the back leading to the airfield. They would have higher security,"_ Vic then asked of him.

"I'll do a full circle. It'll take me a while to keep from being seen," he told her.

" _That's fine. Keep on comms and if you start to lose signal, head back immediately_ ," Bucky instructed.

"Yes, Sergeant Winter," which earned him a bit of a growl from the easily irritated man.

* * *

As they watched and waited, trying to find anything useful, Clint eventually called over the earcom with something.

" _On the far side is a metal pipe raised over the moat. It looks to then run underground. It may be housing electrical wires, but it is large enough to carefully balance over_."

"Is there a way in or up the wall once over it?" he asked hopeful.

" _Yes, they have an access door that looks modern a few feet away, most likely for maintenance to use_."

"Think you can pull it open?" Vic asked him.

"Most likely, but we don't know what we are walking into," he pointed out.

"We wouldn't know that even if we went in the front door," Tony added.

"The three of us can use the pipe, but Tony, you're screwed," she told him, bringing a smile to his face at hearing her sound a bit more like old self once again. But he did not want to start another argument now about the fact that he was not letting Vic get anywhere else near that castle.

"I can wait here with my suit, and once you three get inside, when you need me, I can be there in seconds," he suggested.

" _That may work_ ," Clint said.

"Tony, is there anything you can do as a scan of the structure?" he asked, wishing that Redwing was here.

"FRIDAY," he said into his watch, "Can you find anything that may give us a layout of the place?"

" _The base structure is stone, consisting of a high mineral content, which is preventing any detailed scans of the original structure. But there does seem to be additions having been made in the last century. Electrical is run from the town ten miles away, but water comes from a deep underground well. The round tower has a heavy electrical field, most likely their main computer center_."

"What about any type of prisoner cells?" Vic asked.

" _The interior building structure appears to be of a modern design and has numerous room that could be cells_."

"So we need to get across the courtyard to the building with the red tiled roof," Bucky said looking the area over. There were small obstacles scattered near the interior walls, as well as odd shaped openings near the ground, probably from when the castle was new and needed ventilation. They seemed to have been sealed with wood or brick, but the recesses could easily hide a person in them.

"So how long until sunset?" she asked.

"Just over an hour," Tony answered.

* * *

Vic watched as Clint crossed over the pipe first since he was used to such a maneuver. Bucky went next because he refused to have her over there on the HYDRA side without him. She pointed out that she would then be alone over here, which earned a grumble, but he had then said better out than in.

She had paid attention to Clint's walk, studying how he balance so she had no problem duplicating his technique, even with Steve's shield strapped to her back. At the door they found that it was secured from the inside, no exterior lock of any kind. Bucky put his ear to the door and listened for a few moments before twisting the handle and yanking hard, popping the interior lock. No alarm sounded that they could hear and the castle's sounds also did not change.

Creeping inside, they found themselves in a maintenance tunnel that led to another interior door only a few feet away. More creeping to that door, with Clint examining the lock. Pulling out a set of lock picks, he had the door opened in a matter of seconds. She decided that maybe that would be a nice trick to learn in the future. Bucky then listed at the door again but seemed pleased with the silence he heard.

Opening the door and exiting the tunnel carefully, they found a cross-tunnel, and Bucky pointed them to the right, in the general direction of the building they wanted to get to. The ceiling had string bulb lights dangling overhead for illuminating the hall. When he came to the final door at the end of the hallway that had a small bar window, he looked through it and indicated they were to obviously go that way.

"Stay close to me," he firmly instructed her, again, as if she had somehow forgotten the speech he had given before leaving Tony at the Quinjet. "Stay against the wall, look for my hand gestures to guide you."

"Yes, Sirs," she answered as if Steve were also here, giving Bucky a salute. There was no mistaking the irritated look he gave her.

Following closely to Bucky, keeping up against the wall on her right, they were now in the courtyard, with the building they wanted to get to only about two hundred feet away. Overall, the courtyard was fairly dark, with a couple of security lights directly above doors scattered around the walls. But they were taking the long wall route instead of a straight line. Clint was bringing up their rear, an arrow ready to fly at the first sign of trouble.

Bucky had instructed her to follow in his footsteps (as if there were traps on the ground – ha) and hide where he either hid or indicated to her. He had argued for her staying on the cliff, preferably back in the Quinjet, but both Tony and Clint had pointed out that with her training that they stood a better chance of getting out of here with her help if a fight started. They was also the benefit of numbers. Tony's main job was to be on standby in case something did happen. His main concern would be to get Vic out of harm's way and away from Rumlow at all costs. Bucky had included his and Clint's capture as payment as long as she made it out of here safe. But she had not voiced her opinion that his decision was not acceptable, knowing the argument _that_ would start.

So far, their ' _storming of the castle_ ' reminded her more of a thief sneaking around, only she hadn't stolen anything yet. About a quarter of the way across the overall distance, two guards exited a door not too far away from them, chatting to themselves. Bucky gestured towards the wall behind them with a small alcove. All three of them stealthily moved inside, into the darkness. The guards continued to head across the courtyard and entered another door on the far side, not having seen them at all.

Moving back out to where they had been, Bucky kept them heading forward at a slow but steady pace towards they building she hoped housed Steve. Minutes later, when they were about at the half way mark across the courtyard…that was when it happened.

The gun shots started to go off from her left side and she felt bits of chipped stone falling onto her as the bullets struck the wall just over their heads. Whoever was shooting had to have been aiming that high on purpose. Their group had somehow been spotted, and they were wanted alive.

"Get down!" Bucky yelled as he knelt and turned to aim his guns in the direction of the shooter, who was stationed on the upper wall across the courtyard from them. She crouched while pulling her own guns and fired in the same direction, seeing more shapes moving high up thanks to a bit of moonlight illuminating them. At the same time, more guards appeared from a door directly across from them, underneath of the guard that had fired. Clint sent out an explosive arrow towards them, taking all three of them out with the blast.

Floodlights around the parameter then activated, illuminating the entire courtyard area in blinding light, especially since they had gotten used to the shielding darkness.

"Tony, get down here!" Clint called into the earcom as he fired more arrows into the swarming guards.

As more stared exiting from the building they were heading towards, she turned on them as Bucky took care of others coming from more doors around the entire courtyard. Pulling from her training, and knowing that this was for Steve, Vic aimed for the running targets getting closer with each step. Five of the guards went down easily, but two others must have been wearing armor of some kind since they kept moving forwards towards them even after her shots impacted on their chests.

From overhead, she heard the familiar sound of Iron Man flying towards them. Appearing over the high wall, he blasted at more guards coming from yet another courtyard door from a bit behind them. Landing next to them, Tony moved in front of her, shielding her from the flying bullets that seemed to be still aimed a bit high. But between him and Bucky shielding her, she no longer had a clear line of sight on any target. That was when the strange energy blasts started, all of them aimed directly at Tony.

"Get her out of here!" Bucky screamed at Tony, but she wasn't about to leave him here to get captured too. Then there was the sound of feedback from a speaker and microphone.

" _Good evening, Gentleman and Bitch_ ," Rumlow's voice echoed throughout the courtyard.

"Tony! Now!" Bucky yelled while shooting guards coming in from behind them.

Clint was still aiming at the far doors, trying to pin the guards in with mini-explosions. Tony tried to turn towards her, but thanks the group of guards with the energy weapons which were striking Tony repeatedly, Vic could see the small sparks emanating at his joints from the damaged being caused by the weapons. The shots were impacting the suit's movements, preventing him from just grabbing her and flying out of here.

" _Don't worry, we have a couple of cells all lined up for you_ ," they heard Rumlow say, a mockery of what Tony had told Rumlow on the balcony that day almost a year ago.

Hearing that, one of the metal doors leading into the larger original structure rolled up quickly, revealing a mechanical device and a man standing next to it…Helmut Zemo.

Pressing a controller in his hand, an electrical pulse shock-wave went out over the entire courtyard and castle area. The lights that had been aimed at them turned off, throwing the entire area back into darkness. But then in the moonlight, she saw the large shape in front of her stop its normal glow and start to fall in her direction.

As Tony in his now powered down suit fell backwards, she threw herself to the ground away from him to avoid being crushed by it. Tony lay flat on his back as she looked down at him. Small flashlights then began to activate around them from the locations of the alive guards.

"Vic, get out of here!" Bucky said grabbing her with his right hand and lifting her into a standing position. Using the minimal light, she could tell he was standing a bit oddly, his left side dropped down, and the gun he had been holding in his left hand was lying on the ground. Then she understood.

"Your arm!" she exclaimed, grabbing him as more shots impacted above them, causing them to duck.

"I suggest you all stop moving and drop your weapons," Sin's voice said from somewhere in the courtyard. She could then hear the sound of small generators activating. Suddenly a couple of industrial spotlights turned on. Since they had been off, the E.M.P. had no effect on them.

There were now three times the number of guards pointing guns at them than they had already taken out. They numbered at least twice the amount that had left in the vehicles earlier. Vic then understood that they had been spotted and set up the entire time. Clint looked over at her as he then folded his bow before placing it on the ground. Bucky then dropped his remaining gun as he looked over the area, and seeing that they had no chance right now. She did the only thing she could…she followed Bucky's lead and dropped the guns in her hands.

"Vic," Clint's voice sounded worried, "Tony's suit is air tight. If we don't get that mask off, he'll suffocate."

Bending down, the two of them together began to pry their fingers around the face plate's edges. After a few more seconds, it finally popped off, Tony gasping at the fresh air.

"Hell of a design flaw, _genius_ ," she quipped as Bucky pulled her up and then behind her, protecting her the only way he could.

"Really?" Tony snidely remarked, as he stared up at her.

"Hello there, Asset," Sin greeted Bucky, stepping into the light. She didn't have a gun in her hand which was probably good since it meant they really did want them alive.

"If I remember correctly," Rumlow's voice sounded from much closer, not through a speaker this time, but he was still in the darkness, "We should now be at lesson number two."

Vic felt Bucky's right arm move behind him and across her own back, pulling her right up against him. They were only about a foot away from the wall.

"This one should be a real surprise to all of you," Rumlow told them appearing from close to where they had passed by, coming to stand right next to Sin, who had a scheming grin on her face. "Turns out, Sin here told me about something special, that nobody else in HYDRA knew about, not even Pierce. This lesson is called…the Pain of Uncertainty, since you would expect a soulmate to be there for you, especially when you needed him the most."

With that, Sin then spoke a single word, "Sputnik."

Bucky's firm grip on her went lax, as his entire body then began to collapse to the ground as he fell limp.

"Bucky!" she screamed as she knelt down next to him, checking to see if he was dead or alive.

Sin then began to laugh. Clint stepped over Tony's prone form and knelt next to her, searching for a pulse.

"He alive, just unconscious," he told her, making her feel better, just a little as she touched his face, tapping her hand to it to try and wake him up. There was not a sign of consciousness from him.

"Of course he is. Why would I take out my Asset when what I have planned for him will be so much more fun?" Rumlow remarked while gripping Sin around the waist as she continued to laugh at their situation. As she looked up at the disgusting pair, she made eye contact with Rumlow, as he told her, "And don't even get me started on what I have planned for you, Bitch!"


	93. Time To Meet The Operative

When Bucky finally began to comprehend that he was waking up from being unconscious, panic overcame him. What the hell had happened to him? He could not remember anyone firing a gun at him or even a tranquilizer dart hitting him. All he remembered was standing in front of Vic one moment...

"Vic!"

Only silence greeted him. Trying to move, he found that he was already in an upright position, but on his knees. Two thick metal bars attached to the sides of a collar of some kind around his neck, which then attached to the floor, holding him there. He could not move forward or backwards.

His arms were behind his back, his hands touching the opposite arm's elbows. There was a thick metal restraint that covered the entirety of forearms. When he went to try and flex his left arm, an electrical shock was sent from the cuff to prevent him from using it. Bucky screamed out as the nerves in his shoulder and chest tingled painfully where flesh met metal. The device was adequately incapacitating him.

So where was here? A single light fixture mounted high over his head. There was a small camera in the corner in front of him, a red light indicating that it was active.

"Vic!" he tried again.

Looking around, he saw that he was alone in a stone cell with a metal door which had two embedded rails in the ground going under it before him. Focusing on them, he understood that he was actually on a slightly raised platform, not the actual floor. The bars holding him immobile were attached to it.

Glancing over his body, his leather armor had been left on, but all of his visible weapons were missing. Since Rumlow had known him during his time with HYDRA, he guessed that he also knew of the location of all of his hidden knives, and that they were now gone. They had, for some reason, left his mask on.

"Vic!" he screamed, again listening for any response. Nothing. "Victoria!"

* * *

Vic was tired of pacing the small cell she had been placed in. The guards had manged to find and remove every gun and knife on her but she was most pissed at having Steve's shield taken away. She heard footsteps coming down the hall. Guess the assholes were ready for whatever they had in store.

"I _hate_ your hair color," Sin told her as she came to a stop outside of the cell after watching her for a moment. "It reminds me of purity and goodness. _Gross_."

"This coming from a red-head…a soulless one?" Vic taunted her back. "Actually, that's an insult to natural redheads since that color could only come from a bottle. Out of curiosity, since you're so old, do you even get modern references?"

"Oh, I get a lot of things, Bitch," she smiled at her.

"I'm sure you do," Vic then decided to see how much Sin could take. "Since Rumlow never told me, exactly how far down do those burns go? Is he even still able to get it up?"

"Hell yeah he can," Sin took the jab like a pro. She was not as easy to anger as Rumlow had been. She'll just have to try harder. "Knows how to use it too."

"Even bad barbers can cut hair," she grinned at her. "But then, it's been so long for you, I would guess that any dick or cucumber would do. By the way, have you hit menopause yet?"

"Watch your mouth, Bitch, or I may just let my Brock Baby go through with some of his original plans for you."

"No, thanks! You couldn't pay me enough money to fuck that shriveled up burnt sausage," she then decided to get to the point. "Where's Steve and Bucky?"

"You'll be seeing both of them _soon enough_ , Bitch," Sin told her. "The Asset is just waking up now."

"What did you do to Bucky?"

"When he was captured and turned over to HYDRA, I was still awake. Not only did he have his compliance trigger words implanted, but there was a one-time fail-safe word added to shut him down in case his programming faltered and it became necessary to take him out."

"Sputnik."

"Who knew that such an unusual word would later become so famous?" she grinned at her. One-time? Did that mean that they could never use it on him again? How she hoped so...

"You do know that the compliance words no long have any effect on him, right?" Vic asked.

"Doesn't matter, Bitch," Sin smiled. "We are going to use on him the exact same technique we used on our Operative."

"Operative?" she asked hesitantly, really not liking that term.

"You know…that other soulmate of your," Sin cackled out.

Vic stepped across the small cell and reached out to try and grab for her, but Sin had positioned herself less than a foot just out of reach.

"Too bad. Now," she said swatting her hand away before stepping over to a chair with an orange jumpsuit on it. Picking it up, Sin tossed it at the bars. Vic allowed it to fall to the floor before her, instead of catching it. "You have one minute to remove your clothes and put that on."

"Why the fuck would I do that?" Vic asked nastily.

"Because for every minute you don't…" Sin said as she pulled out a cellphone and turned the screen to where she could see Bucky secured kneeling in his own cell somewhere, "… _this_ will happen to him."

Pressing a button on the screen, Bucky began to scream in pain.

"What are you doing? Stop that!" she said reaching out for the distant phone.

"That was an electrical charge located in his restraints. Don't you just _love_ modern technology? If you don't comply, then _zap_ ," she grinned in delight. "You know…"

Sin then lazily started to tap her finger on the button, over and over, and she could hear Bucky screaming from the quick charges surging through him.

"Stop that, you bitch! All right, I'll change!" Vic reluctantly agreed only to stop his torture. Sin smugly grinned, knowing that she had won. Grabbing the orange jumpsuit from the floor, she tossed it against the wall before turning and starting to undress. She considered throwing her boots at Sin, but then she would probably just make Bucky suffer for her action.

"Not so fast. Stand over there," Sin pointed to the far side of the cell from the jumpsuit. "Undress. Let me see that you have no weapons still hidden on you, _then_ walk over and put it on. And don't forget to hurry, Bitch. Zap, zap."

Sin waved the phone back and forth as she watched Bucky trying to struggle with his own bonds. He had no idea _why_ he had just been shocked. Would he even guess it was to make her comply with a demand? She could see him from the front, but his arms were behind him. What kind of restraints had they used to keep him from using his left arm to free himself? Had the E.M.P. permanently damaged it? Or were the shocks enough on their own to incapacitate it?

Standing in only her sports bra and panties with Steve's shield on them, Vic gave a simple turn so Sin could see that she was weaponless. Not that she couldn't defend herself in other ways, thanks to the heavy training she had been doing. Stepping over, she then put the tacky orange jumpsuit on, snapping closed the metal rivet buttons.

"Now," Sin said lifting her finger, making guards appear from down the hallway with a couple of items in their hands that she knew were for her, "Let's get you ready to go and see _both_ of your soulmates."

* * *

Tony heard the lock on the cell being unlatched, and he did not like it one bit. He'd had to lie there on the ground and watch as Clint had been led in one direction, with Bucky being dragged unconscious in another direction. But he _really_ did not like having to watch Victoria being led away personally by Sin and Rumlow. The guards were still trying to remove parts of his suit from him, piece by piece while a muzzle of a gun was resting hard on his forehead. Clint had tried to fight with the guards, yelling and trying to get to Vic, but Rumlow had then pulled a gun and put it to Vic's temple. That was all it took for Clint to stop. Neither one of them would do anything to put her into further danger.

As the door opened, he saw past to the guards, making eye contact with Clint, whose hands were resting on top of his head. It seemed that their group might be getting back together. But considering the position they were in, that may not be a good thing. Following the guard's instructions, he duplicated Clint's stance as he exited the small cell and another guard led them down the hallway.

Tony had hoped that they would be stopping at one or two of the other cells to gather Vic and Bucky, but either they were not necessary for this trip, or they were already there. He really hoped it was the former. There was no telling what Rumlow had cooked up as revenge against Victoria. If they could see her, then they would know that she would be alright...at least he hoped so.

They were led through a set of door into a large strange room. It was the two metal freestanding bar cells off to the left that he noticed first since that was where the guards were leading them. The only other structure was a large hole in the ground. After locking each of them inside of their own cell, the guards stood off to the side, as if waiting for someone.

Moving over to the joining wall of Clint's cell, they had a quick, very quiet chat about their situation. Tony only hoped that his 'part' of a simple plan didn't take too long to happen. Unfortunately, he had no idea as to how long it would really take. Information that did not make Clint happy since it would be a few hours at least until his suit came back online.

* * *

Clint examined the huge strange room that he and Tony were locked inside of. It looked like it was part of the original castle's lower structure, as the high ceiling was made from the same material as the walls. There had been additions to it though.

The metal cage cells they were in were more modern, and required a real key to unlock. Over their heads, steel I-beams had been added, running from wall to wall, probably to help support the structure up. Off to their left side, a chain hung from the center beam, over the solid floor, with a crank attaching it to the wall. In front of them, on the floor, dual tracks led to a metal roll up door on the wall which had a chain crank off to the side of it. Clint guessed that they posed less of a threat, so they got the plain cells with no bells or whistles. Also, nothing electronic for Tony to mess with in the entire room so far, only the lights hanging from the I-beams, illuminating the place.

The only other thing in the room was a large round circular hole in the floor to their right, at least fifteen feet across, which reminded him of the movie _300_. What was a pit of some kind doing inside of a castle? A well for water if the place was under siege? There was a floor mounted jib crane on the side closest to the wall with a short length of chain dangling from it and lever to hold it in place.

Tony's suit was not in this room, and his watch had been taken, so he had no ability to contact FRIDAY. But Tony had assured him during their quick chat, that after an unknown reset time, which would be at least a few hours, that FRIDAY would be able to eventually turn his suit on. Once that happened, he could call it using the subdermal implants in his arms, he just didn't know how long it would actually take for the reboot. If he was not careful though, Rumlow could easily deactivate his suit again, maybe even destroy it.

They had not spoken aloud of the possibility of Nat and the others coming to their rescue. If Rumlow and Sin considered that as a possibility, then they may have time to prepare like they did for them. Hopefully when the rest of the team got here, it would take them by surprise.

The doors then burst open and Rumlow marched in with Zemo and a couple of guards, armed and aiming right for them. Both he and Tony took a step back from where they had been leaning on the front of the cell bars.

"Time for the show!" Rumlow happily stated as he swung his hands in the direction of the metal roll-up door. Three guards moved towards it, one pulling on the chain that lifted the metal door. As it lifted, they saw that Bucky was behind it, strapped down kneeling on a platform. Even with his mask on, they could tell he was angry. How could he _not_ be?

"Told you my devices would work," Zemo said to Rumlow. They had not realized that this was where they had put Bucky while he had been unconscious.

"Where's Vic?" Bucky growled out from behind his mask. He could barely move due to the rods holding him kneeling. The two guards then grabbed chains that attached to the underside of his platform, pulling him on the track from inside of the small room. They stopped once he was just outside of it. He glanced just long enough in their direction so they knew he had seen them.

"Don't worry," Rumlow said with a grin, looking at all of them. "Sin is retrieving her now. She didn't trust me with her alone. I think she's a little jealous."

"Don't you _fucking_ touch her!" Bucky threatened him struggling a bit.

" _I_ won't be laying a single finger on her. That's not what we have planned."

Hearing that, Clint started to become extremely worried as to what was about to happen. A squeaky noise from the door, caught his attention and as he turned to look, they opened again. This time Sin led the way, with a couple of guards following her. They surrounded an old style wooden wheelchair from the forties. Sitting in it was Vic.

"Vic!" Bucky screamed at her, making her look over at him.

But she couldn't say anything. In her mouth was a large red ball gag, just like the kind Rumlow had put on her a year ago. Her outfit had also changed, and she was now in an orange prison jumpsuit. Around her upper and lower chest were leather straps, pulled tight. Her legs had similar ones at her ankles and just above her knees.

Even given the situation, the moment she saw Bucky, Clint could see relief in her eyes.

"You didn't spoil the surprise for them, did you, Baby?" Sin asked Rumlow as she came over and gripped his neck with her hand.

"Of course not," he grinned before Sin planted a hard kiss on his mouth.

The guards knew what was expected of them because continued over to the side opposite of the room away from the hole to where a chain hung from the I-beam over the solid floor. Clint noticed that Zemo moved over to the opposite side of the room near the jib crane. There was something about his expression that he couldn't read. He then turned back towards Vic.

Lifting her out of the wheelchair, the guards stood Vic upright at the chain. As they moved her, they all could see more straps around her wrists and upper arms, pinning them painfully tight behind her back. She tried to struggle, but it was useless with how she was restrained.

Once the back of her upper chest strap was secured to the hanging chain, they then attached two more chains from the floor to the lower waist strap. The guard that had opened Bucky's cell door then moved to the other crank and began to turn it. They all watched as Vic was lifted up off of the floor about a foot. Doing so removed the slack in the side chains, holding her in a forward position.

"Now, Bitch, it is time for your third lesson," Rumlow happily said, his arms spread wide, a smile on his face. "I like to call this one…the _Pain of Betrayal!_ "

"Rumlow," Bucky was sounding extremely worried, " _Whatever_ you are about to do… _don't_."

"Like I said… _I'm_ not about to do anything to the Bitch."

Sin then stepped away from Rumlow and headed over to Vic. She swept a hand over Vic's face, to which she jerked her head away from the touch. Sin then pulled a black bag hood from her back pocket.

"See you in a little while, Bitch," she said before pulling it over Vic's head. She then tucked Vic's long braided hair into the back of the jumpsuit where it was not visible.

"Rumlow…name your price! You _know_ that I'm good for it," Tony yelled, banging on the bars on his cell to get his attention. He and Sin didn't even pay attention to him.

"Operative!" Sin then called out loudly.

This time when the doors opened, Clint wanted to scream.

Steve freely walked into the room, wearing an outfit that was a hideous version of his Captain America one. It was solid black with a large red HYDRA symbol on the chest. Even his black cap had a red letter H where the A usually was. His silly little wings had been replaced with horrible little tentacles.

"Steve?" Bucky called out, not believing his eyes.

"Cap!" Clint and Tony called out at the same time, but he didn't even look their way. Instead, Steve headed directly over to where Sin and Rumlow were now standing together in the center of the room. When he was directly before them, they all watched in revulsion as Steve dropped to one knee, his fist on the floor before him, his head bowed.

He was now subservient to the two of them.

All three of them continued to call out for their friend, but he never even flinched in recognition of their voices or even his own name.

Rumlow looked over at them, and then at Bucky, with an evil grin at knowing what he had accomplished.

"Stand, Operative!" Rumlow commanded with pride in his voice. Steve did as instructed.

Sin then pointed at where Vic was struggling, suspended, saying, "This person needs to be punished. Let's start with ten strikes."

"Yes, Herrin," Steve proudly stated before starting to walk towards Vic. Was he really going to do this? The room suddenly became loud as multiple voices acted at one.

"Steve, don't…that's Victoria…that's Vic!" Bucky screamed.

Tony started yelling, offering any amount of money for their freedom. He himself went another route and was yelling threats of pain and death at the two of them. And Bucky continued screaming at Steve, calling to him over and over, trying to get his attention. Steve stopped just over a foot away and stood looking at Vic's hooded body for about two seconds as the multiple voices echoed loudly in the stone room.

But when Steve delivered the first punch, the room grew deathly silent.

Clint stood there not believing what was before him. He was frozen watching Steve punch Vic over and over again in her stomach and lower chest. He then realized that he could hear a mixture of crying. One belonging to Vic. The other Bucky. He hoped that with her increased physical endurance that the blows she was receiving would not hurt as badly as they could have, especially coming from Steve. They had all seen the broken punching bags.

Dropping his head, Clint couldn't watch the rest, but he heard each thump as fist met flesh. Then the room became silent except for Victoria's crying. He felt a wave of anger and fear wash over him for what she was going through.

"Was that sufficient, Herrin?" he heard Steve ask, which made him look back up. Steve was once again kneeling before them.

"What do you think, Brock Baby?" Sin asked Rumlow, running her hands over his chest affectionately. They were a sick couple.

"I think ten more would suffice," Rumlow announced.

"Please, no…no, don't do this to her," Bucky begged as Clint watched the tears run down his face. Vic had become still, but he could see her still breathing, and now there was a slight moaning cry from hearing Rumlow's declaration.

"Bitch should have been nicer to me when she had the chance," Rumlow told them. "Operative…ten more."

"Yes, Meister!" Steve said standing and turning back to Vic.

Clint dropped his head and banged it on the bars with each punch that he heard, barely stopping his own tears from falling. What had they done to Steve to make him do this? Was this how Bucky had been when he was the under HYDRA control as the Winter Solider? Blindly obeying any order given? It reminded him of when he had been under Loki's control, obeying without thought. Was this what they planned to do to Bucky again?

"Was that sufficient?" he eventually heard Steve once again ask on his knee.

"Definitely, Operative! Rise!" Sin happily answered as he heard movement, so he looked between the bars and saw guards following the silent hand gesture from Sin, moving over to the standing Steve. They carried two pairs of cuff similar to the ones SHIELD used for high level prisoners. Steve willing held out his arms and allowed himself to be restrained by them before his lower legs were also secured. He had to have been ' _trained_ ' to respond to treatment like this. "And compliance will be rewarded."

"Hail HYDRA."

They were all silenced at hearing that atrocious phrase uttered from Steve.

" _Now_ …comes the _best_ part," Rumlow said with a large smile.

"When we reprogrammed our Operative, we decided to leave in a memory trigger…you know, just for fun. Something that would bring _immense_ joy to us, while at the same time _torturing_ poor Rogers," Sin said walking over to Vic's dangling form. She then pulled the hood up and off of her head. Vic looked like she was almost unconscious.

As Steve stared at the exposed face of the person he had just tortured, the three of them watched him as the understanding of _who_ he was looking at came back to his Chair-wiped mind.

"No," they heard him whisper.

After another second, he began to scream, one formed of pure agony, the sound deafening them. As he then tried to move forwards towards her it only made him fall onto his knees thanks to the lower cuffs while the guards grabbed his arms, holding him upright.

"NO! Victoria! I'm so sorry! Victoria!"

Vic then lifted her head, coming out of her delirium just enough to be able to look Steve in the eyes. He then watched as Vic, even with the gag in her mouth, smiled at finally seeing Steve after so long, even knowing what he had just done to her. As he fought with the guards, trying to get free, Steve spotted Bucky off to the side, trapped.

"Buck! Get her out of here! Victoria!"

Steve then took a good look around the room, spotting him and Tony also captured and weaponless, and Clint saw the terror cross his face at understanding that the people he was counting on for a rescue needed one of their own. Steve started screaming as he turned back to look at Vic.

Five guards continued to hold on to him as he tried to struggle, and then began to pull Steve away from Vic, through the room and out of the door, all while he screamed her name and begged forgiveness the entire time. Hearing his screams of misery as he was dragged away was utterly heartbreaking. Clint then looked over at where Bucky was kneeling quietly, head drooped, not a sound coming from him.

"That _was_ fun," Sin said before planting a kiss on Rumlow's mangled face. "I can't wait to do it _again_ tomorrow."

"You can't!" Clint said, finally managing to get their attention. "Take Tony's offer. You'll be _rich_. You can go _anywhere_. We promise to _never_ come after you. All you have to do is _take the money_ and free all of us."

"Sorry, birdbrain," Rumlow said coming closer to their cells. "There's _no_ amount of money that can _buy_ the happiness that I just experienced."

"I am going to _kill_ _both_ of you!"

Clint looked past the evil pair to where Bucky was. His head had been hanging, but now, he was lifting it, staring right at Rumlow and then Sin. There was a coldness in his eyes that he'd never seen there before.

"The only _killing_ you'll be doing, _Asset_ , is for _us_!" Sin snidely remarked, walking over to him, running her red painted nails over his mask, making a scraping sound. "For tonight, _Rogers_ will be _crying_ in his cell, reliving what he just did to his precious soulmate over and over for hours. And in the morning, _Rogers_ will go back into the Chair, before having another treatment in the Faustus Machine, once again turning him into our _Operative_. Then, as a treat after lunch for us, we're going to bring him back in here, and do _all of this_ over _again_."

As she was speaking, Rumlow walked over to stand next to Victoria, glaring at her with a crooked smile.

"We finally decided that seventeen days would be an appropriate time. It's the same number of days the Bitch here put me into the hospital with that trick she pulled," Rumlow said grasping her chin in his hand then shoving it away from him, jerking her head.

"If you do that, you'll _kill_ her!" Tony blurted out. " _Nobody_ could withstand numerous beating like that. Not from _Steve_...not with his _strength_!"

"What does it matter?" Sin then said nonchalantly, lifting her shoulders up. "We were planning on killing the Bitch anyways. We can't have that face around here where our Operative _might_ happen to see it. If she dies before the seventeen days are up, then we just start the Asset on his reprogramming sooner. We wanted to keep him around for the shows."

"You know," started Rumlow, who was now looking very intently between him and Tony as he walked towards them, "Since we have them anyway…how about adding a master archer and the Merchant of Death as _additional toys_?"

Clint heard Tony growl a bit at hearing his old nickname from years ago, before stopping his company's arms manufacturing. Sin then came up behind Rumlow, running her hands over his chest as she looked at them.

"Bonus prizes…I like it!"

"Since the show is over for tonight, have the guards put the two of them back into their cells and start the deprivation program. We may as well get them softened up for the Chair as soon as possible," Rumlow then said to Zemo, who had been standing quietly off to the side, watching the entire perverse show. Turning back towards Victoria, Clint saw an evil grin cross Rumlow's face. "As for the Bitch, I think a little something _extra_ is needed for all of the insults that foul redneck mouth of hers threw out at me from last time."

"Her cell is ready and waiting but if you want..." Sin then said walking over to Vic, running her braid through her hand. Turning to face Zemo, she told him, "Let the _guards_ have her for a few hours, _then_ lock her up until we need her tomorrow."

"What the _fuck_ is _wrong_ with you?" Tony then screamed at Sin. "How could you even _suggest_ that?"

Sin then pulled one of the side arms she carried and pressed it to Vic throat hard enough that they saw her hanging body move back from the pressure. "Would you prefer that I put a bullet in her right now?"

"Stop!" Bucky then screamed, causing a horrible smile on Sin's face. She knew that all three of them would probably agree to anything as long as Vic lived.

"Since you already gave _me_ charge of the prisoner earlier," Zemo's voice then sounded in the chamber, " _I_ will oversee Victoria until she is put into her cell."

This drew everyone's attention to Zemo.

"I shall have Victoria keep _me_ company for a bit," Zemo then said, making all three of them angry at the possible outcome of his suggestion. But, at least Vic would be alive. And they needed more time before they could get out of here. She just had to hang on for less than a day.

Rumlow then looked over at Sin, who seemed pleased with the offer. Clint gave an audible sigh of relief as Sin put her gun away, as she walked over to Rumlow.

"Fine," Rumlow said, "She needs to understand who is in charge here. Make sure that you take her down a peg or two. And don't go easy on her...the Bitch can take a beating. Trust me."

"Of course," Zemo responded with a smile.

"When you are done with her, just make sure that the Bitch is locked away for the night. The guards know where her cell is. Come on, Baby," Sin said nipping Rumlow's ear with her teeth. "That show got me hot and I need some attention."

He watched, grossed out, as the two of them walked out, barely able to keep their hands off one another. Zemo looked over at Victoria still hanging for a moment, before leaving the room and seeming to head down the opposite hall from the twisted pair. Doing so left the four of them alone, as it had taken all of the guards in the room to haul a struggling Steve away.

"Vic," Bucky calmly spoke her name. "I know…I felt it…Are you alright?"

As Vic nodded her head, Clint understood what Bucky had meant, dropping his head as he felt nauseous. With their connection, he had just felt everything Steve had done to Vic…every single punch.

"I _never_ should have let you come!" Bucky stated, sounding slightly broken with the admission. "Vic, I _can't_ get free! I _can't_ stop him from taking you away!"

Clint then heard fingers snapping and he looked over at Vic where the sound was coming from, seeing her looking at him.

Moving to the far left side of his cell, he was able to get a clear view of Vic's bound hands. She then began to ASL sign to him, one letter at a time. She asked if he would pass a message, but it would break her promise for him to do so. He knew that promise from months ago meant very little right now. He nodded in agreement to her so she signed her message to him.

"Vic says…forget her and save Steve."

"What are you talking about?" Tony asked

"Vic's using sign language to talk to me. I can see her hands."

"You know sign language?" Bucky then asked looking from Vic to him.

"Yeah…I kind of never told anyone…but I'm partially deaf."

He knew the looks that he was getting.

" _Now_ is not the time for jokes…and that's coming from _me_ ," Tony deadpanned.

"I'm _not_ joking," he sighed. "I had some trauma as a child that left me partially deaf. I had to learn sign language and lip reading to get by."

"How did we _not_ know this?" Tony asked looking at him curious. "And how the hell does _Victoria_ know?"

"You should _never_ just go around and point out a potential weakness to people…like maybe your _home address_ ," Clint pointed out, earning a muffled laugh from Vic, and a scowl from Tony for the taunt. "As for Vic knowing, she figured it out when we were working on the insulation in the crawl space under my house. She was mumbling an insult under her breath but I didn't realize that and responded. I made her promise to not tell anyone, and of course she didn't."

"Vic, somehow we are all going to get out of this, but you've got to be strong, Sugar," Bucky then stated firmly. He heard her snap again.

"She's signing…I…will…I…love…you."

"We know," Bucky said. Then he told her, "You know that wasn't really Steve, right?"

Victoria nodded her head. She looked exhausted and weak as she hung there unable to move.

The doors then opened again, as the guards returned to separate them for the night.

* * *

Helmut came to where the hallway turned, and finding it empty, released the breath he had been holding in. Resting his back against the wall, his mind kept replaying the horrible sight that he had just witnessed. He had been told what to expect for these past few weeks, but seeing it actually happen, _that_ was a different story.

Rumlow never stopped talking about his hatred for Victoria, especially on days when his limp was more noticeable. Sin could only talk about wanting to avenger her father's death, by torturing the man she held responsible for it. The two of them were a sick team, figuring out this plan on how to achieve both of their heart's desires.

But, watching as Victoria was strung up, the same as all of the other prisoners had been, it had felt different this time. Maybe because he knew that she was about to be beaten by her own soulmate, who would not care at all, not until her face had been revealed once he could not fight back anymore. He could only think of Heike, and how glad he was that he never had such a thing done to him. If he had ever hurt his wife…he started to think he now knew what Rogers was feeling.

He had listened to the sickening thuds as she was struck over and over, and then Rumlow had decided to double the amount. He had wanted the downfall of the Avengers for the death of his family, but now, seeing what his alliance with the two of them really meant, the torture of someone he _did not see_ as responsible, Helmut began to wonder if _this_ was the best way to achieve it.

Hearing the guards returning to the room after locking Rogers away, Helmut took a deep breath before stepping back into the hallway to meet up with them. Earlier today, Sin had instructed him that after the ' _show_ ', he was to be in charge of Victoria, but when they had suggested letting the guards rape her, he knew then that he _would not_ allow that to happen. Even with his time in the military, and the things he had done, never would he have considered allowing any of his soldiers to do that.

Walking into the room, he watched as Stark and Hawkeye were removed from their cells, but this time, their hands were cuffed behind their backs before doing so. After what they had witnessed, there was a greater chance of them fighting to get free.

As they passed him, Stark stared at him, and in a low voice said, "If you fucking _touch_ Vic, I will personally kill you _before_ Bucky has the chance."

He could see the hatred in the man's eyes at thinking that this woman, who was probably nothing more than a friend, would be treated so. But he could not tell them the truth. Not that they would believe him anyways.

"That's only if _I_ don't get to you _first_ ," Hawkeye then informed him as the guards hauled him away next, both of them with guns pointed at their back to insure compliance. He found the protective nature of these two men, not even soulmates, for this single female curious. From all of the stories he had heard over the past few months since coming here to work with Rumlow and Sin, he had expected Victoria to be the devil incarnate, with how mean and hateful Rumlow spoke of her being.

Other guards were now pushing the rolling cart that the Asset was strapped onto back inside of the small room. It had been determined that with his special training, on top of his protective temperament of Victoria, that he would be too great of a risk to move often. Therefore, he had been requested to design the bindings that currently held him in place. The electrical shocks that would pass through his body would only temporarily incapacitate his unique arm, but not do any permanent damage to it.

"Vic, just hold on," Helmut watched him say as he was rolled back. "Remember your promise. We love you."

With those final words, the metal roll door closed him in for the night. By tomorrow evening, they would have to put him into one of the other cells that had been modified. If he even touched any of the walls, an electrical charge would be activated, strong enough to knock him unconscious. Sin and Rumlow had wanted him to suffer a bit, so leaving him bound in such a position was his punishment. After a few hours, his entire body would become sore from not being able to move properly.

Now, he turned his attention to Victoria where she still hung strung up. Sin never openly admitted to it aloud to him, but he could tell that she was worried as to what Rumlow may try to do when she was not around him. Rumlow sure knew it. For someone who claimed a lot of hate towards Victoria, Rumlow seemed to have some other kind of fascination with her. Therefore, Sin had decided that Victoria needed to be placed in a cell that was not easily accessible to anyone with their own ideas as to how to torture her...or do anything else.

"Take her down and place her into the wheelchair. Victoria will be coming to my room for a while," he blandly stated to the two guards. He watched as she winced in pain as they sat her down. The entire time, her eyes were staring daggers at him. He had no doubt that she would try to fight her way free if given the chance. He would have to use extra precautions with her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so now you are probably screaming and angry with me. But I can say that everything will work itself out. You don't think I'd let them all stay prisoner for long, do you? If only that supposed genius would start putting together the puzzle pieces...
> 
> There's not much more before we will wrap up this darker Act to move on to the Final Act, which is a bit more emotion driven and definitely more action oriented.


	94. Manipulation

Before they arrived at his room, Helmut directed the guards to wait in the hallway while he grabbed an item from his workshop to help keep him from being attacked by Victoria. He'd heard enough to know that she had _some_ type of training. Inside of the area he had been given to develop his items in, he grabbed one of the electrified collars that he had been working on, along with its remote. He saw Victoria's eyes go to the object as he left the room.

At the door to his room, the guards lifted Victoria up from the chair as he held the door open for them. They seemed to have been told as to what to expect as they walked over to his bed and harshly deposited her onto it. He saw her wince in pain at the impact from her probable injuries. Not to mention that her arms were underneath her body as she landed.

"I would like a bit of privacy while we are together, so guard the door from the ends of the hallway," he instructed the two guards, who then left while looking at her lying on the bed with knowing smiles. It seemed Sin's people had about as much compassion as she did. After the door closed, he slid the extra interior-only lock he had installed into place, keeping anyone else out. He gave the guards a few extra seconds to move away from it before stepping to the foot of the bed.

"No matter what you heard, I am not going to force myself onto you, Victoria," he informed her, but with the look he got in return, Helmut knew that she didn't believe him. "I am going to put this collar around your neck. It connects to this remote..." holding it up for her to see, "...and if you try anything, I will activate the collar to shock you. It is strong enough to take you to the ground with one jolt."

He then moved around the bed and wrapped the metal into place, using a button on the remote to lock it. Reaching up, he unbuckled the gag that was still preventing her from speaking. He knew that one of Rumlow's greatest irritation with Victoria was how she spoke to him. Since he had the opportunity, he was curious as to how she would act towards him.

"Why should I believe anything that you say?" she asked, looking up at him.

"I have no reason to lie to you," he pointed out. "If I was going to rape you, then I would just do it, not try to alleviate your fear of me."

"Fine," was all that he received from her.

"I will remove the arm bindings, then you can remove the rest yourself," he told her before taking a hold of her arm to help Victoria into a sitting position. As he removed the upper arm band, he had expected her to speak, but instead, she was quiet. Releasing her wrists, he moved to the other side of the room, allowing her to remove the ones on her legs so that she would be able to walk. "If you need, that door is the bathroom. You may take a few minutes, but the door will remain opened the entire time."

Victoria stared at him as she sat on the bed, considering his offer for a few moments. She then stood and made her way inside. The first thing she did was turn on the faucet and begin to drink water from her cupped hands. The guards had been instructed to not give any food or drink to any of the prisoners for at least the first day. But, he was not going to deny her this. Not with what she had just suffered.

When she moved over towards the toilet, Helmut turned just enough to advert his eyes, without dropping his guard. Hearing the sound of the jumpsuit she wore snapping open, he began to wonder about the beating she had taken. Other prisoners had been left with cracked and broken ribs from the impacts of the Operative. So far, Victoria had not seemed to have been injured that badly. Had the Operative taken it easy on her, knowing that it had been a female? He had given no signs of recognition at his soulmate, even with her name being screamed at him, before the beating, and he was sure that Rogers would not have done it if he had.

Hearing the toilet flush, he turned back around as she started to walk out of the bathroom, while still snapping closed the jumpsuit, her bra still visible. She did not seem shy about him seeing her bare skin, as if she were testing him. But his eyes were drawn more to the bruising that was already visible on her stomach area.

"Does that turn you on the way it does Rumlow?" she then casually asked, catching his attention.

"No, fraulein. It does not," he answered as he held the remote out slightly, so that she could see it in his hand still.

Victoria then walked over to the far side of the room from him, in the corner, and sat down. As time crept by, they just sat in silence, him at his small desk working on his computer, Victoria on the floor.

* * *

"{Why are you helping them?}" Vic asked in Sokovian, wondering if he would even bother talking with her. They had been sitting in silence for about an hour already. She knew the information that Nat had found on Zemo. Maybe something familiar, talking in his native tongue, would help to open him up.

"{You know my language?}" Zemo asked her, looking shocked. He had not moved from the desk the entire time, so she was giving him a benefit of the doubt as to his intent with her being in his room.

"{Yes, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff are friends of mine, so I learned it. So, I will ask again, why are you helping them?}"

"{Because the Avengers need to answer for what they did in Sokovia,}" he told her, sounding angrier than moments ago. His fingers ran over the remote on the desktop, but he did not activate it. "{It took me days before I was able to clear away the rubble that once was my father's home…so that I was able to find the bodies of my father…my wife…my son!}"

"{So the fact that they were able to stop a mad robot from wiping out a couple of _billion_ people, yourself included, doesn't matter to you at all?}" Vic asked with all seriousness.

He had to know what was going on during that battle. His team had been called in to try and help control the situation. If they had not, Zemo probably would have been killed along with them that day.

"{They were my family,}" he stated quietly.

"{And during your time in the military, commanding EKO Scorpion, you never once killed anybody who was someone's son or daughter, maybe a mother, or a father?}" she bluntly pointed out. "{Am I to guess that since nobody is seeking revenge on _you_ , that _they_ didn't love their family as much as _you_ loved _yours_?}"

She could see the shocked look on his face at her words.

"{And now, you have not only helped those two asshats take away one of my soulmates, but they are about to do the same to my other one, as well as my friends. Then, they will send them out to kill other people's sons and daughters.}"

"{What they have planned for them does not mean anything to me. They were not innocent to begin with,}" he told her.

"{So then, does that mean I'm guilty by association?}" she watched as Zemo again did not answer. This time his face drew up a little, as if he was considering her words.

"{Tell me, fraulein. I know Rumlow's side of what happened last year. I want you to tell me your version,}" he then requested of her. That brought a smile to her face. There was no way that Rumlow had probably told him the full truth version of what went down in New York.

"{Rumlow tricked my friends into believing he was somewhere in Europe. Instead, he was in New York, where we live. While I was riding my bicycle, he had three of his guys jump me and try to beat me into submission before they knocked me unconsciousness,}" she started telling him.

"{This was when you broke the guard's nose?}" he asked. Maybe he did know some of the story.

"{Yes. It's not like I _wanted_ to get kidnapped,}" she pointed out to him. "{When they had me bound on the floor of the van, his idiots saw the birth control implant in my arm. Thinking it was a tracking device, one of them used a knife and cut it out.}"

Vic was slightly interested to see that hearing that new detail did not make him look happy.

"{I know of this device. After our son Carl was born, my wife, Heike, had complications due to giving birth. The doctor's recommended that she not have any more children, that it would be too great of a risk on her life. She had one of them inserted,}" he honestly and openly told her.

"{Was your son healthy?}" she decided to ask.

"{Yes. He remained at the hospital for a few weeks, but he was a fine boy.}"

She nodded in understanding before continuing her story.

"{Hearing the guards being told that they were going to move me, I smashed up the metal bed and made weapons to use. Hoping that I could delay them long enough for Steve and Bucky to find me.}"

"{Yes, this part I have heard. Rumlow tells of how you defeated some of his guards, then killing one, before being subdued,}" he told her.

"{Did he mention what happened afterwards?}" she asked, but Zemo just shook his head in the negative. "{He decided to put me into a straitjacket while I was unconscious from the head-butt he gave me while wearing his mask. Then, after a slight molestation between my legs while securing the straps, he threatened to put _me_ into the Chair.}"

Vic could see that he had not heard this part of the story.

"{He needed me alive, to be able to use as leverage against Bucky and Steve. Rumlow threatened to have me wiped so that he could ' _reprogram_ ' me into being his personal fuck toy.}"

Zemo became visibly shaken at hearing that. Killing was one thing, but he didn't seem to like the deviant sexual nature of Rumlow. He had to know that was what Rumlow had wanted, since even Sin knew enough to have Zemo overseeing her. Maybe it was just having it confirmed that got to him.

"{When I insulted his sexual prowess, I took a couple of punches to the face. He had demanded that Steve and Bucky turn themselves over for my safety, but he never intended to free me. I was gagged and handcuffed to a metal chair in a painful position, my legs spread wide, my arms secured behind my back, while he made a ransom demand video, being groped the entire time for my soulmates to watch. Afterwards, he left me there for a while…before returning. He rammed his knee repeatedly into my crotch, bruising the entire area. My breast were so roughly groped that they were black and blue. He then raked his nails over my soulmark, trying to rip it off. Later, he punched my back so hard it was also bruised. _That_ is who you have decided to work with.}"

Vic saw as the look on Zemo's face changed. He had not heard about this obviously. Zemo's expression showed the disgust at hearing how she had been treated, which is what she wanted.

"{You do know that the only reason that Rumlow hates me is because after experiencing all of that, I injured him as he was threatening to throw me off a sixty-something story building that we were on, if the team did not let him leave with me? By his own admission, he was minutes away from raping me before the team showed up to save me.}"

After quietly thinking for a while, Zemo started, "{I have seen his limp. From his version…}", but then he quit.

"{I'm sure that his own version makes _me_ out to be the monster. But then, he probably didn't show you the videos of what he did. They are in his file from the Raft. Everything I just said can be confirmed.}"

"{I am sure it could be, fraulein. But...it does not matter anymore. We have all made our choices,}" Zemo said, but she could hear _something_ in his voice.

"{Cruel things happen to good and innocent people all the time. We are supposed to make sure that it doesn't happen again, not seek revenge by causing more cruelty. Instead of deciding to do something to insure that what happened in Novi Grad would never happen again anywhere else, you chose to work with the people who want nothing more than to terrorize the entire world with even more killing and death. And to accomplish that, they will use the hands of two men, Steve and Bucky, who want nothing more than to keep people safe. They will use Hawkeye, who still holds guilt over the last time he was brainwashed and forced to kill. They will make Tony build weapons greater than the ones he used to, before stopping after finding out how they were killing innocent people.}"

Zemo stared at her, his lips then parted as if he wanted to say something, but then he thought better of it. Hopefully, she had put some form of doubt into his head at his partnership with Rumlow and Sin. She didn't expect any type of great help, but she could always hope. She knew that Zemo was only here because of his love for his family.

They sat in silence from that point forward for another hour or more, neither of them really paying attention to the other.

Finally Zemo closed his laptop, telling her, "{Time to go.}"

She decided to push him one final time.

"{So, are you going to be the one to put a bullet in my head? Or has Rumlow already claimed that honor, since Sin won't let him go through with his original plan of repeatedly raping me?}"

After a few moments of sitting in silence, Zemo softly said, "{I wish his plan for you was that quick,}" making a cold tingle form on her spine. She was sure that there was regret in his voice.

 _Of course_ Rumlow would not give her a quick death.

With that, Zemo then stood and went over to the bedroom door before she could ask him what he meant. Maybe it was better if she didn't know. Opening it up, he motioned for the two guards to come. Standing up, Vic watched as they entered the room, seeing her free in the corner.

"It is getting late, and you need to be put into your cell. You will allow the guards to put the arm restraints back on. Then, as long as you behave, we will walk. If you resist in any way, I will activate the collar."

Walking over to the bed, she picked up the two arm straps, placed them on the edge of the bed, and then turned around while holding her hands behind her back. The guards secured them into place, and she did not struggle at all. At least she had tried to talk some sense into Zemo.

* * *

Tony paced back and forth in the small cell he had been sequester to hours ago. Even _if_ he had been tired, there was no way with the loud metal music being poured in that he could have slept. He did find it entertaining that they were trying to use a couple of songs that he and Victoria would listen to while working in the garage on his cars. They didn't know that, did they? He had never been one for thrash metal, but after hanging out with Vic for so long, there were a few songs that had grown on him.

His mind kept wandering back to Victoria, and what she could possibly be dealing with right now. He didn't see Zemo being as brutally violent with her as he would easily guess that Rumlow would have been. But that didn't mean Tony wouldn't enjoy killing the man for what he was possibly doing to her.

Victoria had looked as if she were in immense pain from the beating. He knew that when Steve was angry that he could easily put his fist through a punching bag. The hits he had delivered to Vic had been firm, solid, but they had not been at his full strength. From the test he had run on her a while back, if she didn't have the increased physical shape of her body, the punches would have most likely cracked or broken her ribs. Hopefully she would only suffer bruises, and at the most a possible cracked rib.

Hawkeye and he had been taken to their cells after a minimal beating by the guards for trying to fight back. They were only a few doors down from each other and he could only guess that Clint was also being subjected to the music. As they had been put inside of the cells, they had heard the sound of Steve, further down the hall, banging against his metal door, screaming for Victoria and Bucky. There was also the loud sound of music from his own room. He had tried to communicate with Steve and Clint, but the music was too loud for all of them to do so. It looked like none of them would be getting any sleep tonight.

For some reason, he did not think that Victoria was going to put into a cell near any of them, especially Steve. Rumlow had alluded to Sin possibly being jealous, so he didn't think that she would allow Rumlow anywhere near her. But that did not mean that Sin may not do something hideous on her own, as she had tried to do by passing her around to the guards. He hoped that Vic would be able to hold on for a bit. Hopefully by tomorrow morning, they would be able to try…no, not try...they _had_ to escape. Tony knew that there would only be _one_ chance at this. If they messed this up, _all_ of them would suffer.

He had considered trying to get his suit to come to him, but once they got to the cells that were solid metal doors and had no windows, it was pointless. Anything that did try to get to him would be stopped, with them lying outside away from him, where it could be taken by the guards and put under better security…like locked in a safe.

Then, there was the unknown time for the suit to reset because of the EMP blast. It should not have been as powerful as the one from the nuke he had driven through the portal in New York years ago, but it had taken quite a number of hours to get it operational again, and that was with JARVIS' help. FRIDAY could do it, but it may take her longer. He would just have to wait for the best time to give it a try…when it would not backfire on him.

What they needed was a way to get free, with the suit as a backup. They didn't seem to be as dumb as he had hoped, using extra manpower, having restraining devices good enough to keep Bucky down. The only one of them who had any type of free movement was Steve. With the strange brainwashing he had been subjected to, there was not a chance of him helping them right now.

But…when Sin had revealed Victoria's face to him, the obedient Operative had turned back into Steve Rogers, and only _after_ he had been restrained. Was there some other way to get him to revert back? Seeing the three of them there had not done it. Hearing his own name, hearing Bucky's name, hearing Victoria's name…none of it had worked.

He was a damn genius…he should be able to figure this out!

* * *

Victoria knew that she was being led into a different direction than she had originally come from. The guards were surrounding her while grasping tightly on her upper arms as Zemo followed them on the way to her unknown destination. They seemed to be taking her not only further _into_ the castle, but also _down_. When they reached a set of stairs that wound downward, she knew she had guessed correctly.

"Be careful on the stairs. It's not like you can hold the handrail," Zemo then informed her, surprising her a bit with the comment that was meant to be funny. He'd had her arms rebound but decided that leaving the collar on would ensure she complied so that she could walk to the cell.

Grabbing onto her upper arms even more firmly, the two guards helped to maneuver her, followed by Zemo, as they headed down. After a couple of full turns, they came into a small empty chamber that was about the size of her old apartment in New York. There was a single bulb hanging from a string. She wondered what they were doing here…until Zemo went over to the far side of the long, narrow room and lifted a small round metal grate on the floor.

"Sin requested that you be put somewhere…a bit more secure. That way, even if your friends somehow managed to get free, there would be no reason for them to look for you way down here," he said as one of the guards moved to the corner to retrieve a long rope that had been tucked into the dark corner out of sight. Zemo then went to stand on the steps.

"Now…you are going to let the guards remove the binders from around your arms. Then you will be lowered into the oubliette. You will stay there until they are ready for you," he said before pulling the remote out of his pocket. "Do not make me have to shock you. We can easily lower you while unconscious."

Maybe Zemo was too far gone to have been swayed by talking with him. But, he had not hurt her, there was at least that. Vic then considered her options. If Zemo had not moved so far away, she felt confident that she could have easily taken out the two guards. But she could never make it the distance between him and her before he pressed that button. Besides…she had made a promise to keep herself alive at all cost. She didn't feel that she would be able to do that right now, if she tried to escape.

"Fine."

The guards made quick work of the straps, tossing them to a nearby corner, probably to be used tomorrow if Sin and Rumlow were to be believed. The end of the rope had a loop already formed and the guard slipped it over her head and under her arms to lower her down. Sitting on the edge, the guards then lifted the rope up, so that it lifted her up with her legs inside of the dark tube. There was no light coming from it and the walls were barely past her own shoulders as they started to slowly lower her. Because of this, it did not bring out her fear of heights since there was nothing for her to perceive but darkness. When her shoulders were floor level, Zemo pressed a button on the remote and the collar snapped open. One of the guards bent to remove it, passing it over to Zemo.

"See you tomorrow…more than likely," Zemo said as her head was about to pass through the opening.

"{I am sorry about your family. I know they had to be very special to cause you such pain with their loss,}" she said in Sokovian as the darkness enveloped her, making the words slightly echo.

Looking up, she watched as the opening became smaller and smaller over the next minute, her shoulders bumping against the narrow walls. Suddenly, the enclosing walls were gone and her legs dangled in thin air. Just before the beginning stage of panic started, her feet touched ground.

"Remove the rope," one of the guards demanded and she complied.

Standing directly under the shaft, she could see the light from the room as the guards pulled the rope up. They then slammed the metal grating closed, making it echo in the chamber she was in. She tried looking around but there was nothing but pure pitch black. Trying to keep a hold onto something, she stared at the light above her to help keep her calm. It easily reminded her of the cavern the three of them had visited on their camping trip last year. At the deepest point, the guide would turn the lights off for a minute, to show pure darkness. Thinking of that, the light in the room above her suddenly turned off.

There was nothing to help her orientate now. Reaching out, she slid her bare foot forward over the cool stone, making sure there was actual ground below her. When her hand touched the wall, she felt better. Over the next minute she found that the oubliette was only about two feet wider than her outstretched arms. The ceiling was just out of reach as she jumped to see if she could somehow reach the hole to try and climb out. The walls were even circular so that there was no start or finish.

Sitting down on the cold floor, she was at least grateful that the jumpsuit had long sleeves and pants to help try and keep some of the chill out. Then she began to again to think about what had happened just like she had been for the past few hours. Steve. He had been there…physically if not mentally, at first. They had used the Chair on him, as well as the Faustus Machine. The combination of the two devices had dramatically cut down on the time when he would have had the mental ability to fight them. They had been able to transform him during the month they'd had him.

When she had given him to them.

This was all her fault.

Bucky had tried to get through to him, but it had not worked. Nothing broke through their reprogramming. Not until Sin had removed the hood covering her face. They had somehow managed to hypnotize Steve, so that seeing _her_ would cancel their indoctrination into HYDRA. That told her that eventually, given the seventeen days' timeline, that once it was over, that they _would_ indeed kill her. Unless they decided to prolong her torture…or they thought of the fact that they could make Bucky do _exactly_ the same thing.

And after seeing what they had done to Steve, knowing that they would now do the same to Bucky…promise be damned, if she had a _real_ chance to get them free, and away from here, even at the cost of her own life, then she would do it. For them.

* * *

Tony had spent the entire night trying to work out the problem of getting their Steve back. After considering numerous options, most of which he instantly dismissed as pointless, there was only one idea that had stuck with him. Their soulmark connection. That was the one thing they had going for them. Neither Rumlow or Sin knew of their unique connection, and he doubted that Steve would have told them. If he had, they would have made some comment about Bucky feeling the beating, but they had not.

Now, he hoped to use _another_ connection of theirs.

Unfortunately, it would mean that he would basically have to get Vic tortured in a special way. He didn't want that to happen, but if it meant freeing Steve from the hold that Rumlow and Sin had on him, then he knew that Vic would try it.

At some point, his body had given up for about an hour or so, allowing him to sleep with the sometimes familiar songs playing in his cell. He wondered how Clint had held up during the night. Thrash metal was definitely not his thing.

He had been awake for a short time now, wondering where Vic had spent the night, hoping that it had been alone. Zemo was dead the moment his suit was on him again. When he had considered that maybe Sin would pass her around to the guards _after_ Zemo was done…he told himself, while hitting the wall, that she couldn't be that cruel. Then there was a change in the sounds he heard.

Moving over to the door and pressing his ear to it, Tony listened as numerous guards began to struggle while Steve started to scream for Victoria and Bucky once again. The group passed by his door, moving so that they would pass Clint's before the noisy hallway was silent once again. Just as he was about to go sit on his cot, he heard it.

From down the hallway, the agonizing screams of Steve echoed so loudly, that they reached his ears, over the sound of the music. They had started the procedure with the Chair. He had seen some of Bucky's videos, and there was the same pain in his voice that Bucky had when it was used on him. Over the next couple of minutes, he covered his ears, not being able to stand to hear the constant sound of his friend being ripped away as he was tortured again.

When the guards finally came for them hours later, he was glad to get away from the music, even knowing what was coming. Because if his theory was correct…and how he _really_ hoped that it was…then they were _all_ getting out of here.

"The maid service here sucks," Tony told Clint while standing in their cells as they watched the three guards getting the room ready for today's round of tortures.

"Really? I hadn't noticed. But I figured that you would have at least appreciated the music," Clint smirked at him.

They then watched as the crank wound the metal door to Bucky's cell up, revealing him to be in exactly the same position they had seen him in almost twelve hours ago. Tony figured that since he had not been fed, that Clint had not also. He automatically knew that Bucky had not been since his mask was still on. There were dark circles surrounding his eyes, naturally this time, from the lack of sleep due to not only the situation, but how he was forced to physically remain. Bucky did not acknowledge them beyond making eye contact for a couple of seconds. He had probably been looking for any sign of Vic. He hoped that when the time came, that Bucky would be ready.

When the doors opened to reveal the pair, Sin walked in carrying Steve's shield, almost playing with it. About ten guards then lined the walls, with stun weapons ready. He had not thought about the fact that it had been taken when Vic was captured, since she had been wearing it covered on her back, hoping to give it to Steve. He had been a bit busy dealing with the guards who were removing his suit, piece by piece, while a gun was pressed against his temple.

"Brock Baby thinks that the Operative has such a connection to his hunk of metal, that it would _actually_ break my programming," Sin informed the group in a playful voice. "So, I thought that a little demonstration would be in order."

Rumlow actually looked a little bit worried at her statement. Moving the shield, Sin held it so that it was backwards and behind her back, so that the decorative pattern could not be seen. But before anyone could say anything, she then called out, "Operative!"

Steve walked through the doors, wearing the same hideous outfit that he had been in yesterday. He paid them no mind as he moved to Sin, kneeling before her again. His programming was once again intact.

"Operative, look at this item," Sin said without a single hit of worry in her voice. Pulling the object around and turning it, the red, white, and blue item was within arm's reach of Steve, who stared at it as if he had never seen it before. "Do you recognize this?"

"No, Herrin," he said dropping his face back towards the floor.

"Incredible," Rumlow mumbled with a smile.

"Told you, baby. We can have it painted later, with the HYDRA symbol," Sin smiled, holding the shield out for a guard to take while she gripped Rumlow's head and pulled him in for a kiss.

Tony was more interested in where the shield was going. The guard walked over to the opposite corner from their cells, near the hole in the floor, leaning it up against the wall. It was still within the room at least, he thought. Sin then snapped her fingers, and some of the extra guards brought in to safeguard Steve in case he snapped out of it, left the room since they were not needed, just like yesterday but a few lingered. If this worked, their group would have no problem handling that many.

"Now, who's ready for today's fun time?" Rumlow asked the group, smacking his hands together.

Now was the moment Tony was hoping that Bucky didn't kill him for.

"Rumlow, I'll make you the same offer. Name your price and you'll get it. Just stop hurting Victoria and let us all go," he calmly said.

Rumlow walked over so that he was just out of reach of the cages.

"The funny part about that comment is that after your reprogramming is completed, you will obey our commands flawlessly. And when you do, I can _command_ that you transfer _everything_ that you have to us."

"Fine, if that's the route you want to go," he said stepping away from the bars, acting like he was thinking. "But at least don't torture Victoria by having Steve do that to her again. She's probably already suffered massive internal injuries…at least a couple of cracked ribs. Hell, with his strength," he said pointing at Steve's kneeling form, "she may already have broken ribs. If he hits her like that again today, you run the risk of a broken rib puncturing a lung or other organ, causing her to die quickly. I know that you don't want that."

Rumlow's eyes narrowed on him as he listened, and hopefully absorbed where he was going with this.

Sin then stepped around Steve to stand next to Rumlow.

"Are you actually trying to suggest a different way to torture the Bitch?" she asked with an evil smile.

He need to word this next part just right, hopefully subliminally giving them the idea.

"I'm just suggesting that if you are not careful with the physical torture, then your fun will be cut short. No matter what, _none of us_ want Vic to die."

He could hear Clint muttering under his breath at what he was trying to do, but he had not had the chance to explain his theory to possibly get them out of here. He was not even going to glance over at Bucky, for fear that the look he was receiving would give him a stroke. If this did _not_ work, and they _eventually somehow_ got out of here, he was going to be in for a beating for what was hopefully about to happen.

Rumlow then took a step back, looking around, as if he were considering something. As soon as his eyes fell and stayed on the large pit in the room, Tony knew that he had won.

"What are you thinking, baby?" Sin asked running her hands over his chest.

"He is right about one thing. I don't want her dead…not yet. But, remember me telling you about her...specifically about her _fear_?"

Sin seemed to remember as a glint came into her eye before she looked over at the item he hoped would free them. The two of them walked over to the edge, looking down into the depths. He wondered how far down it went, and if it would be deep enough to work. Now, he needed to solidify the suggestion.

"Oh, no, Rumlow…you can't be thinking about holding her over that damn pit just like you did at the penthouse," Tony said making sure to add just the right amount of panic in his voice.

"Will she really _pass out_ from _fear_?" Sin asked curious.

"It takes a little while, but, yeah…she does," he answered with a grin.

"That's a pretty weak soulmate you have there, Asset," Sin turned to face Bucky, who had been eerily silent. "I've never seen _anything_ like _that_ before. Care to watch the Bitch pass out from fear?"

The only response she got was a low growl.

"What do we do about the Operative?" Rumlow asked as Sin, looking down at Steve's subservient form. "I'd hate for him to miss the show."

Sin took a moment to think as she looked around the room before making a decision.

"Back in my day, when a child was bad, we would make then take a corner as punishment," she smiled. "Operative, rise."

Steve stood up and turned to face the direction she was in.

"Your instructions are to go and stand in that corner," she commanded him, pointing at the corner near the pit, close to where his shield was. "You will face the wall, and _not_ turn around until either I, or Meister, instruct you to. Will you comply?"

"Yes, Herrin, I will comply."

"And compliance will be rewarded."

"Hail HYDRA," Steve said before already moving to obey her command. At least since he was under their control, they did not secure him like last time. The possibility of escape was getting even better.

Tony carefully let out the breath he had been holding, hoping that they did not see through his manipulation. But even if they did, they had no idea why he wanted Vic strung up. Now, he would pray to any god out there, even Thor, that this would just work. Tony also hoped that his suit had been given enough time to reset.

"They seem to be taking a long time getting the Bitch here," Rumlow then commented, looking at the doors as if that would make them appear with Victoria. "But then, it's not like she was easy to get to in her cell."

"What do you mean?" Clint then asked. "What did you do with her?"

"The Bitch got herself a _special_ room last night," Rumlow told them.

"What do you mean 'special'?" Clint angrily asked, already defensive.

"I remember what she did the last time I tried to put her into a _normal_ cell. The Bitch broke up a bed's frame and killed one of my men," Rumlow said with a smile. "So there was _no way_ _in hell_ she was getting something as nice as a normal prison cell."

"This is a castle after all," Sin said taking a couple of steps towards Bucky, who seemed oblivious to the conversation. Tony could only guess that he was trying to control the rage in him. If only Bruce were here. "And castles have dungeons. And some dungeons have oubliettes."

Tony's mind raced as he began to picture the few images he'd seen from movies of oubliettes through the years. He looked over at Steve, to see if the word was familiar to him since he knew French, _and_ that it was concerning Victoria, but he didn't even flinch.

"You didn't?" he demanded.

Sin then ran her hand through Bucky's hair, examining it as if she liked it.

"Of course I did. Besides, I couldn't just leave her in any old cell where someone could have easy access to her."

Rumlow then walked quickly over to Sin, grabbing her around the waist tightly with one hand, while pulling her other hand away from where it was touching Bucky.

"Baby, I already told you…you are the only one that I need."

"And I'm going to make sure it stays that way!" she jabbed a finger into his chest to emphasize her point.

"What the fuck is an oubliette?" Bucky growled out, finally being engaging. Tony guessed that castle construction was not covered in grade school in the twenties. Hell, it wasn't even today.

"Think of a small empty round hole about eight feet from side to side. Now, add a ceiling ten feet high. Then put _that_ straight _down_ at the bottom a twenty foot tube the size of that shield right there," Sin explained looking happier and happier as the pain on Bucky's partially covered face became visible. "Oh, and it is pitch black."

"You trapped her down a fucking black hole!?"

With that sentence, Bucky strained against the bonds holding him again, causing the electrical pulses to be emitted to his arm and body, as he scream in anger. Tony could hear the sound from the devices as they continued to shock him, carrying on for a few moments before Bucky finally gave up, unable to release himself.

Tony looked over at Clint and he knew their faces probably matched. He was sure the archer knew exactly what type of place Vic had been put into even before the description for Bucky. Steve did not even moved at the outburst, obeying his command perfectly.

"Don't tell me that she has a fear of the darkness…or maybe claustrophobia?" Rumlow asked excitedly, sounding thrilled at the prospect of new ways to torture Vic, as he started to laugh at the idea.

"I will never tell you anything about her, you bastard!"

"Too bad. We might just have to experiment with a couple of ideas," Sin told him, turning to give Rumlow a smile. "We have sixteen days until the fun will be over. Did you know that the original purpose of an oubliette was to put someone in there and forget about them?"

Rumlow then went to stand directly in front of Bucky, saying, "And since Sin is a fan of Edgar Allen Poe, I've already ordered up a dozen bags of quick dry cement and a sheet of plywood. The Operative will be the one to place the wood over the metal grate covering the hole, then he will pour the concrete all over the floor, a couple of inches thick, permanently sealing and hiding it. Of course, the Bitch will be _inside_ , hopefully _screaming_ and _crying_ for him to stop. I'll wager that since there is not a lot of air in there, she will probably _suffocate_ after just a few hours instead of dying of _starvation_ after a few days. I wonder just how long it _will_ take for her to die alone in there? Forgotten by _you_ , "pointing at Bucky, "forgotten by Rogers," pointing at Steve, "and forgotten by your friends over there," pointing at him and Clint. "No one will ever find her body."

"And _if_ he ever reverts back to Rogers, he'll have to live with what he did to his own soulmate," Sin snidely remarked with a twisted grin.

Bucky then tried to lurch forward at the two of them as he screamed, from both anger and pain at his cuff going off again. Both Sin and Rumlow laughed at his effort, but he and Clint could both see the agony on his face from knowing what they had planned for Vic. Bucky's struggle went on for almost a minute, but he was never able to even manage to weaken the restraints it seemed. Hopefully, his plan would work, and they would manage to save Vic from the twisted fate these two assholes had planned for her.

Then, the familiar sound of the wheelchair's squeak could be heard from the hallway, catching everyone attention.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've never read any of Poe's other works (besides what they force you to in school), try The Cask of Amontillado. This is where the idea of immurement (being buried alive) comes from for this story. Poe seemed to have a fondness for it since he had a few stories with it as topic.


	95. The Operative's Weakness

**May 8**

* * *

**A Few Minutes Earlier**

Vic held on to the rope with a death grip as she was finally being pulled out of that fucking hole. There was no way for her to figure out how long it had been, but she knew that at some point she had fallen asleep. It had not been for very long, considering that she was all alone, without her warriors to keep her warm. It also made her time in there seem even longer since she couldn't sleep it away. There had been a few times when she could not tell if her eyes were open or closed with the pure darkness surrounding her. Whoever had originally thought of an oubliette had been a mad genius.

Trying to distract herself from the overall paranoia that would try to start every so often, Vic had decided the best way to pass the time was to test the acoustics of the oubliette. So for most of her time in there once she had woken up, she sang. Considering it felt like she was in a nightmare, Vic started out by singing _O Fortuna_ , the only creepy song in Latin that she knew. After singing that one and finding her small prison had a better sound than her shower at home, or the Tower, it gave her something to focus on. So she didn't care what she sang, but eventually she had gone through most her two preferred musicals, _Phantom of the Opera_ and _Aida_ , singing her favorite songs from them. Afterwards, she had found it funny how appropriate both of those were in some way to her current situation.

When Victoria had heard the noise the first time, it had actually scared her since there had been no other sounds after being put into here but that of her own breathing and heartbeat to listen to. Even singing had become a bore after so many hours of doing it. But when the light above turned on, drawing her attention to it, she thought that her time inside of the hole was over.

Instead, Vic watched as the rope was lowered down. As it reached the bottom, she had reached out for it, finding a piece of cloth knotted at the end of it. Removing the item, she felt a bottle of water and some kind of bread wrapped inside of a possible cloth napkin. Vic had given a simple 'thank you' as a sign she had the items, before the rope was lifted, the grate close, and then the light turning off again.

Vic had no idea who would have done that for her, but she was not counting on them for any type of rescue. Otherwise, they would have just done it instead of leaving her in the dark silence once again. But then, every so often, Vic could have sworn that the sound of a scream would reach her ears. She couldn't tell if it was real or just a figment of her own imagination. What made it worse was that she knew that _if_ it was real, then it was probably Steve's voice, and that they had him back in that damn Chair. But a long while later, the void returned and she felt like crying, knowing _exactly_ what was being done to Steve.

Now, as her head finally emerged from the hole, she looked around and was surprised to find that there were a lot more guards here now than last night. Zemo was once again on the raised stair, but now there were five guards total, two pulling her up while the other three all stared silently at her from the edges of the small room, stun guns in their hands. Her entire body stiffened worried if this was the start of another damn lesson. Why would Rumlow have sent so many guards for just her?

"You look a bit worried, Weisse Frauen," Zemo smiled at her while using a strange nickname for her. In his hands were the remote and collar, but with the extra male bodies surrounding her, he did not have to worry about her trying anything. "Some of the guards became worried during the night that the castle was haunted, thanks to you."

"What?" she asked not understanding what he was getting at as the two guards began to reattach the straps around her wrists and above her elbows first, pulling them tightly behind her back. Fighting now was not a possibility. Not with this many armed in such close quarters.

"Your singing. It frightened some of the men. There were whispered of an old German tale of a 'white woman' spirit," Zemo told her. "Some of the braver ones wanted to come and see who was producing such lovely sounds."

"Weisse Frauen…but, I made fans? From HYDRA agents?" she asked curiously.

"They are still human, despite what you may believe, fraulein," Zemo smiled at her. "You perform professionally?"

"No, never."

"Curious. What do you do?" he asked.

"I fix broken cars," she told him, not going into detail as to who had broken them…namely, Tony.

"Truly?" Zemo looked like he didn't believe her. She gritted her teeth as the two guards wrapped and tightened the straps down firmly around her upper and lower chest, digging into her skin a bit painfully. They may have liked her singing but they were not going easy on her. Maybe they were being a bit overzealous thinking that there was something about the remarks. "How remarkable. Come."

The guards allowed her to walk up the stairs since her legs were already free. Her fan club followed them, whispers in German about her hair proving that she was a spirit in physical form. At the top of the stairs, the leg bindings were applied and she was helped down into the wheelchair once again. Since she was behaving, Zemo did not put the collar on and instead hung it over the back of the wheelchair. As they began to move, she didn't bother to point out that she did not have a gag in this time. Was there a reason?

When the doors to the same room opened up after a few minutes of travel, the first thing she saw was Steve across the way, on the other side of the hole, standing in the corner like the scene from _The_ _Blair Witch Project_.

"Vic!" Bucky called out to get her attention. He was just how he had been yesterday. Had he been trapped like that all night? "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Still a prisoner, but I'm fine."

She heard Tony and Clint snicker at the simple jibe, and she looked over at them. They looked tired with dark circles under their eyes, but other than that, they didn't seem to have been physically tortured during the night, standing in their own individual cells again. The extra three guards that had followed them, unsure if they were allowed to be here, stayed close to the door where a few other guards lingered while waiting to see if they got kicked out. They must be waiting to see if she did anything special, maybe even sing again.

"Fine?" Sin asked her taking a few steps closer. "You just spent twelve hours in an oubliette…and you are _fine_?"

"Well, I didn't have to look at Gollum's Balls over there," she remarked looking right at Rumlow, "or your soulless carcass, Nachzehrer," she smiled turning back to Sin.

The look on Sin's face changed at hearing the derogatory term, most likely for the nasty moniker tossed her way, and not for the insult of her own soulmate. After their interaction yesterday, Vic picked up that Sin had an arrogance about her.

"Vic…" she heard Bucky grumble low, trying to warn her about her smart mouth again.

" _That's_ why I mentioned keeping the gag in," Rumlow pointed out coming over to Sin's side.

"Do you even know what a Nachzehrer is Bitch?" Sin asked confronting her a bit.

"Of course. I figured that's what you were. They eat the flesh of dead bodies, and looking at Rummy there, with that _zombie skin condition_ going on, it seemed only fitting for you. Does it scab off and get stuck in your teeth when you suck his dick?"

Sin took the final steps over and gave her a pitiful slap across the face. She'd had worse hits during training.

Bucky growled out at watching that happened, struggling in his spot, before he began to scream in pain. Whatever devices they had on him must be shocking him, specifically his arm, into submission.

"Stop doing that before I get mad!" Vic demanded, looking at Bucky, hoping to stop him from hurting himself for her sake. Glancing over at where Steve was standing, it broke her heart to see him not effected in any way. He didn't recognize her voice. He didn't even turn around to tell her to hold her tongue, like he usually would be doing right about now.

"How _dare_ you talk to the daughter of Red Skull like that!?" Sin snarled at her.

"Well, if you don't want me to _talk_ to you, then how about you _remove_ these bindings so that I can put _my foot_ up that _nasty snatch_ of yours!" she grinned up at her. Taking a exaggerating sniff of the air, Vic said, "It kind of smells like you're making sourdough bread up in there!"

The look of horrified shock at having someone talk to her like that gave Sin pause. She heard Bucky grumbling angry at her, while Clint and Tony were trying to contain snickers. Vic also noticed that Zemo's face almost looked like a grin. Unfortunately, it seemed that Rumlow also noticed it.

"What the _fuck_ was that look for?" Rumlow stalked over to stand before Zemo, whose face was suddenly now void of _any_ emotion.

"There was no look," he plainly stated, which Vic knew was a lie.

"This Bitch is _not_ acting like someone who has been _taken down a peg_ and _put into her place_ after what she was _supposed_ to have _gone through_ last night," he sneered at Zemo as he reached for and pulled his gun, pressing it hard into Zemo's chest. "Is there _something_ I need to know about? Why the hell does her face not show a _single bruise_? Did you even _fuck_ her?"

Vic was not about to let someone, even Zemo, be killed because of an insult that had come out of her mouth. She needed to get Rumlow attention back to her. She didn't know if what she was about to do would be considered brave, reckless, or crazy...

"And here I always that that _Bruce_ was the _green-eyed monster_ ," she then scoffed out. Looking over at Sin, "Seems like _someone_ hasn't figured out how to sexually satisfy her man to keep his eyes from wandering. Having a _hard time_ getting in the _mood_ thanks to his impression of a rotten avocado? Have you tried putting a _bag_ over his head?"

"Shut the hell up, Bitch," Sin then told her, but Rumlow hadn't moved away from Zemo so Vic wasn't done yet. Putting on a sexy southern accent...

"Why? Ya must _need_ some pointers. I mean, _Brock Baby_ sure didn't have a problem getting hard last year while he was only _feeling me up_. Maybe I have it _backwards!_ " Vic made it sound like she'd just had a revelation come to her while turning to look at Rumlow. Dropping the accent, "Have you tried putting a long _blond wig_ on Sin? Think that would help you, _Rummy_?"

With that, Sin finally gave her the hard slap she had been waiting for. Hearing the sound of it, Rumlow turned to look at her and dropped his gun towards the floor and away from Zemo, who looked visibly relieved at the gesture.

"If she doesn't shut the hell up…" Sin started before grabbing Vic tightly around her throat as Rumlow walked back over to where Sin was standing. She could hear Bucky yelling at her to stop.

"What will be fitting," Rumlow started while taking Sin's hand to release her and moving her back away from her, "is that we get to use the same technique _now_ that I used the _last time_ to get you to shut up for a while."

Vic unfortunately knew exactly what he was talking about without even looking at the pit. But she also noticed the harsh glare Sin gave Rumlow for stopping her choking action.

She decided to try and form a bit of a wedge between the two of them, sweetly stating, "That wasn't a denial about the wig, Rummy."

"Shut the hell up, Bitch!" Rumlow finally put the gun away before punching her across the face.

Bucky screamed out in anger at her getting hit, then in pain from another shock as he tried to get free again. Looking right at him, Vic shook her head to tell him to stop. There was a worry in his eyes that she had never seen before. He was so close but there was nothing he could to do help her, and it was breaking him a bit.

"We'll see how much of a mouth you have on you in a little while, Bitch," Sin looked at the guards at her chair before pointing at the pit's chain as she and Rumlow moved to the center of the room for a better view of the upcoming show. Sin's posture only eased once Rumlow put his arm around her, "Hook her up, men!"

Wheeling her over towards the edge, she closed her eyes, preventing herself from looking at however far down it went. Her warriors did not need to have to deal with her fear flowing through them. Not right now when they were both helpless.

Vic was held in a standing position, and she heard the sound of the chain dangling as it was pulled over and felt it being hooked to the back of the top strap around her chest. She had seen that the chain was hooked to a swinging arm secured next to the pit. With a simple push she would be suspended over her greatest fear.

"Stop…don't do this to her," Bucky voice pleaded.

Of course from Steve there was only silence.

"Does this upset you?" Rumlow then asked. "That just makes this even better."

Suddenly without warning, she was yanked sideways and her feet were no longer touching the ground. It was strangely reminiscent of last night being lowered into the oubliette, only with a bit more swaying and spinning. All she had to do was keep her eyes closed and she would be fine…her warriors would be fine. Then, she heard the last thing she would have expected to hear.

"Vic…Vic…open your eyes," Tony's voice sounded through the chamber.

She just shook her head instead of responding to him trying to get her attention.

"Vikki! Look at me," Tony requested in a firm voice. "I need you to look at me…Vikki!"

Why the fuck was he using that name? Gritting her teeth in anger, she just shook her head no, determined to keep her eyes closed.

"Bucky, make her promise to open her eyes!" Tony then demanded of him.

Why the fuck would she open her eyes? Tony had to remember what would happen if she did. The _supposed_ genius couldn't have forgotten that they would feel her fear...had he?

"Why the fuck would I do that?" she heard Bucky angrily ask.

" _Trust me_ and make her promise to _open her eyes_. _Please_ , Buck."

Now Tony was using Bucky's serious name?

"Vic. I need you to open your eyes. Please, Sugar. It will be fine."

In the background, Rumlow and Sin were in a heated discussion, irritated that not only was she _not_ passing out, but they were confused and didn't understand why Tony and Bucky were asking something like that of her.

"Trust your landlord, and open your eyes," Tony stated very calmly.

Taking a deep breath, Vic finally opened her eyes.

Looking across the room, she first found Bucky glaring hard at her, waiting for the fear to start, but she didn't look down. Due to being on the chain, she was slowly rotating clockwise, and now she saw from the corner of her eye Steve's shield lying against the wall, so close to him. But looking down at it...her eyes were automatically drawn to the large dark pit below her.

Vic's breath caught in her throat as she felt the horrible sensation start in the pit of her stomach. Her entire body began to stiffen as the vertigo began. With her eyes now locked below her, Vic tried to scream...but nothing came out.

* * *

As the foreign panicking sensation started to build up in him, his mind began to swirl with the overwhelming sensation of continuously falling. Closing his eyes to shut out the world, it did nothing for the vertigo that was now invading every inch of his body. There was a tightness in his chest from the fear, causing his breathing to suddenly became erratic and heavy. The pounding of his heart made it feel like it was going to explode from his chest. He needed this feeling to stop.

He needed to stop falling.

No…he wasn't falling... _she_ was.

 _She_ was afraid.

And _she_ was his soulmate.

He started to hunch over from the panic, raising his hand flat against the wall to steady himself.

He needed…to find... _Victoria_!

Thinking her name, his mind suddenly became clear once again.

He was not the Operative. He was Steve. He was Captain America. He was soulmate to Victoria. He was soulmate to Bucky.

He was _not_ HYDRA.

Then, the dreaded familiar feeling went away as suddenly as it had started and Steve knew that Victoria had passed out from her fear. Opening his eyes as he felt better, he peered at the corner of the stone wall. Victoria and Bucky had been captured, along with his friends, and they were _so_ close.

Steve knew exactly where he was, and he was _not_ staying here any longer.

 _None_ of them were.

"Told you the Bitch would pass out from fear," he heard the words spoken behind him.

Tilting his head down, and trying to carefully look behind him to assess the situation, he spotted the one item he would need. His shield. It was right there just waiting for him. Then, he tried to remember what he had not cared about when he came in. Bucky was here, behind him at his seven o'clock, chained down. Tony and Clint were to his right at five o'clock, in locked cells. He had no idea where Victoria was. But if she had passed out, she was close to the pit that was right behind him.

"So if we leave her there…when she wakes up, she'll just pass out again?" Sin's voice. Not Herrin.

"Yeah, baby. How about we just leave her there _all day_?" Rumlow's voice. Not Meister.

"Take her the fuck down!" Bucky's voice. He was still in the same place. His arms had been behind his back. That's not where Steve needed them to be. Bucky needed to be free to help him get Victoria out of here.

Turning slowly, and focusing all of his attention on his shield, Steve took his first steps of freedom in far too long.

"Operative! Get back in that corner!" Sin's voice sounded. "Operative!"

Reaching down, he picked up his shield, looked up at Bucky, who was now awfully fixated on his movements, and Steve then threw his shield exactly where it needed to strike. The cuff holding Bucky's arms behind his back.

The shield struck the metal device all along its back side, hitting it with enough force to damage it so that it short circuited, sparks flying as it popped open and fell noisily to the platform. His shield struck the far wall, but bouncing back only part of the way due to the softer stone surface as he watched Bucky's hands reach up for the two rods holding him down. Steve then moved forward quickly to where two guards were closer to Bucky, trying to pull their weapons.

"I am a fucking _genius_!" Tony's voice echoed in the room, sounding ecstatic.

Striking the closest guard in the face, the other managed to pull his weapon, so he moved the stunned guard between them, holding him as a replacement shield. The bullets that were fired hit the guard in his back before Steve pushed the dead man into the shooting guard, knocking him to the ground.

Hearing the sound of the doors burst open, he expected to find reinforcement guards entering, but instead, he was greeted by the sight of pieces of Tony's suit flying through the air at him. He watched as Zemo glanced around the room, stopping at where the pit was for a moment before running through the doors to escape with one of the HYDRA guards following him. Some of the guards that had been near the doors were knocked to the ground by Tony's suit striking their backs. Tony and Clint would have to take care of them.

Turning his attention towards the pit, he saw what Zemo had looked at...Victoria's unconscious form dangling from a chain over it. It had been the sensation of her fear that had freed him from the mind control.

That was when he saw Rumlow rushing towards him from his right side while another guard from near the door rounded the pit from the opposite side to come at him from behind. As he and Rumlow exchanged blows, he heard the sound of Bucky ripping away the collar and bars with a loud scream. He gave a quick high kick backwards into the jaw of the guard behind him, knocking him into the wall before he fell unconscious to the floor.

From across the room, blasts from Tony's suit echoed as they struck the metal bars freeing him and Clint from the cells. There was now the sound of an alarm being raised, which meant more guards were on the way. He kept his focus on the target before him. As they exchanged blows, Steve knew Rumlow would not escape this time. He was far too angry to let that happen.

Sin was trying to move around the pit on the far side, heading towards the only exit while having to carefully weave around Clint and guards fighting while avoiding the nearby hole. Blaster fire told him that Tony was working on taking out the remaining guards in the room while he continued to engage Rumlow.

Steve finally managed a maneuver to toss Rumlow up and behind him, towards where Bucky was permanently finishing off a guard that had attempted to take him on.

Turning back to check on Victoria, he panicked with what he saw. Sin had not been trying to leave the room...she was now standing at the crank which the chain holding Victoria was secured to.

"Stop!" he screamed as her placed her hand the release lever while smiling. Steve then knew that Sin had been waiting for one of them to see her, wanting to make sure they saw what was about to happen...

"You killed my daddy! And now…I get to kill her," Sin evilly laughed as she pulled the lever, allowing the short piece of chain to zip free. He watched as Victoria's unconscious form suddenly plummeted downwards. He was too far away to do anything.

"No!" he screamed as he watched her form fall past the floor's level and continue downward, the end of the chain traveling with her into the darkness.

Running to the edge of the pit, he fell to his knees in a skid and peered down, barely able to make out her shadowed silhouette before it vanished into the blackness.

He'd failed her.

Victoria had been able to save him, but he could not save her.

Looking over to his left, he saw the gun from a guard lying on the floor. Letting all of his grief and anger swell up at once, he reached over and picked it up.

Hearing Sin's laughter, he glanced her way, finding her turned to make a run for the doors.

Taking aim, Steve put two bullets into her back as she tried to escape. Screeching in pain as she fell face first to the floor, he heard Rumlow voice cry out from behind him.

"Sin!"

Moments later, there was the distinct sound of bones being crushed and gurgling.

* * *

**Moments Earlier**

Bucky grabbed a hold of the two metal rods that had been holding him in place since yesterday, now that Steve had freed his hands. Using his sore muscles, it took a few extra second for him to finally apply enough pressure and force to snap them, allowing him to stand up for the first time in too many hours. As he looked down off of the platform, he saw that the guard, which had been knocked over with a dead body, was rising to his own feet. With a jump upward, he raised his left fist over his head. When he was in position next to him, he brought it down with all the strength he had, giving a killing blow to his head. Another guard was rushing him from across the room, but that fight lasted only seconds.

That was when the form of Rumlow came flying in his direction, rolling slightly past him, away from the pit.

"I told you that I was going to kill you," he informed the man with a hidden sardonic smile, moving in as Rumlow stood back up to face him.

He and Rumlow then began to exchange blows, both of them not holding anything back. One of the punches was hard enough to cause his mask to break free and fall to the ground. Bucky braced himself as Rumlow's knee came up to strike him in the chest. He returned two quick punches to Rumlow's face.

Steve's voice screamed out in a desperate, "No!", but he could not lose focus on his fight. He needed Rumlow dead.

That was when they both heard the sound of Sin beginning to laugh as loudly as she could, right before there was the sound of two shots going off. The laughter from the evil woman was now replaced with the sounds of her screaming in pain.

Rumlow allowed his concentration on their fight to waiver as he turned his head to focus on his soulmate, yelling out, "Sin!"

Bucky used that distracted moment to grab Rumlow around his neck with his left hand. Raising him up off of the ground, he knew that his lips were in a smirking grin as he clamped down as hard as he could. The chamber was now filled with the sound of neck bones cracking as Rumlow gurgled out the last his last breath. Tossing the body hard against the far wall, he focused his attention on the rest of the room.

Clint and Tony, who was now in his suit, were free of their cells, having taken out numerous guards themselves by the body count surrounding them... but they were frozen staring over at something. Looking in that direction, he saw Steve...but for some reason he was on his knees at the edge of the pit.

Where Vic should have been hanging.

But…Vic was no longer there.

* * *

"Steve!" Bucky voice sounded so far away. "Where's Vic? Where is she?"

He must not have seen what had happened to her. Bucky's body was suddenly next to his left side, looking down into nothingness. He couldn't answer him, so he just dropped his head.

"No! Steve! Tell me she's not down there!" Bucky screamed at him.

"I couldn't save her," he managed to speak with a cracking voice.

The scream that emanated from Bucky rattled the walls.

"You! This is your fault!" he heard Bucky accusingly yell.

Steve already knew that. He was the reason that Victoria had been here.

But then, Bucky began moving away from him, stomping across the room towards a different target.

Steve looked up to see where he was going and found him heading right for Tony.

" _You're_ the one who gave them the idea to string her _the fuck_ _up there_!" Bucky was punching Tony's covered head with his left fist. Steve then recalled what he had heard earlier but had not cared about. "You told me to _trust_ you, and now she's _dead_!"

Steve now remembered. He had heard how Tony had manipulated Rumlow into not have him torture her like he had done yesterday. Instead, once Rumlow had her over the pit, Tony had begged for Victoria to open her eyes. Tony somehow knew that with their connection, feeling her fear would bring him back.

But, it had cost Victoria her life. Victoria would never know that she had saved him...had saved all of them.

Standing up, he quickly moved over to where Bucky was continuously punching Tony protected face while Clint was off to the side yelling at him to stop. Tony was blocking each hit the best that he could, not retaliating. Steve reached out as he went to take another swing, grabbing the silver arm in his hand, halting all movement.

"Stop!"

Bucky turned to look at him, the look of devastation written clear on his face. When had his mask come off?

"Vic…she's gone _because of him_!" He had never heard such pain spoken aloud before.

"No...she's gone because of _Sin_! But what Tony did, getting Victoria to open her eyes…it _brought me back_!"

"Guys!" Clint firmly called out, getting their attention. Pointing at the doors, he told them, "There's an _entire_ HYDRA base out there _waiting_ to be taken out, and if we _don't_ , we might find ourselves _right back_ as prisoners."

Clint was right.

" _Later_!" Bucky angrily growled at Tony, and all of them knew that he meant it.

"Then let's go make them pay!" Steve told them.

The three of them began to scavenge all the weapons they could find from the dead guards, giving each of them at least two guns. Clint found a few knives and passed half to Bucky, knowing he was just as proficient with them.

Bucky found his face mask and secured it back into place. Steve figured it was to hide his pain more than to scare the enemy this time.

Taking a couple of steps across the room, Steve bend down and picked up his shield, strapping it to his arm. As he was walking back to the others, he paused to stare down into Rumlow's dead eyes, wanting to remember this moment. He then reached up and removed the cap of the hideous outfit he realized he was wearing, dropping it onto Rumlow's chest.

Turning back to his teammates, he nodded before heading for the door, ready to kill every single HYDRA agent he could find with the mood that he was in.


	96. Warpath

Tony stood silently watching as his three teammates slammed into the swinging doors as they exited the room, looking for trouble and _positive_ that they would find it. He felt like he couldn't move though. Forcing himself to do so, he slowly walked over to the edge of the pit. Lifting his face plate, he looked down, hoping to see the bottom of it, but he knew that it wasn't going to be visible. Steve and Bucky would have gone in after Vic if it had been. That was a given.

But now, it was going to be _he_ that went after her. There was _no way_ he was leaving Victoria in there.

"FRIDAY, night vision on," Tony instructed her as his visor closed and his thrusters activated to control his decent into the pit, gliding from the edge to over the open space. The least he could do was retrieve her body for them to be able to give her a proper burial. He would place her body here in the room and then head out to join his teammates. In case they didn't make it out, Vic would not be forgotten down there, where nobody would know what had happened to her. Forgotten like what those asses had been planning with the oubliette.

Bucky had been right, though.

He _had_ been the one to suggest, in his genius manipulative way, that Vic be strung up. Putting together Bucky's comment about them feeling the other's pain, and then Vic going into her 'abyss' state not long after punching Bucky, Tony knew that their connection had to free Steve. But there was no way they would give Vic and Bucky the opportunity to touch each other so she could hit him again. So he had used the only other connection they had...her fear of heights. He had only wanted her to get frightened, to break the conditioning that had been forced on Steve. Never had he even considered that Sin would drop Vic into the pit.

What had he done?

When his vision changed, he could see the stone walls traveling further down than he had hoped they would. They had not heard a splash, so there was no water. But, were there rocks at the bottom? How he didn't want to picture Victoria's body broken against them, but he would be seeing it soon enough. Tony focused his thoughts as something started to become visible. There had been no light directly over the pit, but he didn't think it had been this deep considering how long it was taking to find Vic's body.

"How deep _is_ this damn thing?" he rhetorically asked.

" _Approximately seventy feet, boss,_ " FRIDAY just had to answer.

"Shit."

His vision suddenly and unfortunately became much clearer. There, on the smooth ground, was Vic's body lying crumpled on her side, the length of chain scattered around her. Landing on the sandy surface next to her, he fell to his knees next to her body.

This was his fault.

As he was reaching to put his arms under Vic to pick her body up, FRIDAY's voice stopped him.

" _That would not be advisable, Boss_."

"I'm not leaving her down here, FRIDAY."

" _But moving Miss Victoria could aggravate her injuries_."

What did FRIDAY mean by injuries? Could Vic...

"FRIDAY, do you mean that Vic is still alive?"

" _Yes, Boss. Miss Victoria is unconscious and has suffered numerous minor injuries to her left side, but nothing immediately life threatening. I will need more time to run a more complete series of scans_."

"Are you telling me Vic survived _that_ fall?" looking up at the small light above him, still not believing what he was hearing.

" _Yes, Tony. I just said that. And again, I would advise against moving her_."

"That's _not_ really an _option_ here, FRIDAY!"

Vic was lying mostly on her left side, explaining why her injuries were mostly confined to that side. Holding out his hand, he aimed at where the chain first touched the ground, shattering it with a blast. Standing and walking around her, he carefully picked her up, resting her right side against him. It was the best he could do. Her head hung back, giving him a creepy sensation of a dead body, so he leaned a bit forward until it rested on his shoulder, making her look more like she was just sleeping.

"FRIDAY, keep scanning her vitals, and I'll need some help with stabilizing to get up this pit while holding Vic."

" _Yes, Boss_."

His feet thrusters activated at low power, gently lifting him and Vic from the floor of the pit.

"Hold on, my little drummer girl. I'll get you back to your warriors."

This was one of the longest trips he had ever made as he watched the edge of the pit getting closer each second. Finding his feet back on the floor of the room, he was glad to find that it still empty of guards, or at least alive ones. Then he heard the sounds of fighting and gunfire coming from the hallway. There were still HYDRA guards for them to get through.

Walking towards the doors he heard a soft, gruff laugh from where Sin was lying on the ground to his left as she looked up at him holding Vic.

"At least...I killed...that Bitch," she muttered as blood ran from her mouth. Her backside was covered in the red liquid, which matched her outfit.

"Actually, Victoria survived the fall. She's alive…which is more than I can say for you."

With that, Tony turned his hand's palm down from under Vic's torso, aiming right at Sin. With one blast, he increased the side of the bullet holes in her back by tenfold. Watching the final sign of life leave her face was refreshing. Glancing back, he wanted to make sure that Rumlow was still lying on the floor where Bucky had tossed him after crushing his neck.

Yep, still dead. Good.

Now, he needed to figure out how to get Vic out of here, without her getting hurt any more. He needed to get her somewhere safe.

"FRIDAY, do your scans show any type of medical facility nearby?"

" _I believe that I have such a location. Down the hall to the right, second left, third door."_

Tony moved to the door, using his foot to push it open enough to see the events going on in the hallway. Far to the left, he could see Steve, Bucky, and Clint, all firing guns at HYDRA guards at the end of the corridor as they pushed forward. It seemed they were picking up weapons from fallen guards as they moved.

But he could not distract them with the new of Victoria still being alive. They needed to clear this place of HYDRA, so that they could all go home. And with the mood they were in, Tony knew for a fact that it _would_ be accomplished. Looking to the right, in the direction he needed to go, the coast was clear. Perfect.

Stepping from the room, he was now between Vic and any bullet that passed his teammates. Walking down the hall in the direction he needed to go, he realized that there was more sounds of battle coming from up ahead. As he reached the first left, he glanced before going past to make sure it was clear. There were HYDRA agents using the other end of the hallway as cover, while they fired weapons at an enemy he could not see down a different corridor. If he fired on them, it would draw attention, and he would not risk Vic like that. Whomever they were firing at would just have to deal with the guards themselves.

Moving quickly past the opening, he got to the next hall and checked. This one was clear. At the third door, he kicked it open, finding a simple medical suite inside.

Heading to the closest bed, he carefully laid Victoria onto it, a bit on her right side, trying to avoid putting any pressure on her entire left side. But her arms were still bound behind her back. Lowering his helm, he looked around and found what he needed. Grabbing the medical scissors, he began to cut away the straps that surround her arms, then the rest of her body, allowing him to move her arms carefully to her sides before laying her flat on her back. He could see a slightly off shape of her shoulder, but at least FRIDAY had not found anything life threatening, and hopefully it would stay that way.

"Vic, can you hear me?" he asked her, putting his hands on the sides of her face, hoping for a response. Nothing.

" _Tony, you are being paged_."

"By who?"

" _Miss Natasha_."

"Put her on."

" _It's about time. Care to explain where the four of you have been_?" Nat asked calmly, but he could hear gunfire close to her. _That's_ who the guards he had spotted were firing at.

"Our South American vacation didn't go exactly as planned. Nat, Vic is hurt. I'm in what passes for a medical bay here."

He looked around and found that he and Vic were alone in the facility. But if there had been a doctor, Tony didn't know if he would trust him to help Vic.

" _How bad_?" she asked.

"So far all FRIDAY said was numerous minor injuries, but it could be worse with what happened to her. Right now, she's unconscious."

" _I have SHIELD agents scattered around the castle. Give us a few minutes to find and get to you_ ," she told him as more gunfire sounded.

"Nat, the guys think that Vic died. I wasn't able to tell them about her. They were a bit busy going all _John Wick_ on the entire place. You may want to get to them and let them know before they go and do something even _more reckless_ than they already are."

" _I'll send Pietro to find them_ ," she informed him.

Moving to the door, he stood just in the hallway, keeping watch at both ends. Over the next couple of minutes as HYDRA agents turned down the hallway, either running to or away from the fighting, he fired on them before they could even register that Iron Man was right there. He never strayed from the spot, keeping guard on Vic while FRIDAY started to run a more detailed scan of her injuries, listing them off for him.

Suddenly there was a blur right in front of him, "Hey, Garbage Man, why aren't you helping to take out the trash?"

"Pietro, I'm going to put a bell on you," he said lowering his arms, "and I'm guarding Vic."

Pietro was looking past him at Vic lying unconscious on the bed, checking on her, "Nat said that I needed to find Bucky and Steve, but this place is huge with lots of halls, and it seems that I found you first."

He pointed in the direction he came from. "Last I saw them, they were that way." And then he was gone.

The sounds of fighting either started to die off after a couple of minutes, or the combatants were getting further away. Tony kept scans of the battle going, but with the stone walls interfering with his equipment, he could only register images nearby.

"Ya called me Vikki."

At hearing that voice, Tony turned around to see Vic laying on the bed with her eyes partially open, and looking at him with a scowl on her face. He stepped inside and stood near her bed, raising his visor so she could see his face.

"Ah' warned ya not ta do tha'."

"Sorry, Vic. I needed you to either listen, or get so mad at me that you would open your eyes."

"Why the fuck di'I need ta do that? Ya know wha' happens to 'em," Vic sounded like she was a drunk redneck. It was one of the symptoms from the concussion FRIDAY had informed him of, slurred speech.

"Because when Steve felt your fear, it woke him up. He's back…and really, _really_ mad at HYDRA right now," he told her smiling.

"'Bout fucking time," Vic said just before trying to sit up, which brought on a scream of pain.

"You need to stay in bed," he told her, gently helping to ease her back down.

"Tha's Steve an' Bucky's line, no' yours," she told him with a snort.

He couldn't help but laugh at hearing Vic sounding so much like her old self.

"Well then, as your boss, I'm ordering you to wait until help arrives. Bucky already attacked me once today. I don't need him doing it again because you hurt yourself on my watch," he told her.

His sensors then activated indicating that something was slowly moving in their direction down the hallway.

"Why would 'e do 'tat?" she asked as he took the steps necessary to move between her and the door, closing his visor.

"They _kind of_ think your dead, and that _I'm_ to blame," raising his hands as the movement got closer.

"Ya 're fucked."

"Thanks for the support."

"Mad at ya'."

When the bit of familiar red hair peered around the corner, he let out a sigh of breath.

"Come on, I had to," he said, lifting his visor again, "Nat, tell Vic to not let the Nelson twins beat me up. She won't because she's mad at me," he said as she entered to room and headed to Vic's side to check her injuries.

"What did he do _this_ time?" she asked Vic as she popped opened the orange jumper to examine her.

"Called me Vikki."

"Ooo…sorry, Tony. Sounds like you're screwed."

Tony sighed while mockingly throwing his hands up in the air and headed back over towards the door.

"Vic's got everything wrong on her left side…shoulder and elbow are both dislocated, concussion, a pelvic fracture, cracked ribs, and a broken ankle. She needs to stay down," he said glancing into the hallway.

"Wha' happen'd ta me?" Vic then asked as slightly moved, wincing in pain while trying to test her body's injuries.

"Sin pulled the chain's lever that was holding you up. You fell about seventy feet to the bottom of that pit," he told her as Natasha looked over at him, as if trying to tell if he was lying or not. He just nodded his head so that she knew he was truthful. "I think the fact that you were unconscious, along with your enhanced bone structure, somehow enable you to survive. Also luckily, the bottom was covered in a soft sand, and not rocks or water."

Vic then began to chuckle at something funny, so he asked, "What?"

"Pull the level, Kronk. Wrong lever."

Hearing that, he began to laugh with her, getting the reference.

"There is something _seriously_ wrong with the _two of you_ ," Nat looked at the two of them, shaking her head. Checking something on a small tablet attached to her wrist, she informed them, "The Helicarrier is less than an hour out. By the time we get this wrapped up, we can head out and meet it."

"Can ya' get Steve and Bucky for me?" Vic asked them.

"They're not on comms yet. Pietro is still looking for them, following the trail of bodies," Nat answered. He had seen the beginning of that trail, and could imagine what it looked like by now. "Any sign of Rumlow or Sin?"

"There won't be any more. They are _permanently_ out of the picture," Tony answered.

"Sure?" Vic asked. She needed to know that this was about to be finally over.

"Yes. Bucky crushed Rumlow's neck, and between the shots Sin took from me and Steve, she dead too," he told her, to which he saw a look of relief cross her face.

"Good. They were meanies."

 _That_ sounded so much more like their Vic.

Nat then put her hand to her ear, listening to something on her earcom for a moment before smiling, then saying, "Yes, she's right here…no, we're safe…nope, no sign of the runts…I'll let her know."

"Wade's 'ere?" Vic asked.

"Yes, working on guards in the courtyard and he's mad as hell that you _left_ the Tower _and_ had FRIDAY _block_ the calls he was placing to you to _inform_ you of such," Nat then told her.

"Had ta' get ta' Steve."

"Have fun being grounded," Tony then told her, as she groaned at knowing the speech that Wade, and the guys, were going to give her for insisting on coming along.

Five minutes after a group of SHIELD medical personnel had arrived and were evaluating Vic's injuries, they heard loud quick stomps of something massive coming from the hallway. Tony moved towards the door, ready for more HYDRA agents. But then the forms of Steve and Bucky were suddenly there, staring right at him as he had his hands raised to fire. He dropped them quickly, hoping they didn't still want him hurt.

"'Bout fracking time. Ya'll done yet?"

* * *

Peering through the door with Steve, they saw Tony standing on the defensive before he dropped his upright hands, as if he had been expecting an enemy to be approaching.

"'Bout fracking time. Ya'll done yet?"

Hearing her voice, they both stepped inside of the room as Tony backed away, raising his visor and still looking a bit worried. They saw two medical technicians standing over the bed that Vic was lying on, taking vitals and checking over the left side of her body very carefully.

"Victoria!"

They walked over together to the right side of the bed. He let Steve move to his left side, so that he could see and talk with Vic since he had not seen her in so long. Scanning her body, off hand he could not see anything life threatening. How had she survived the fall? How had she gotten here?

"I heard ta' two a ya' were on tha' warpath…" she softly said smiling at them.

"Victoria…I'm so sorry. I didn't know…I couldn't…" Steve told her as his voice began to crack with emotion as what he had been forced to do to her yesterday came back to him.

"Hey, I know, Chenille," she said, lifting her hand, to which Steve took it as he gave a slight chuckle at the new nickname she had given him. "I know exactly what tha' fucking Chair can do."

"Language," Steve then smiled at her.

Looking up at the medical people, Bucky asked, "How bad is she?"

"Dislocated shoulder and elbow…two cracked ribs...fractured pelvis…broken ankle…and a slight concussion, with a couple of symptoms," one of them answered looking a bit afraid at having to give them the bad news. It was the two cracked ribs that made him angry. With the punches she had taken, Steve had been the one to inflict those injuries on her.

"Tha's no' bad," Vic said as she took her and Steve's hand and knocked at his thigh with them to get his attention.

"You're ribs…hell, that's my fault," Steve then said thinking the same thing he just had been.

"Actually, all of those injuries were from her fall," Tony chimed in from a couple of feet back, at a safe distance.

But that brought back something else Bucky wanted to take care of.

"You mean the fall that _you_ are responsible for?" he asked, turning to glare at the man who had suggested putting her up there.

"Woah, Yeti," Tony said taking a step backwards with his hands up defensively before him. "I only _meant_ for Vic to get scared."

"So you _did_ know what would happen?" Steve then asked from behind him.

"I had a damn educated guess…remember… _genius!_ " Tony smiled, doubly pointing at himself with his fingers over his head.

From out in the hallway they heard, "No...no, I don't have a problem _at all_ with being left behind alone inside of a HYDRA base…I can take care of myself…" Clint mumbled as he walked through the door into the room.

Clint then quickly took stock of what was happening before him and stopped dead in his tracks, eyes wide as he looked over at all of them. They had found the room where his personal items were being stored and he had been _so happy_ to be whole again with his weapons back.

"Will tha' two of ya' stop tha'?" Vic demanded, sounding a bit tired.

"Tony was the one who convinced them to string you up there!" Bucky pointed out.

"Would ya' 'rathered Steve beat me some more?" Vic then asked him.

 _That_ grounded him a bit.

"No, of course not, Sugar," he said, turning back to her and knowing that Tony was a bit more relieved.

"Then leave 'im alone, Tsveteniye Priklad," she told him.

He heard Nat start to laugh at that one.

"Oh, no…there's _no way_ I'm letting you get away with that one," he told her, jokingly irritated.

"What does that one mean?" Steve asked to which he refused to answer.

"Basically...flowering butt," Nat answered when he didn't.

He groaned as Steve giggled at hearing that one. At least it seemed that all of them were finally back to normal.

"We need to get Vic to the Helicarrier so they can properly set her arm and ankle. The painkillers the medics gave her won't last forever," Nat pointed out to them from where she had been unobtrusively standing out of the line of fire. "I've already put in an order for a bedroom to be set up that will accommodate the three of you."

"Vic," he was hesitant to even ask, but they needed to know, "What happened with Zemo last night? What did he do to you?"

Steve's head jerked to face him, not even having known about Vic being given to him before being put in the cell.

"No'then," she simply said.

But, that didn't make any sense?

"Vic, _what happened_?" he then demanded slightly.

"We talk'd for a while, then he put me in tha' cell," she responded.

"Victoria, did he touch you?" Steve asked, now knowing why he had started these questions.

"No. Well… he di' remove tha' gag and straps. But tha' don' count."

He and Steve looked at each other, knowing that once Vic was better, they would ask again getting more detail. But had Zemo really not hurt her? Thinking back to the comments she'd made in the room, Vic never did say anything to indicate that Zemo had actually violated her. Instead, she had taunted Sin and Rumlow with the idea that Rumlow would be jealous if he had and also stopping him from possibly shooting Zemo. Had Vic done that on purpose?

Thirty minutes later, they were watching through a window on the Helicarrier as the doctor started to reset her shoulder and elbow. Wade had volunteered to stay with her, saying that if she cursed, he wanted to be there to hear it, bringing a smile to their faces, even after everything. But, every wince that Vic gave, made his own body tense with sympathy pain. Steve had to be told _again_ that the cracked ribs had been on her side, from the impact at the bottom of the well, and _not_ from what he had done to her, before he seemed to relax a bit. Her scans showed that the front of her ribs were not even cracked.

"How are you doing? Feeling like your old self?" Bucky asked him as they waited.

"That was the most horrifying experience of my entire life…including the Alps," he told him. "I remember that at the time, what I was doing, it just seemed perfectly normal. I didn't even question any order that I was given. I just blindly obeyed…complied…"

"I know _just_ how you feel," he told him.

"But, you went through _seventy years_ of that," Steve sighed out. "I don't know how you did it."

"That's why I needed some time to sort through what I was starting to remember. Do you feel like your memories are more like watching something on television? That you are screaming at the character, but they just don't listen to you?"

"Yeah, that's exactly how it feels," Steve answered.

"Now, add seventy years of flipping channels."

Steve's head dropped as he tried to take in everything for the past month.

"Give it time. At least you didn't kill numerous people," he joked, patting Steve on the back.

"But what I did to Victoria…how could she ever forgive me?"

"You know that she will, _if_ she's even mad at you," he told him. "You don't know what she's done for the past month, trying to get you back."

Steve looked over at him, a worried look on his face.

"She hasn't been sleeping right, has she?" Steve asked.

"No…and not only that, but trust me when I warn you to _not_ go up against her in the training room anymore," he said remembering the time that she had taken him down. "I found her accessing it numerous time during the middle of the night. She had taken the safeties _off_ , so we had to lock her out of the system from doing it again."

"What? She could have been killed!"

"Vic didn't care. She's blamed herself since that night when you were taken. She says it all her fault."

"No…no…I told her to stay there! They were going to kill her if she moved! I made her _promise_ to me so that she would be _safe_ ," Steve told him looking into the window as the doctor now examined her broken ankle.

"We know. She told us everything, but she kept saying that it was her fault since she wanted to go out on the date," Bucky began to regret not going with them that night, again. Then maybe they wouldn't have taken Steve. "But, she didn't just stop with upping her training to help rescue you."

Steve looked at him worried again.

"She confiscated one of the offices in the Tower for herself. She took every file that Fury sent over from SHIELD and the S.S.R. and went through them, searching for a way to find you. One of the first mornings after you were gone, I woke up to find that she was learning German to be able to read the files."

Steve knew what that meant.

"How long did that take?"

"Just over two days. With her sleeping cut to somewhere between three and five hours, she had plenty of time to get through it."

"Her sleeping got that bad?" Steve asked. "But you were still there with her…"

"With all the information that she absorbed from the files, her mind was trying to work out a problem with a pattern that it had found. As if her project had been interrupted. She didn't…couldn't…hold a normal conversation after two weeks. She would just talk in random HYDRA facts, working something out."

There was _no way_ he was going to mention the possibility of Vic feeling every time Steve had been put into the machine. Vic had never admitted to him what was going on, trying to hide it so he would not worry, but he knew.

Steve did _not_ need to carry that burden also.

"Bloody hell…I can't believe that she did that to herself. Just to try and find me?"

"Yeah, and it worked."

Steve really looked shocked now at hearing that. "What?"

"I was yelling at her, late two nights ago, after she had snuck away to the training room, again, telling her that if she didn't come and get some sleep, that I was going to lock her in my old cryostasis chamber from Siberia. Somehow, hearing those words, helped to put the 'error' in the pattern she had been working on into place."

"She got so bad that you really threatened her with that?"

"I haven't even gotten to the nightmares, or how she would sneak off and sleep on the floor of your closet sometimes. But, Vic remembered something from my old files, a doctor, that was coming to work on brainwashing me, but then he wasn't needed. His equipment shipping records from HYDRA gave the address of Sin's castle. That's how we ended up here."

"Why would you bring her along?" he asked hesitantly, as if he suspected the answer.

"We kind of owe Tony a new conference table," which earned him a questioning look. "Vic used her fists to smash the end of the other one off when I told her she was staying in the Tower."

Steve looked at Vic lying in the bed, and he knew that seeing her alive, and mostly healthy, was the best outcome they could have hoped for.

"Hey, fellas," Nat said coming down the hall towards them. "How's it going in there?"

"At least she's not mad at the doctors this time," Steve pointed out.

"How's clean up going?" Bucky asked.

"The only problem so far is that nobody has been able to find Zemo. After talking with Tony and Clint, it seems he took off as soon as the fighting started. A Viperjet took off and cloaked, so we are guessing he was inside, maybe with a few agents, running scared."

"Damn…I wonder how much of a problem he will be?" Bucky asked.

"Not as much as Rumlow, I'd wager," Steve answered.

"There is one amusing thing to tell you about though," Nat said getting both of their attentions. "Turns out that two of the guards left the castle last night and never came back, claiming that it was haunted."

"Haunted? HYDRA agents are scared of mythical ghosts?" Steve asked.

"Not mythical ghost…but of a _haunting_ , beautiful voice, singing a scary song in the middle of the night. Want to take a guess as to who that was?"

All three of them turned to stare at Vic, who then noticed all of them intently watching her, so she flipped them an English bird, and then shooed them away with her fingers, telling Wade something that made him laugh. Maybe she had cursed.

"She scared two grown men away with her singing?" Bucky asked not really believing it as they stepped just a few feet away. They were not going to risk Vic actually getting mad at them.

"Yes. Not only that, when she started to sing other songs later, guards were listening to her, enjoying it," Nat said with a smirk.

"Did you hear where they put her for the night?" Bucky then asked.

"Yes, and not only that, I found the oubliette. It took one of the HYDRA guards to show us how to get to it. Clint told me what Rumlow had planned for Vic…we would never have found it," Nat pointed out, which sent chills down his spine. "Vic told me, before you got to her in the castle, that she got bored and decided to test the acoustics of the small space."

Hearing that, both of them started to chuckle. That was definitely how Vic usually acted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Pull the lever' - please tell me you have seen The Emperor's New Groove. If not, do it immediately. Yzma Rules!
> 
> Also, for those of you trying to do the math, yes, I researched and found instances where people did survive falls from that high (and higher) so with her special connection, it is very possible. In Ch. 22, Steve and Bucky mention they can do a seven story free drop easily.  
> Besides, you didn't actually want me to kill Vic, did you?


	97. Back To Normal

**Shield Helicarrier**

"Romanoff!" she heard the familiar deep voice calling her from down the hallway. She turned to see Fury striding towards her with a purpose. "Care to explain to me _why_ my agents are scrounging berths to _disassemble beds_?"

"We need to make a space large enough for Vic, Bucky, and Steve to sleep in," she said coming to a halt, and also making sure that they were alone so nobody else could overhear.

"Can't they wait until the get back to the city for _that_?" he asked stopping before her.

"That's not why they need it, Sir," Nat said with a hint of a smile, deciding to let him in on the secret. He already knew a lot of other things about Vic from their chats together, but she'd held back telling him just how strong their soulmark connection really was. "They have a connection due to the soulmark. Once Victoria falls asleep between them, her body will begin healing all of its injuries. She'd be fine by morning so we wanted it to happen as soon as possible."

"Healed? How is that possible?" Fury asked.

"We don't know the specifics and may never know, but everything that Rumlow did to Vic last year, it was healed by the next morning," she informed him. She could see him mind racing with the possibilities.

"Does this work for Rogers or Barnes?" he asked curious.

"Not that we know of. Just Vic," she said. "The doctors are just finishing up resetting her arm. We didn't want to take the chance that it did not heal something that dramatic. They are putting a temporary cast on her broken left ankle since after tomorrow morning, it will need to be removed."

"That's one hell of a thing," Fury said, as an agent turned down the hall. They both waited until he had passed before speaking again. "I read a short briefing about what's happened over the past month. How's Rogers doing? Is he back to normal?"

"Yes, he's physically fine. But, they made him use Vic as a personal punching bag yesterday. He's going to need some time to get over that."

"The castle is now secure. I'm going down there to see it for myself. Anything to pay attention to that you know of?" he asked.

"Just so you know what happened to her, I suggest that you have someone show you to the oubliette. You won't believe that she spent roughly twelve hours in the thing," Nat told him, wondering how she would have held up. She sure would not have been singing to pass the time.

* * *

"Will ya put me the frack down so tha' I ca' walk?" Vic demanded of Steve, but Bucky knew there was no way he was going to do that. He didn't like how her voice slurred thanks to the concussion. It didn't sound like her normal lovely southern accent.

"You have a broken ankle and fractured hip, and the one time you tried to stand you were too dizzy. You _can't_ walk on your own," Steve pointed out as they followed the agent to where a large bed had been set up somewhere for them to use.

"They 'ad a pair o' crutches for meh' to use 'fore ah' got double man 'andled," she said making a joke about the two of them carrying her out of the medical bay. Bucky had picked her up first, but when they had reached the hallway, Steve had blocked him and taken Victoria out of his arms. It had been so long since he's held her, so he let him take her. The only other visible sign of injury was the sling that was over her left arm and elbow, supporting them until morning, when they would become useless.

"Here you are," the agent said, opening up the door for them.

"Thanks," Bucky said before asking, "Would it be possible to have something for the three of us to eat to be brought here? Anything would be fine but bring a lot of it."

"Yes, certainly," the agent smiled before continuing down the hall. He had not eaten since some rations on the Quinjet during the flight down to Argentina, and he figured that it was probably the same for Vic. At least, this time, he knew that when she saw the food, that she would eat it. Not like the past month.

Steve carefully laid Vic down on his side of the bed.

"We need to keep her from being between us until after she eats something," Bucky pointed out.

"Starvation was one of the first things they did with me," Steve told them, moving to the only chair in the room to sit down. "I'm guessing they didn't feed you either?"

"No," he said, watching Vic gather all the pillows to go behind her. "They left me on that damn platform from the moment I woke up until you freed me. My muscles hurt so much right after you freed my arms, it took a few extra seconds to get myself up. Was it the same for you, Vic?"

"Not exactly," she said, seeming a bit hesitant.

"Care to explain?" Steve asked.

"At some point after ah'd stopped singing, someon' lowered me down a napkin with some bread an' a' bot'le of water. I don't know who it was."

They two of them looked at each other, wondering why a HYDRA agent would have done that for her. Had she really made a fan of one of them? Or had they felt bad at what she was being put through?

"Bucky told me a bit about how you found me, but how did _all of you_ manage to get captured?" Steve asked.

"I'm still not exactly sure what happened," Bucky said.

"Oh, tha's easy," Vic was leaning back onto the pillows, looking partially comfortable, but fidgeting a bit, and sounding almost amused. "Ah saw tha whole thing."

"Which I'll be getting back to in a little while…about you being there in the first place," Steve told her while pointing a finger in her direction. That earned him a tongue.

"Zemo 'ad an EMP device tha' he activated. It took out Tony's suit, as well as ya arm," she said pointing at it. "Clint and 'ah then had ta remove Tony's mask so tha' he would'nt suffocate."

"It took his entire suit out?" Steve asked. "That must have been the same thing that happened to it in New York with the portal."

"No' sure," she said. "But 'den Rumlow and Sin came over close ta us. Rumlow said that it was time fo' lesson number two…tha pain a' uncertainty."

"I remember hearing that. But then what happened?" he asked sitting on the edge of the bed near her feet.

"Turns out tha' HYDRA had another code word planted into ya subconscious. A shut-off word tha' would take ya out. Sputnik," she then said moments before he could tell her not to say it. But…

"Nothing happened," he said looking around to make sure no time had passed.

"Nope," she smiled at him. "Sin mentioned tha' it was a one-time use only. Which is a good thing. Of course, it would have come in handy when ya irritate me by not putting ya stinky socks in tha dirty clothes basket."

"Vic, that is not even funny," but she sure was smiling from saying it.

"So…it knocked Bucky unconscious?"

"Yea. Ah though' a' first tha' 'e was dead, with tha way 'e had dropped."

Bucky then began to wonder what else may be hidden up inside of his head without even knowing about it. He was going to have to see if Wanda could help him with this. He couldn't be unreliable during a fight, or if Vic or Steve ever needed him again. Steve may even need a few sessions to help him.

" 'Den they took Tony's suit off of 'im piece by' piece, an' while Clint an' I were hauled off in diffent' directions, Bucky ha' ta be carried off. Ah'm guessing ta where 'ah saw ya in that room."

"Yeah, I woke up on that platform already chained down," he told them. "Vic, if I had any idea about what was going to happen, I would have left you in New York."

"Then ya would have still gotten yourselv's caught, but ya p'obably would'na hav' escaped," she pointed out as she fidgeted, then she grinned. "Besides, ah already asked Tony, an' e'ven though we all go' caught, it still counts as storming tha castle."

He dropped his head in defeat. Vic definitely sounded like she was back to her old self.

"Victoria…Bucky mentioned a bit of what you have been doing for the past month to yourself…going through all of those files…"

"Which is how ah found ya…"

"Training yourself without _safeties_ …" Bucky reminded him.

"Which turned out ta be pointless…"

"Victoria!"

"Oh, stop it. Both of ya," she said getting mad at _them_. "Everythin' worked out fine in tha' end."

"We _thought_ that you were _dead!_ " Steve pointed out.

He thought back to seeing Steve kneeling next to the pit and Vic _not_ hanging over it. At first he had not believed it. But then, he had seen it clearly on Steve's face. Steve had seen her fall, and had not been able to do anything about it.

"But ah'm not!" she said starting to fidget even more in the medical scrubs that she had been put into. She then reached around with her right hand, and pulled on one of the strings, loosening the bow holding it in place. Seconds later, she had the item off and tossed it across the room, leaving herself naked except for the shield panties and sports bra, before trying to crawl under the blanket. That was when they saw the bruising on her stomach area.

"Fuck…" Steve mumbled out as he looked at the damage that he had done to her yesterday while under the mind control. Bucky almost thought that he was about to swoon, if Steve still did stuff like that.

"Hey, stop that!" Vic demanded, taking one of her pillows and throwing it to hit Steve in the head with it. Yep, Vic was about back to normal. "Ah'm fine. It doesn't hurt, an' by tomorrow, it'll beh' gone."

"But _I_ did that to you," Steve told her picking the pillow up and bringing it back over to her to use.

"No…tha damn Operative that they turned ya into did this," she said grabbing his arm with her usable right hand and pulling Steve down so that he was sitting next to her on the bed.

"How can you say that?" Steve asked quietly. He knew exactly what Steve was going through. "How can you ever forgive me?"

"Do ya blame Bucky for hurting ya in D.C. when 'e was still tha Asset?" she asked.

"No, of course not. But…"

"No…no buts! This is exactly tha same! There is nutt'ing ta forgive!" she said then reaching over to Steve's neck and pulling him in for a kiss. The first one they'd had in a long time. When they drew apart, Vic then turned to look at him. "Come here."

Bucky crawled up on the bed as Steve moved back to the chair, keeping apart until after they ate. She then gave him a kiss, the first _real_ one _they'd_ had in a long time. Steve's body seemed to lose a bit of the tension it had once she had kissed him.

"How did you like it getting Vic all to yourself for a month?" Steve than asked, teasing a bit.

"It didn't happen the way you're thinking," he told him. "Remember when I said that Vic was not acting like herself? Well, she would only let me hold her at night. No real kisses and definitely nothing else."

Steve looked at the two of them sitting there, like he was shocked at the admission. That was when there was knock on the metal door. Steve got up and opened it, finding the agent standing there with a large tray of food from the commissary on the Helicarrier which he had found had pretty good food considering it was made at ten thousand feet.

They sat eating quietly for the next few minutes, each of them thinking about the events of the past two days. He watched as Vic ate everything that she was given, and he made sure to give her some of his own, as did Steve. They remembered how much she had eaten last time before the healing sleep had started. Not a single item was left on the tray.

"Victoria," Steve said sitting in the bed staring at her. "I saw what you looked like when you removed that dressing gown, and I don't mean the bruises."

"What?" she asked not understanding.

"If I ask Bucky if you have not been eating properly, would I be right?" he asked her. Instead of answering, Bucky gave a slight nod of agreement.

"Don' worry," she smiled, "Ah'll just have to get smaller shorts. Ah'm sure neither of ya will mind tha'."

"Vic, that's not what he's getting at," he scolded her.

"Why would you push yourself like that? Then there is what you were doing with the training room," Steve pointed out.

"Because if ah hadn't dragged ya out tha' night, 'den none 'o 'dis would hav' happened!" she informed them. "It's my fault that ya were taken!"

"No, it was not your fault!" Steve firmly stated before he admonished her by saying, "You should never have done that to yourself!"

"Too bad, because ah fuckin' did. And now, it's done an' over," she huffed out. Yep… _she_ was made at _them_.

"And why would you let her?" Steve then turned to him and asked.

"Have you _not_ met her?" he said pointing his finger right at Vic. "Stubborn does not even _begin_ to explain how she's been for the past month. Take how she normally is, then multiply it by ten."

They then both looked over at Vic who was smiling, scooting toward the middle of the bed, ready to get comfortable and sleep. Seeing the calm, happy expression, Vic looked like she didn't have a care in the world.

* * *

All three of them were now lying on the bed together, Victoria totally unconscious between them as they talked. Steve was lying on his back with Victoria draped partially over him, her face resting on his chest while her hurt arm held onto him. He had watched as her face winced in pain as she slowly moved it into place. Maybe that type of injury left more of an effect, since the bruising had not, but hopefully it would be healed by morning. He was running his fingers through her loose hair now that Bucky had removed the braids while she slept as she could not stop him from doing so.

Bucky was on his side, his metal arm draped over her while making small circles on her belly with his fingers, resting while holding her as they talked. He knew that she had intertwined her legs with Bucky's to keep him in place. Neither one of them would be going anywhere tonight as her body healed itself.

Steve listened as Bucky gave him a rundown as to how life in the Tower had been for the past month. Everyone had been working hard, trying to find a way to find him. Tony had barely slept as he kept trying to find a way to trace the Viper after it had left the opera house, all of it without success. Clint, Wade and Natasha had taken to getting in touch with any contacts, hoping for a lead on Rumlow, or Sin. Fury had passed along every single file they had on Red Skull, with not one of them even mentioning Sin.

But, listening to specifically what Victoria had done, it broke his heart to hear. He never even guessed that she would blame herself so much, and have such an altered personality over the guilt of him being taken. Bucky had been able to calmly tell him the stories of the minimal interactions between Victoria and others, but inside, he sure did not feel calm. Instead, it was tearing him up. He knew the hell that he had been put through for the past month, but now, it was sounding like Victoria had made her own hell.

"I didn't mess up by making Victoria stay in that seat, did I?" he had to finally ask.

"No," Bucky assured him. "You made the right call. Rumlow would have killed her otherwise. If anything, I should have tried to work with everyone to make sure that she didn't push herself to the point where she was."

"We had no idea that she would do that. We've never had this type of situation happen before," he pointed out to him. "Hopefully, nothing like this will ever happen again."

Bucky then reach out and took a lock of hair, bring it up to his nose to sniff.

"Stalker."

"Punk."

After a few minutes of silence, he finally admitted, "We should have killed Rumlow when we had the chance. In the penthouse, once Victoria was safe."

"She sure tried to."

Steve then stared over at the uniform lying on the chair that he had taken off a while ago. Seeing that hideous symbol staring over at him, knowing what he had done to Victoria while wearing it, he decided that when they got home that they were going to have a bonfire in the backyard. Bucky had used some of their hidden downtime to put in a small fire pit with some chairs around it. Now, he was going to put it to good use.

* * *

**Hydra ViperJet  
Over the Atlantic Ocean**

As the Viper made its way over the Atlantic Ocean towards their destination, Helmut wondered if he would ever know the full story of what happened at Sin's castle. The small group of HYDRA agents he had fled with had managed to hack into the SHIELD communications to learn that both Sin and Rumlow had been confirmed dead. The Avengers that had been their prisoners seemed to be the ones responsible for it.

None of the agents with him were looking forward to having to pass along that information to Max Lohmer when they reached their destination. He knew that the man had been loyal to HYDRA and specifically Sin for his entire life, being indoctrinated at a young age even with her being in cryo.

No…he would _not_ take the news of her death well at all.

The one troubling part that he heard about was learning that a medical team had to be called in specifically to look after Victoria. By the time that he heard they were moving her to the Helicarrier to be looked after, they were far enough away that the messages had been garbled and he never learned what had happened to her. He figured after hearing the phrase 'non-life threatening' that it must be due to her injuries from Rogers' torture yesterday.

Hopefully, after having to deal with Max he would be able to get away from this group that he affiliated himself with. He may have joined with them to get revenge on the Avengers, but the past twenty-four hours had filled him with doubt as to how that needed to come about...if at all.

Thanks to the strange woman who had saved his life.

* * *

**Shield Helicarrier**

Feeling a familiar poke in his side, Bucky cracked open an eye to a slyly grinning Vic who held her finger to her lips to silence him. She then began to easily slip off the sports bra and panties that she had fallen asleep in. Seeing her move, he could tell the injuries were gone. That alone helped to ease some of the worry from him that he had fallen asleep with.

Vic then leaned over to whisper in his ear, "Let's give Steve a fun wake-up call."

Nodding his head with a wide smile, Vic slowly moved down the bed so that her body was straddling Steve's. He then positioned himself behind her as Vic took the edges of Steve's briefs and began to slowly pull them down, trying to not wake him. Once he saw her take Steve's shaft into her hand before she began to suck on it, only then did he push himself inside of her, causing a deep moan from her after so long.

"Oh, I've missed that," Steve mumbled as he woke up to Vic sucking on him, probably moving her tongue to that spot that drove Steve crazy.

Releasing him for a moment, Vic said, "Knowing Nick, there's probably at least one camera in here so let's make sure to give them an eyeful," before sliding right back down onto him.

Bucky could only laugh at the comment as he pumped in and out of Vic, forcing her mouth to take Steve deeper with each push. He could tell by the look on his soulmate's face that he had no problem with thinking anyone was watching them.

* * *

"How are you doing this morning?" Nat asked Victoria as they met up in the chow-hall on the Helicarrier the next morning. All of their group had assembled without actually trying. They had been asking that same question to him and Victoria for the past few minutes as they had wandered in and spotted them at a large empty table, that was now almost full.

"Much better," she grinned, giving Nat a sly wink that he managed to catch, which also brought a coffee mug covered grin to Nat's face.

Waking up to her warm mouth sucking on him, the first thing that Victoria had said was that if their room had any spy cameras in it, then she wanted to make sure that they got an eyeful. After seeing that her arm and foot were actually healed with no lingering effects, the three of them had put the large bed to some use. Twice.

"Any sign yet of Zemo?" Clint then asked Nat as he sat down with his breakfast tray.

"No. But after doing a headcount of the guards, we know that there was at least seven that managed to get away with him in a Viperjet," she informed the group.

"At least Rumlow and Sin are finally worm food," Tony smiled as he grabbed a slice of bacon, eating it with a smile.

"That is _a lot_ of headaches gone," Steve confirmed. He was glad that this was mostly over and they could hopefully get back to having a normal life again, without having to actually hide out at their house. They could all just live there instead.

"We can head back to the Tower when everyone is ready," Nat said. "Fury is going to stay here and see what all they can get from Sin's computers. They have already found information on cells not listed in the SHIELD/HYDRA data drop."

"Anyone who wants to can hang out at the Tower for a while," Tony then offered, looking directly at him. He had a feeling that Tony wanted to make sure that he was totally recovered from his ordeal.

"That sounds like an offer we may just take you up on," he said for Victoria and Bucky, who nodded in agreement. There was a chance that he may need some type of help to get past what happened to him, but so far it was not overwhelming him in the same way Bucky's experiences had for him. Just being around his soulmates again seemed to be a big help.

"I need to have back home," Clint then informed them. He wondered how mad Laura was going to be at him for getting captured when he was supposed to have been only training Victoria. "I promised Laura that I'd finish painting our bedroom and bath."

"That new guy, Tic-tac, is supposed to be coming to the Facility for some team training in a few days. I could use some help," Sam politely requested.

"We could stay for a few weeks," Pietro offered for him and Wanda.

For the next hour, they sat and chatted, which Steve found was something that he sorely had missed.

Later as everyone was walking through the Helicarrier's interior to where their Quinjet was parked, Steve saw Nat and Fury discussing something before turning to them, focusing specifically on Victoria.

Reaching the two of them, Fury asked, "How are you doing this morning?"

"Why is everyone so worried about me? It's like nobody here has ever been hurt before," she answered with a smile.

"I'll take that to mean that you are doing fine, but just too stubborn to admit to it," he told her, giving one of his glares.

"Yes, I'm fine Nikki," she then answered.

"Oh, no. If you use that name, you'll get its rhyming one," he informed her, probably having heard the story of it from Nat. He found it amusing that Fury did not say the dreaded name out loud though. Nat really had told him about Victoria.

"Fine, Agent Pleakley," she gave a wide grin as add Clint and Tony snorted loudly and turned away trying to hide behind Sam who only smiled. He could only guess the meaning behind that name. Fury just stated at her for a moment, not sure how to take the nickname.

"Natasha told me about how your body heals. That would be a very useful ability for a SHIELD agent to have," Fury commented right before Bucky spoke:

"Absolutely not!"

Steve knew that Bucky had messed up at that moment, answering for Victoria.

" _Really_?" she said turning slowly towards the endangered soulmate. "I seem to recall taking you down in the training room once."

"Vic, there is no way we…"

"Oh, no! Don't drag me into your ' _foot-in-mouth'_ conversation," Steve informed him, raising his hands defensively and backing away. Even if he did totally 100% agree with Bucky, Steve knew not to speak it aloud.

Victoria gave him a lovely smile for knowing when to keep his mouth shut before she turned back to Bucky. Wiggling her finger for him to step closer to her, Bucky did (after bracing one arm over his chest and his other over his groin for protection) before Victoria then began to whisper very quietly into his ear. For the next few moments, a string of expressions crossed Bucky's face before he finally slumped his head.

"Vic can be an agent if she wants."

"What?" he then asked, not believing what he was hearing while wondering _what_ she had _threatened_ him with.

Fury took that moment to speak up, asking, "So, Victoria, care to become an official member of the new SHIELD?"

"No."

Now everyone was staring at her.

"Why not?" he hesitantly asked, not that he wanted her to be in their dangerous line of work.

"I can deal listening to their stories about what all they do, but I don't care to be the one telling them," she answered.

"But what about all of the training you've been doing?" Clint asked.

"Nope. I only did that to be able get to Steve when the time came. And now, he's back."

The rest of the group watched as she then stared to walk towards the Quinjet. As Victoria reached the ramp, she stopped and turned around to say, "Besides, the showers on this Helicarrier suck. You can't even fit _two_ people in them, much less _three_."

Steve then looked over at Fury, who looked totally shocked by her responses, but was it the shower one or the declining job offer?

* * *

**End Act: Three**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I hope that you liked the Third Act. Thanks for continuing to read and I hope that this darker Act met your expectations. We will be jumping right in to Act: Four. It will finish up a few open plot bunnies created by Three (don't worry, I didn't forget them). There's not a lot left to the story but its a bit lighter and a chunk will be action.
> 
> FYI - 'Agent Pleakley' - the one-eyed alien from Lilo & Stitch (good thing Fury doesn't do cartoons!)


	98. Not Again!?...

**ACT: FOUR**

* * *

**Two Weeks Later**  
Location Unknown (Not NYC)  
Sunrise – Local Time

Victoria wasn't sure which she noticed first, that she was waking up or that her head was pounding like the Hulk was knocking on a door. Neither one was a good sign, especially since she had no recollection of why either of those two things should be happening. Opening her eyes, she quickly shut them with a groan at the bright light that sent a lovely new sharp pain through her head.

Rolling over just a bit, she realized that the mattress underneath of her was very soft and fluffy, another bad sign since neither her bed at home or the Tower felt like this, and every hospital bed she'd ever been on felt more like a cardboard box. Her hands were tightly clasped around something warm and soft lying next to her head.

Taking a chance, she placed a hand over her eyes then slowly opened one of them just enough so that the bright light didn't irritate her pounding head again. Across the way was a wall which she could now see was a lovely calming blue color. Definitely not anywhere she knew, Victoria thought. As her other eye slowly opened, she saw that the blue wall was not drywall or wood. It was some kind of painted stucco or plaster finish.

Putting her arms under her a bit, she lifted herself up just enough so that the pounding in her head became a wave of dizziness instead. Rolling onto her side, she tried to decide if she was about to throw-up from the sick feeling now starting to churn in her stomach. Staying lying down on the strange bed for a few minutes would be a good thing Vic elected as the better choice over getting up.

Feeling the soft pillow sag invitingly under her head, Vic physically felt better almost immediately even while mentally she was screaming. Turning her head, she looked around the blue room trying to figure out where she was. Her immediate location was lying on a grand canopy bed, made of old, dark carved wood with heavy, cream colored curtains hanging at the four posts. There was an beautiful embroidered comforter over her, formed of different shades of white to cream with gold stitching. For some reason, a simple fuzzy pink blanket was also covering her and it was what she had woken up gripping. Beside the bed on both sides were antique chests, to be used as a nightstands, she guessed.

Looking further around the room off to her left, she saw a large wardrobe on one wall, intricately carved with a floral pattern. The wall at the foot of the bed held a large fireplace, with a warm fire going. The intricate wood mantle carved with a mountain scene was fancier than anything she had ever seen before. There was a crystal chandelier hanging from one of the large wooden rafters creating wedge shapes underneath the turret-style ceiling. To the right was an open door, through which she could make out the elements of a bathroom.

There were two large walk-through French doors on either side of the fireplace, with curtains hanging off to the sides, letting in the bright daylight, which was the cause of the earlier head pains. There seemed to be a small balcony area just beyond them, but past that all she could see was sky. Shouldn't she be able to see trees or _something_ past the stone railing? Next to the left door, there was a lovely upholstered chair next to a small carved table with a few books lying on it. It would be the perfect spot to sit and read while looking over the view of the balcony.

Taking her time after a few more minutes, she slowly tried to sit upright again, this time with it actually working. Looking at the wall between her and the bathroom, to the right, she finally spotted the bedroom's door...fully closed. It was made of a heavy wood, with old style hardware on it. The hinges were large, iron pins with an intricate design where it secured to the wood, while the handle was a thumb-latch with matching ironwork. Between it and the ceiling, she knew that the structure she was in was very old.

Slowly, Victoria tossed away the soft pink blanket and moved the comforter off of her as she scooted to the edge of the mattress. She would guess that it was a real down-filled one from how it comfortably formed to her movements. When her socked feet touched the stone floor, she realized that her shoes had been removed. That was what made her do a quick examination of her remaining clothes. She sighed in relief at seeing that she was still wearing the same outfit she remembered putting on this morning…or at least the last time she had dressed herself.

Carefully, she took the couple of necessary steps to get to the door, hoping the entire time that it not only opened, but that Steve and Bucky were on the other side, waiting to tell her that this was all a surprise vacation…but she somehow doubted it was. Pressing the latch down, Vic felt a swift relief when the door started to pull open letting her know that she was _not_ locked in.

But her elation was quickly gone as she glared at the solid steel bars that were covering the _outside_ door frame, preventing her from leaving.

Grabbing onto the metal bar door, she gave it a couple of yanks, testing to see if it was solid, which it unfortunately was. Reaching to the lock-box on the side where a handle should be, she examined it to find that only a key would open it. The stone hallway was dark, with a couple of visible closed doors like her own, minus bars, and totally void of any other person.

No Bucky or Steve…which meant no vacation.

Taking a step back, she gave the entire beautiful room a slow sweeping look as she circled in place.

Vic then realized she was in the nicest, most elegant prison cell she had ever seen.

"Well, fuck!"

* * *

**New York City  
8 Hours Earlier**

Stepping into the coffee shop, Victoria found that there was a small line formed of people waiting to place their orders. Stepping up to the end of it, she started to glance at the pastry display, noticing that there was only one more of the blueberry muffins. Silently, she began to wish pain to anyone ahead of her that ordered it before she got to the counter. The line steadily moved, and soon she was able to order her spiced hot apple caramel cider and muffin, before stepping to the side to wait for the drink to be made. She'd go back to get more to take to her her warriors after she ate.

As the gentleman behind her began to place his order, his accent caught her attention as he spoke. But when he tried to place his order for a pastry, he faltered back to his native language.

"I'm sorry, Sir, I don't understand that word," the female barista told him as Vic listened to him try to explain his requested pastry again in Sokovian.

"He's asking for an apple fritter, ma'am," she then told the barista, who thanked her and added it to his order.

"{You speak Sokovian?}" the man smiled at her as he handed over cash for his order.

"{Yes. I have some friends who are Sokovian, so I learned,}" she told him.

"{Thank you for your help. I have not run into any problems with my English as of yet, but I did not know what the name for the apple fritter here would be,}" he said as they both moved further down the counter as others ahead of them received their orders.

"{Do you live here?}" Victoria asked.

"{No, I am only here for a short visit,}" he told her.

"{Business or pleasure?}" she asked.

"{A bit of both,}" he smiled back at her. He was about her height, with short, dark hair. He reminded her of someone, but she could not place his face. She was sure that she had never seen him before. "{Would you have a few minutes to spare to chat? The fact that I met someone whom I could speak with in a city this large is a comforting feeling.}"

Vic took another step towards where their drinks would be handed to them, figuring that she had a bit of time to chat. Steve and Bucky were back at the Tower, trying out a new weapon design from Tony, which he had found the plans for in his father's archive. She had told them that she was heading to the bookstore down the street to find something new to read. She got the usual scowls from both of them, then made them say her mantra out loud – " _You are not Rapunzel_ " – before giving them each goodbye kisses and a promise of playtime tonight as she headed out. That always brought out their smiles. At least they had calmed down a lot with Rumlow and Sin being dead.

"{I do have a few minutes to talk,}" she told him as their items were ready at the same time.

"{Allow me,}" the gentleman said, picking up their two hot drinks, his being a large espresso, while she grabbed the two bags containing their pastries. Making their way over to a small, two-person table against the wall, they sat down.

"{I never properly introduced myself,}" he began, offering her his hand. "{Lukas Wolf.}"

Taking his hand and shaking it, she introduced herself, "Victoria Roth."

"{What a lovely name,}" he said, spreading a napkin over the table and removing the apple fritter from the bag. Putting the bag with her new books next to her on the table near the edge out of the way, she took out her blueberry muffin and began to peel away the wrapper. "{So, tell me, is there any place here in town that I must see before leaving?}"

For the next twenty minutes, the two of them talked about the different standard tourist attractions around the island. He was very friendly, telling her about how he had come to New York City to collect an item for a project that concerned inventions of his but due to the security nature of it he could not give much details to her. She told him about how she had a friend who was also an inventor and that she understood the need for privacy, but left out the fact that his name was Tony Stark.

So far, the man seemed to have not recognized who she was, even after all of the press last year when her soulmark connection to Captain America and the Winter Soldier had made tabloid headlines for a month. Vic figured that it was due to the fact that he was Sokovian, and maybe the news, or at least her picture, was not as prevalent in his local news overseas.

Eventually, Lukas pulled out a picture of his wife and son, both smiling up at the camera from a picnic blanket on a field. He mentioned how he missed them. Around that time, she started to feel a bit light headed. Lukas glanced at her and a sly smile appeared on his face.

"{How about we remove this trash and head outside together?}" he offered in a firm demanding voice, which sounded very logical to her.

Simply nodding her head, Vic crumpled up the muffin's wrapper, putting it inside her empty cup before picking up her bag of books. She watched as he also picked up his trash, with the two of them now moving for the front entrance together, tossing the waste into a can as they walked by.

Out on the street, Lukas moved to walk on her left side, and it was only after they had walked half a block that Vic became conscious of the fact that she was holding onto his hand as he casually talked while they walked down the street. She was not actually contributing to his conversation about traffic, but that did not seem to matter to Lukas. Looking up the street, she saw the Tower ahead of them, but when Lukas guided her to turn onto a small side street, for some reason she just allowed him to do so.

"{May I have your phone?}" he asked, so while thinking it also a logical request, Victoria removed it from her back pocket, passing it over. "{Thank you. Do you have any other items on you?}"

Vic then pulled out her wallet, as well as the earcom that she always kept in her pockets. They had come in handy once before, so she always made sure to have them with her. They also were handed over, to which Lukas gave her a knowing smile, pleased at the gesture, as he tucked them into his jacket pocket. Reaching behind her, she then pulled the knife hidden in the small of her back that Bucky insisted that she keep on her at all times when not in the Tower.

Lukas peered at the item, as if he had not expected to see such a weapon, before quickly taking it into his hands so that any passersby did not notice it. He carefully slipped it into his jacket also.

"{Where are we going?}" she asked as he continued to guide them, talking about how dangerous this city could be. Why did her voice sound like she was drunk?

"{To a place where you will be safe,}" he told her with a charming smile as they now headed into a parking lot. She had not driven today…right?

The dizziness was starting to get worse and as her body began to slump, Victoria felt Lukas' hand move from holding onto hers so that his arm was wrapped entirely around her body. His support was the only thing helping her to remain standing and walk in a straight line. Lukas continued to move them up the ramp of the parking lot for a short ways, before he stopped right next to a white van.

"{Here we are, fraulein,}" Lukas said while sliding open the side door on the passenger side.

"{I don't think that this is my car,}" she informed him, appreciating the fact that she needed to sit down before she fell over.

"{No, it is mine. Here, since you are not feeling well, you can go ahead and get inside,}" he instructed as she took his offered hand. On the floor of the van was a single air mattress with a pillow and fuzzy pink blanket folded next to it.

"{Alright,}" she agreed to the comment at seeing the items and putting her bag of books on the van's floor.

Why was she getting in? The Tower was in walking distance…wouldn't it be quicker to walk?

Once her head touched the pillow though, she found that the dizziness did seem to go away. Vic then felt the soft blanket start to cover her body, so she took a hold of it, pulling it up to her chin as she gripped it while getting comfortable. Vic now realized that she was incredibly tired. When she heard the sound of the door slamming closed next to her, Vic didn't even bother to open her eyes.

"{When you wake up, you will be feeling much better,}" Lukas' voice told her before she heard the sound of the van's engine cranking.

Moments later, the gentle rocking of the van traveling through the streets managed to finally help put Victoria to sleep.

* * *

**New York City  
During the first hour after the coffee shop**

Driving through the crowded New York City Streets, Helmut Zemo smiled instead of being angry at the crazy drivers who were taking their time. Pulling to a stop at another red light, he glanced over his shoulder at the sleeping female form in the back of the van. Victoria looked so peaceful as she lay there, not caring that he was taking her away from this atrocious city, which was about to get a lot worse in a matter of days. He had been here for three days waiting and watching before spotting Victoria walking out of the Tower all by herself. He could not have hoped for a better chance to get to her, especially since he was running out of time.

It was almost fifty minutes later when he finally managed to get to the warehouse in the deserted district by the river. Stepping out of the van, he glanced back one more time to make sure that Victoria was still sleeping. He knew that the drug he had managed to slip into her drink was supposed to keep her out for hours, but he wanted to make sure. Satisfied that she was fully unconscious, he walked over to the metal roll-up door, removing the padlock from it. Lifting it up and out of the way, he got back into the van and pulled it inside before repeating the process to close the door, locking it from the interior, this time.

The Viperjet that he had used to escape the castle in Argentina a few weeks ago was where he had left it, not a sign of anyone having messed with it. The building had been abandoned for years, which meant that nobody should be here, but in a city this big, there were the chances of vagrants searching for shelter. Pulling as close to it as he could, Zemo stopped the van and turned it off. Reaching up, he pulled off the Nanomask which he had used to disguise his facial features from Victoria. It was just one of the items he had managed to abscond with as SHIELD had been invading Sin's castle.

Turning around, he moved to the back of the van, crouching down next to Victoria's sleeping form. Brushing away a lock of hair that had fallen across her face, he smiled as he watched her scrunch up her nose as it tickled her. She really was a lovely person, he thought, remembering how he had enjoyed sitting and talking with her. Even though Victoria had believed him to be a stranger, she had been nice to him, letting him know that she would have been that way with anyone she had met. Victoria did not deserve to be here when all of the trouble started.

_She_ was _not_ guilty.

That was why he was going to make sure that she was safe, with him, far away from the danger that was coming.

Opening up the van's door, he slipped his arms under her, carrying her bridal style from the mattress and over to the ramp of the Viperjet. Her hold on the pink blanket could only be described as a death grip so it was coming with her, remembering how Carl used to do the same when he was very young. Lying her down, he place her onto another air mattress already in place for her. He adjusted the blanket enough so that it was covering her up, and he smiled as she yawned while rolling over a bit to get comfortable for her trip.

Hitting the button for the ramp, it lifted up, locking the two of them inside before he walked over to the pilot's seat. Spinning around, he started up the engines, checked the necessary controls, and then, with a final glance at Victoria, lifted the Viperjet up off of the ground. He had arrived late at night at the warehouse, and he had been able to take his time with landing, maneuvering the plane into the warehouse unnoticed through an open loading door. But now, his task was accomplished, Victoria was with him, so he took the Viperjet straight up, through the large, grime covered skylights on the high ceiling. The shattered glass rained down on the van and concrete floor as he continued upwards.

As he flew back over the island of Manhattan, he glanced out of the window to his left as he passed by Avengers Tower very closely, where two soulmates were blissfully unaware of the task he had just managed to accomplish. They would be dealing with so much in a few days. If they survived, they would no longer have time to worry about the disappearance of Victoria. Reaching what he considered a good altitude, he then activated the tracking scrambling on the Viperjet as it faced east. Heading out over the Atlantic, he put the Viperjet into autopilot and turned his seat around, so that he could just watch her sleep.

Victoria was going to be so mad at him, but at least she would be alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've always liked to read where a character finds themselves in an unknown place, and then finding out how they got there…like with this chapter. It gives a bit of mystery for the reader as well as the character. As for the name Lucas Wolf…get it?...a wolf in Wolf's clothing…haha, my cheesy humor popping through.


	99. Detective Time

**New York City – Avengers Tower  
1 hour 30 minutes after going missing**

Reaching their apartment in the Tower, he and Steve were both looking forward to showers after the day they'd had. Tony had assured them that _all_ of the kinks for the energy gun had been worked out. And for the ones that he knew about, they had been. What Tony, and they, did not realize was that after being fired for a couple of minutes straight, that some of the components would overheat, causing the gun to go into meltdown. Bucky, hearing a high-pitched whine from it, had luckily thrown his far enough away seconds before it exploded in mid-air, filling the room with a dense black smoke. Steve had then tossed his also, with it going off less than a minute later, doubling the smoke's density.

"I swear, the next time Tony wants to test a weapon, I'm going to make _him_ do it," Bucky told Steve as he walked through the den towards the hallway. He had already glanced over and noticed that Vic was not in the large living area so she may be in the bedroom. "I call dibs on the shower with Vic."

"That's not fair," Steve told him as he reached over to punch him in the arm. Bucky dodged the easy swing, grinning as he started to move faster down the hallway to their bedroom. They had finally seemed to get back to normal over the past weeks, and luckily teasing Steve was a big part of that. Stepping into the room, he glanced around and noticed that it was very empty and too quiet.

"Vic?" he called out, making his way over to the open bathroom door, easily finding it empty. He felt his stomach drop a bit as finding their apartment empty. Vic should have been back some time ago from the bookstore.

"FRIDAY, has Victoria returned yet?" Steve then asked the AI.

_"No, Captain. Miss Victoria is not in the Tower."_

"Please call her," Steve's face was not looking happy. Had his stomach dropped also? They listened as the phone eventually went to voicemail.

"Track her phone and the device in her wallet," Bucky then instructed, looking over to see the stare that Steve was giving him. If it wasn't for the fact that Vic already knew about the tracker, he would probably be getting an earful of speeches.

" _Both are located in a parking garage three blocks away from your current location_ ," they were told.

"Did Victoria drive to the bookstore?" Steve then asked.

" _No, she walked_."

"Page the earcom," Bucky requested.

After a few moments, Vic did not respond like she normally would.

"Activate her earcom," Bucky commanded.

Over the speakers, they could hear the sound of car engines, along with tires squealing as they went around the curves, but no voices.

"Victoria? Can you hear us?" Steve asked, but there was no response.

"Steve, I'm _really_ _not_ liking this," Bucky then told him, heading over to the closet to grab a change of clothes that was not covered in black smudges or smelling of smoke. Steve was right behind him, doing the same thing. Within a minute, the two of them were in the elevator, headed down to the garage to grab their motorcycles.

Minutes later, they were pulling into the public parking garage that FRIDAY had led them to. Pulling out his phone, Bucky activated the app that would allow them to find Vic's phone, and hopefully her. Rounding up one flight of the garage, he began to slow down as the ping showed he was now within ten feet of Vic's phone. Pulling off to the side, they parked their bikes, as he followed the directional signal to the other side, where there was a line of unknown cars. Stopping when the app told him he was within two feet of the signal's location, he ducked down as he stood between two vehicles.

He saw the look of horror cross over Steve's face as he stood back up after reaching under a parked car to find Vic's phone, wallet, knife, and earbud lying underneath. She would never have just lost these.

"Buck, you look around for whatever you can find. I'll give everyone a call," Steve instructed.

Stepping off to the side, Steve pulled out his phone and he could hear him making a group call, probably to at least Tony, Natasha, and Wade. Heading back down the ramp, he made his way to the booth with a man inside to collect money from people.

"I need to speak with someone about viewing your security footage," he demanded, stepping between the booth and the car that was trying to leave the garage.

Eight minutes later, they were in a small office room, with Tony, who had flown over in his suit, as the footage they had been searching for finally started to play. It was time-stamped for just under two hours ago. They watched as Victoria and an unknown man walked onto the screen, the man with his arm around her waist, something she would only do with them. Changing to another view, they saw the pair walking up to a white van, with Vic not putting up any type of struggle or fight at the event. In fact, she seemed to be leaning a bit on him. When the man opened the door, they could see him talking to her, but then Vic allowed herself to be guided inside. The man then slid items under the car parked next to the van…Vic's phone, earcom, knife, and wallet.

"What the hell?" Steve rhetorically asked the two of them, not understanding the footage they were all watching. "Who is that and why is Victoria going with him?"

"I don't know, but there is something not right with this," he answered as they watched the man get inside, close the door, take a seat and then drive out of the garage. Vic was not in the front of the van, but did that mean that she was somehow restrained in the back? Why would she just willingly go with him? Had he threatened her somehow?

"FRIDAY, run me a check on Vic's debit card to see any purchases today, so that we can trace her movements," Tony said, walking out of the small security room, and into the larger garage. The two of them were right on his heels.

" _There are only two purchases listed today: one at the bookstore down the street, the other minutes later at the coffee shop around the corner_."

In no time, the three of them were inside the coffee shop, asking to speak to a manager. The attention of everyone was drawn to Tony as he had walked inside wearing his Iron Man suit, just as if it were normal clothing. There was a repeat of the garage, where the three of them ended up in a small room, while a small black and white monitor showed a view of the shop. Using the timestamp that FRIDAY had given to them for her purchases, they had the footage pulled up in no time.

They all watched as Vic entered the shop, getting into line. They then recognized the same man from the garage, entered right behind her. After placing her order, the two of them began to strike up a conversation for some reason as he placed his order. Bucky watched a bit confused as Vic then sat with the man. They knew that she was friendly to people, but hadn't they told her enough times to be careful? Then, about half was through the footage something caught his attention.

"Wait, go back," Bucky demanded.

The woman who had been helping them rewound the footage a couple of seconds. They paid attention as Vic turned her head in the direction of another customer dropping their coffee mug, startling her as it shattered so close behind her. Using the distraction to his advantage, they watched as the man slipped a small item into her drink. Bucky then pointed out the hand gesture that he had seen.

"He just _slipped her a mickey_!" Steve growled out angrily.

The minutes continued on with the two of them talking before they gathered up their trash and walked out together. They all noticed that Vic seemed to not be as steady on her feet as she had been when she arrived. The drug had already started to take effect.

" _That's_ why she went with him," Tony said as he hooked a cord into the computer to have FRIDAY make a copy of the video.

"Who the hell is that?" he asked as if his friends had the answer he didn't. Rumlow was dead, as was Sin, so there was nobody out there who held a grudge against Vic.

"Can we speak with the person who worked the counter and took their orders?" Steve asked the manager, who simply nodded in agreement before leaving. He had basically been star-struck since the moment they had entered. A minute later, the clerk came into the office, a large smile on her face at seeing them up close. They showed her the video to help her recollect the incident.

"Yes, I remember them. The man was speaking another language, trying to order an apple fritter, but he didn't know how to say it in English," she informed them. "The lady then told me what he was saying."

That didn't help too much considering how many languages Vic spoke.

"What language was he speaking?" Bucky asked.

"I'm not sure. It didn't sound familiar to me," she told them, "But I think they said the name of that country, where you had that big fight a few years back. Soko…something."

"Sokovia?" Steve asked.

"Yes, I think that's what the man said. Sokovia!" she seemed very happy at being able to now remember the term.

"Thank you," Tony told her, as the three of them moved out into the hallway for a bit of privacy, minus all of the turned heads their way from the front of the coffee shop. "There's only one Sokovian that we've ever dealt with, who would have even met Vic…"

"Zemo," Steve uttered the name with a cold tone. He had been there the entire time that Steve had been put through his reprogramming, helping Rumlow and Sin.

"But why would he drug and take Vic?" he asked, trying to figure out the man's reasoning.

During the time that he was held prisoner, Bucky had almost no interaction with the man, the same as Tony and Clint. But due to Sin's jealous streak over Rumlow, Zemo had been put in charge of seeing to Vic being moved between her cell and the room where she had been tortured. They had questioned her later on about the 'talk' that she and Zemo had, finding that she had actually tried to get him to see the error of his ways and maybe find help from him. But, at the time, it hadn't seem to work. They had both been happy to learn that Zemo had in fact _not_ touched her or hurt her in any way during their time in his room. So, why would he take Vic now?

"I'm not sure, but I don't think that it was to hurt her," Tony supplied, catching both of their attentions. Raising his hands to stop them from speaking, "If he wanted to hurt her, he could just have easily poisoned her drink. Or even just shot her out on the street."

"That's _not_ exactly making me _feel better_ , Tony," Bucky told him gruffly.

"Just pointing out the facts, Olaf," he grinned at him before starting to walk out of the coffee shop.

"Let's get back to the Tower and see where the hell that van went," Steve told him, putting his hand on his back to start him moving. He let himself be led through the watching crowd, stewing in the fact that Vic was once again gone. Taken from them yet again. But this time, she had not left them a trail of bread crumbs to follow. But there were enough camera's over Manhattan that Zemo had made a mistake. They would soon be right behind him to get their Vic back.

* * *

**New York City – Avengers Tower  
2 hr 30 min after missing**

Tony was pulling up the video footage of every camera around Midtown to follow the van in which Victoria had gotten into. Luckily, this time, it had followed more popular streets, so there was adequate material for him to go on as they watched it making its way through traffic towards the port. It was not heading to the same warehouse, but a bit further away to where more abandoned older buildings were.

Steve and Bucky were standing to his right, while Nat and Wade were on his left, and his Pepper behind him with her hands on his shoulders…all five sets of eyes intently watching the screens as FRIDAY put the route on the main screen as one long video. Wade already had the Quinjet ready to head out when they had their location.

"So far, every shot still shows his face as an unknown," he informed the eager hovering group. "There's not a match in any database."

"But, it has to be this Zemo asshole, right?" Wade asked, tapping his foot impatiently. Tony wondered who was more upset, Frick and Frack or Wade. He still was not brave enough to give Wade any form of nickname, even in his own thoughts.

"It has to be," Bucky answered him. "Who else do we even know from Sokovia?"

"Exactly," Tony chimed in, "because if it was Pietro, he wouldn't be stuck in traffic."

"Not helping, Tony," Steve stated as Pepper smacked his arm for joking at a time like this.

"FRIDAY is doing her best. Just give us a bit," he told them.

Ten minutes later, they finally reached the end of the footage available to them. On the screen, thanks to a security camera on an adjacent building far down the alleyway, they watched the van as it stopped and the driver got out to open an abandoned warehouse's door. Pulling inside, they finally lost sight of it. Letting the footage roll forward as he retrieved the address, they were all shocked as they watched a Viperjet emerge from the roof.

"Son of a bitch! FRIDAY, access all aviation records for today and see if you can get a lock on that _damn_ jet!" Tony huffed out, knowing that he was probably not going to have any luck, just like he'd had trying to find Steve when he'd been taken. Turning around he saw the worry form on Pepper's face. She'd listened to him complain enough over the month Steve was missing to know what was going on.

" _I have limited tracking on the aircraft before it disappeared to the east, cloaking to our sensors as it passed over Queens_ ," FRIDAY informed them.

Looking at the flight path that was displayed, Tony smacked his hand on the table, yelling, "Are you _kidding_ me?"

"What is it?" Natasha asked, looking at the screen intently now.

"He did a _flyby_!" Tony pointed at the screen.

"He did what?" Steve then asked.

"He _buzzed_ the Tower," Tony then repeated.

"What?" Bucky then asked.

"Hasn't Vic shown you guys _Top Gun_ yet?" he asked in all seriousness.

"No!" they said in unison, neither one of them looking happy at all at thinking he had deviated away from the topic.

While making a plane with his hand, flying it in front of their faces, Tony said, "He flew his little jet plane really close to us in the Tower as he left town. He was practically rubbing our noses in the fact that he has Vic!"

" _Tony, there is footage from the Tower's security due to the proximity of the Viperjet's vicinity_ ," FRIDAY informed them.

"On the screen," he told her, turning back around from where he knew two matching scowls were trying to drill through his head. They all watched as the Viperjet passes within 200 feet of the Tower, which is what activated the security measures he had in place, but since it had not posed a threat, he had not been notified. Freezing the screen, he reached out and swiped the edges to increase the view into the cockpit, giving a few enhancements to the shot.

There, on the screen, they now saw Zemo's clear face.

"Son of a bitch!" Bucky growled out.

"It's Zemo!" Steve then informed the others, but they were already familiar with him.

"All this does is confirm who took Vic, but I still don't fucking understand _why_ ," Wade then commented, but nobody answered since none of them could even guess as to what his motivation was.

"As far as we know, Zemo was the only Sokovian at Sin's castle. Our records indicate that he worked alone, but he did help Rumlow and Sin with equipment and devices," Nat pointed out. "When he escaped, we do know that he left on the Viperjet, but the other unaccounted for guards were not Sokovian. Maybe he has an ally we didn't know about?"

"All of our records on Zemo state that he normally works alone, hiring himself out for short periods of time," Bucky pointed out.

"Then how the hell did he disguise himself?" Tony asked. "Vic knows him, she talked with him, but he was able to fool her."

After a few moments, Steve spoke up, saying, "Rumlow had a Nanomask."

"Nanomask?" Wade asked.

"It was developed by SHIELD. Think of a face mask that lets you look like anyone else," Nat explained to him.

"That night at the opera house. Rumlow wore one to look just like he used to so he wouldn't draw attention to himself," Steve told them.

"That was _not_ one of the items we confiscated during the raid," Nat informed them.

"Then, the guy who was with Vic the whole time was probably Zemo," Bucky stated.

"Very possible," Tony said, trying to plug this new information into the tracking algorithm he and FRIDAY had been working on to find Steve.

"Can you track that Viperjet?" Steve then asked him.

"We'll try, but it's the same tech that we use. That's why we couldn't get to you sooner. Nothing I've worked on will track it while it's cloaked," Tony had to unfortunately tell him. "But we won't stop trying."

He watched as the rest of them headed out of the lab to sit down on the couches in the common room. Right now, he didn't have much hope in finding Victoria today.

They needed some bread crumbs…and this time, there were none.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quote - "Slipped her a mickey" – reading through a Winter Soldier comic I found this phrase used by Bucky when he was drugged in a bar and thought it would be fit nicely in the story.


	100. Motives Unknown

**New York City  
5 hours after missing**

"So why would he take Victoria?" Steve asked the assembled group at a late dinner that night.

He was sitting to Bucky's right, and unfortunately, there was not a chair between them. When Clint had been informed that Vic was taken, he had come to the Tower to try and help. Sam had flown a Quinjet down from the upstate facility where he, Pietro, and Wanda had still been doing training with Scott Lang, all of whom had come to. Bucky had spoken with Scott some, and found him to be just as socially awkward as Steve had been when he was young.

They had already searched the warehouse that the video footage had led them to. Inside was the van he had transported Vic in, with the entire surrounding area covered in broken glass. Zemo had not left quietly, but the area was abandoned and there was nobody to even question about the Viperjet leaving the area. The van had been rented under a fake identification that had never been used anywhere else in the world that FRIDAY could trace. The best that Tony and FRIDAY had been able to do was pull old footage and they eventually found video of his arrival three days ago, late at night when the Viperjet would not be spotted.

"I will point out again, this time for the assembly, that I do not think that Zemo will hurt Vic," Tony started, which had the group looking at him. "I stand by my original assessment that if he'd wanted to hurt or kill Vic, he could have easily poisoned her drink or just shot her on the street."

"It _still_ doesn't sound comforting hearing it a _second_ time," he pointed out, poking at his serving of the take-out lasagna that Tony had brought in for everyone.

For the remainder of the day, Tony's programs had not found a single thing to help them get their Vic back.

"Comforting or not, it makes sense," Pietro agreed.

"You said that Sin put Zemo in charge of Vic when you all were captured?" Wanda asked. Everyone who had not been there had only heard a brief account of what had happened during their time at Sin's castle.

"Yes, thanks to her jealous streak of that overcooked marshmallow of a soulmate," Tony happily added. "When ' _the show'_ of having Vic tortured was over, Sin originally thought about allowing the guards to have their way with Vic."

Hearing that, there was an audible sour sound from every seat at the table just thinking about that happening to their friend. But Bucky knew that the groan that emanated from Steve was more due to the phrase ' _the show_.' He did not like being reminded about what he had been forced to do to Vic. For the past two weeks, any time he tried to apologize again, Vic would point out to him that she knew what had made him do it, namely the Chair and Faustus Machine. But by the third time Steve brought it up, Vic told him that it was in the past and if he brought it up again, then he would get no kisses for a week and since then Steve had _finally_ stopped apologizing.

"Zemo then spoke up, pointing out to Sin that she had already given _him_ charge of Vic. He said that Vic would go with him to his room to ' _keep him company for a while'_. At the time, we all assumed that he would rape her himself. But after everything was over, she told us that they had only talked in his room for a while before sitting in silence for the rest of the time," Clint told the group.

"Talked?" Scott asked grabbing another helping of pasta. "What kind of bad guy just talks? And I don't mean like having a monologue where they are revealing their _ultimate plan_ for world domination."

"Victoria told us that he freed her bonds, letting her use the bathroom, and get something to drink," Steve told them. "She asked him why he was working for Sin and Rumlow. He told her it was to get revenge for his family's death in Novi Grad."

"Do you think that he will kill her as some way to hurt all of us, since she is our friend?" Sam then asked.

"I don't think so," Bucky answered. "I hate saying this, but I think that Tony is right."

"FRIDAY, please tell me that you got that on video!?" Tony immediately asked.

" _Yes, Tony_."

Bucky glared at him before continuing, "He had every opportunity to hurt Vic today, as well as earlier in Argentina. But he didn't. I think he wants her alive for some reason."

"Do either of you," Nat asked looking at him and Steve, "think that Vic made this guy angry at her like she did Rumlow? Is there anything she mentioned that would make you think that he is holding a grudge against her? Something not on the record?"

Steve looked over at him, as they both recalled the conversation they had the next morning after Vic had healed during the night. Every word had been put into the file SHIELD had created for the ' _unsanctioned mission'_ that had not exactly been an immediate rescue of Steve. Nat had read it, as well as Clint.

"No, I can't think of anything," Steve told the group.

"And no matter what, Zemo was still the one to lower her down into that damn black hole for the night," Bucky pointed out. He had gone early the next day, before they had flown back to New York, and seen the thing for himself, wanting to fully understand what Vic had been submitted to. She had sat in the dark waiting for any of them to find her but they had not even been able to free themselves.

"The only thing we have is that from the trajectory of the Viperjet after they did their flyby was that it was headed east, towards Europe," Tony told everyone. "From searching for Zemo after Steve was taken, we learned that he was not living in Sokovia when Rumlow and Sin recruited him. He was moving from group to group, working as a tactician, engineer, and hacker."

"There has been no confirmed sighting of him over the past two weeks either," Nat informed the group. SHIELD had been run facial recognition over most of Europe looking for him due to his involvement with Rumlow and Sin. She had also informed Fury earlier that Vic was missing again. "But, if he does have the Nanomask like we suspect he does, then we may never get a hit on it. I informed Maria and she is going to put the face he used at the coffee shop into their searches, to see if he used it anywhere else."

"So then, what's the plan?" Scott asked already finishing off his second serving.

Steve sighed, then said, "The only suggestion would be to hop in the Quinjet and head towards Europe. But, realistically, we can't even be sure that's where they went. We're stuck here without something more to go on…"

* * *

**Not New York City**  
A Few Moments Since Cursing  


Victoria made her way over to the other door, deciding to check the bathroom to see if, by fucking chance, there was another exit. Nope…just the coolest gothic-looking bathroom she had ever seen. Stepping inside, Vic took in the room. Unlike the bedroom, these large stone walls had been left natural, showing the age of wherever she was. There was a large, round sunken tub in the middle of the floor, with an arched-over shower head on a tall bar, allowing someone to stand in the center of the tub and use it as a rain shower. To her left was a top mounted bowl sink on an original stone shelf with recessed shelves filled with bath items. Looking in the silver gilded mirror, she spotted a door off in the far corner, where she could not see it from the entrance.

Walking quickly around the tub, Vic swung the door open, hoping for an elevator out of here, but instead she found a specialty wooden room with a bench.

"A sauna? My prison cell has a fucking sauna? I don't even have a sauna at home," she huffed while slamming the door closed. "Now, I want a fucking sauna at home. What the hell is going on?"

Heading back out into the bedroom, she glanced at the only place she might get a bit of answers. But, she _really_ didn't want to go out there.

Stepping up to the closest French door on the right side of the fireplace, Vic turned the handle, relieved again when the door opened, but for her the balcony had its own invisible bars. The fresh cool air swept over her, making her wish she had on long sleeves, but it had been very warm this morning in New York so she had put on her tank-top. She guessed that it was somewhere in the low 60's here due to the goosebumps on her arms.

The stone structure had a wall that only came up to her waist, and standing at the door she was finally able to see ground in the distance. The balcony itself was about twenty by ten, not too bad of a size. It was large enough so that with the wall she didn't automatically get afraid of being out here. There was an antique black iron table with two chairs right between the doors, and a modern lounge chair with a thick cushion on it at the far end. Slowly, Victoria walked to the wall, looking out over the magnificent view of the mountain range that she was now located in.

These mountains were nothing like the ones back home…these were huge. The top half of them looked to be permanently covered in snow while the greenness of trees spread around their bases. Closer to where she was, below and off in the distance, she saw what looked to be a small village running next to a river in the valley.

Turning around to look at the structure she had just left, Vic gave a couple of laughs as she realized that it was a castle. A _real_ fucking _castle_. Someone had _actually_ turned her into Rapunzel. There was a tall spires visible from different areas along with the one formed from the ceiling of her bedroom…cell? To the side, there were a few narrow windows (arrow slits?) too far away to be of any use to her. She would never be able to get to them, and definitely not fit through them. Now came the hard part.

Taking a deep breath, Vic then took the final steps necessary to see directly below the balcony. There was only air for a couple of hundred feet, and then after that was nothing but the rocks at the base of the cliff she was above. Feeling the panicking vertigo for a few seconds, she pushed away on the wall hard and fell to the floor on her back. Yep, still afraid of heights, Vic thought as she looked up at the spires of the castle cutting across the clear blue sky.

At least the quick sensation would tell Steve and Bucky that she was alive, awake, and somewhere high. Too bad their connection didn't come with GPS. Thinking that, Vic quickly planted her feet down and lifted her butt cheeks off the ground and slapped her hands onto her back pockets, where she always kept her phone and wallet, with Bucky's _almost secret tracker_ inside, but they were gone. She'd had them earlier…at the book store. Books…

Standing up and heading back inside, she made her way to the table with the books on them. Picking them up, Vic saw that they were the ones she had just gotten. So…someone kidnapped her, brought her to a fucking castle in the mountains, locked her up in a beautiful bedroom with a sauna, and let her keep her books?

"What the hell is going on!?" she yelled this time, to no one in particular.

* * *

**New York City  
Midnight**

"Does this feel as awkward to you as it does to me?" Steve asked Bucky as they laid together in their bed without Victoria inside of the Tower.

"Probably," Bucky answered from the darkness.

About an hour ago, everyone was still sitting around the couches in the common room for a while chatting, mostly about stories of Victoria and life at the Tower since she had come into their lives. Scott had only met her one time, after the initial evaluation of him working for the team, but they had gotten along great from what everyone could tell. She had loved his openness and unabashed conversations about any topic she would bring up.

Since FRIDAY was working on a couple different algorithms to search for Victoria, the rest of the group had gathered to tell stories as they always did when together. For the assembled group, they had gone into a detailed depiction of what had happened inside of Sin's castle. Finally they got around to Tony rehashing how it had been _his genius_ that had figured out how to break the condition he had been under by using their connected fear of heights. But when Tony got to where he tried to get her angry so she would open her eyes by calling out the name Vikki, the entire room was suddenly bombarded with a horrendous song loudly coming through the Tower's sound system.

"FRIDAY, what the hell is going on?" Tony had yelled to the AI while everyone tried to cover their ears.

" _Protocol Vex the Landlord had been initiated_ ," FRIDAY told him as the strange song continued to play. The only words that Steve could make out was the phrase _Crazy Frog_ during the nonsensical electronic sounds.

"Well, shut it off!" Tony yelled.

" _I'm sorry, Tony, but only Miss Victoria can cancel the song before the allotted playtime is over_."

"How long is that?" Steve then asked.

" _Two minutes, fifty-three seconds_."

"FRIDAY, what initiated this protocol?" Bucky had then asked.

" _Tony spoke the name that shall not be spoken_."

Hearing that, the entire group started to laugh out loud at realizing what Victoria had done.

"Are you kidding me? All because I said Vikki?" Tony then rhetorically asked.

Suddenly, they heard the song start again, while the first one _still_ played on. The two songs were not in sync so it sounded even _worse_ than before.

"Tony, how about you just stop talking all together?" Pepper then requested, her own hands covering her ears while she wore a large smile at the annoyingly hilarious affair.

Not too long after the two songs had finished playing, Tony was sitting on the couch pouting at having been the butt of the joke. That was when the light feeling of vertigo began. Steve stopped telling about another one of Victoria's protocols as he and Bucky both turned to look at each other. As two more seconds passed by, the feeling suddenly stopped.

"What?" Wade then asked, seeing that their expressions had changed.

"Victoria. She's somewhere high," he answered.

"Did you just feel the connection?" Tony asked, coming out of his funk.

"Yes," Bucky answered with a half-smile.

At least that told them that she was alive still.

"Is he torturing Vic?" Wade then asked sounding angry at the idea.

"No, I don't think so," Steve replied. "It was only there for a few seconds before it quit."

"Maybe Vic was testing something," Bucky offered.

Steve nodded, agreeing with him.

"Too bad the connection doesn't work like a compass," Scott said.

"Too bad Zemo had Victoria give up her wallet," Nat then had to add with a smirk.

"Why?" Scott asked.

"Because that's where the GPS tracker Bucky has hidden is," she grinned, getting a slight chuckle from everyone else in the group since they had known about it due to helping Victoria with fixing up their house. Scott had not since it had been before he had joined the team.

"Wow, you low-jacked your girlfriend?" Scott then asked, earning Bucky a couple of amused glances his way at the comment, waiting to see what he would do or say.

"Yes, but if Zemo _hadn't_ taken it from her, we'd _already_ have Vic back," he firmly stated, before pointing his finger around the assembly and saying, "then _all of you_ would be complimenting me on my _progressive_ thinking."

"Yeah, maybe…but now we all just think it _confirms_ Vic's stalker theory," Clint smirked, using Victoria's favorite phrase for Bucky as the entire group laughed.

Everyone had told the two of them that no matter what, they would all do everything necessary to ensure that Victoria was brought back home safe. Steve had learned that during his time missing, all of the group had come to the Tower hoping to quickly go out on a rescue mission. But as the days started to grow, with no immediate mission in sight, they had reluctantly left to go home and await the call that they were needed.

Every member of the team assured them that they would again stay as long as they could, and they also tried to give them hope saying that it would be soon. But Steve knew after having been gone a month, that there was a chance that Victoria may share the same fate - worrying him as to what tortures Zemo may be putting her through.

Now, speaking into the darkness of the bedroom again, Steve said, "I hate that we are not heading to wherever Victoria is right now to get her."

"I'm right there with you," Bucky replied. "But at least I don't see the two of us dealing with the guilt like Vic did when you went missing."

"No, I won't," he told him. After a few moments of silence, he mused, "I wonder how Victoria will be without us there to sleep with."

Bucky gave a slight chuckle, then said, "If she goes back down to three hours, and gets bored, hopefully she'll annoy Zemo enough that he'll willingly bring her back, so that he can get some sleep himself."

Steve stared at the ceiling, picturing Victoria sitting in a cold, dark cell, probably singing to herself as she tested the acoustics of it.

"I wonder if she is as angry with Zemo as she was with Rumlow when he took her," Steve pointed out.

"I hope not," Bucky answered. "If she gets him angry and starts to fight him, there is no telling what he may do in retaliation. He's the one who created the arm binder that held me down. I don't want to think about what he could do to Vic to try to keep her in line."

Steve then groaned, saying, "Wait until he finds out about her stubborn streak."

Bucky's next comment had Steve smiling, knowing it may be true, "Yeah, he'll probably be bringing her back to us in a few days."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that the timeline now makes a bit of sense using their height connection. As you can tell, there is a bit of difference in the the time-zone that the three of them are now in. You'll find out in the next chapter exactly where she is and why...I wouldn't string you along for too long.


	101. A Heavy Discussion

**Not New York City  
Less Than An Hour After Waking Up**

Victoria had searched the entire room, looking for a hidden passage way. It was a castle after all, she reasoned, so you never know. But, all of the walls were solid stone. Nicely built old construction too, she noticed. The walls had been plastered and then painted the pleasant blue. She had moved the heavy wardrobe just to check behind it, as well as moving the rug in front the fireplace and crawling under the bed to look for a trap door in the floor. Nothing.

The only electrical that she was able to find was the chandelier, but its simple wiring ran across the top of the foot-wide thick beam and exiting the room through a small hole. She'd had to stand on top of the wardrobe to figure that out, using the reading chair as a ladder to get up there. The bathroom also had a single smaller chandelier, also run to power the same way. Inside of the top drawer of the right nightstand was where she had found the remote which turned both light fixtures on and off. No need for a wall switch.

But even knowing all of this, was pointless. There was no way to use what she had found. She didn't even know what continent she was on, but her best guess was Europe studying the architecture. Over the past hour, she had intimately learned the layout of her room to no avail. She was no closer to getting out of here than she had been when she woke up.

The most stressing to her was not knowing who had taken her and why. Vic had laid on the bed, staring at the ceiling for a bit, trying to remember anything about earlier in the day, but beyond the bookstore, she had a faint recollection of wanting to go to the coffee shop, but that was where her mind went fuzzy.

Hoping for some answers, she had stood at the bars and yelled 'hello' for a few minutes. But either whoever had taken her couldn't hear her, or didn't want to respond. During her search, she had also looked for any type of material to possibly make into a key that would open the door. But there had not been anything she would find useful.

So she had been lying the opposite way on the comfortable mattress so that she could stare up at the ceiling and the beautiful crystals catching the morning light in them. She had hummed her two songs a few times before quitting, feeling that there was something just not right about this situation, besides the fact that she was once again kidnapped.

Why this room and not a real cell?

Then, the silence of the room was slightly broken by the sound of heavy footsteps getting closer from the hallway. She had left the wooden door open, wanting to be able to see and hear anyone who got close. It seemed that now was possibly the time to get some answers.

Vic sat up on the bed and moved to the area directly in front of the doorway. Hearing the footsteps draw closer, Vic noticed that there was something slightly off with how they sounded. The steps weren't made from tennis shoes with a soft sole, or even a dress shoe made with something harder.

When the shiny silver metal first appeared in the doorway, for a half second, Vic thought that it was Bucky. But as the figure stepped into the light, she was glaring at a metal face with glowing blue eyes she had seen in reports over a month ago, while researching Zemo and the Battle of Sokovia since he had something to do with Steve being taken.

" _Good morning, Miss Victoria_ ," the smooth purry electronic voice of the Ultron Sentry standing outside of her cell greeted her.

Gawking through the bars at the mechanical creature standing there, Vic had no idea what to do. She knew that the Sentries were originally controlled by Ultron to attack the Avengers, but why was this one still here? Hadn't they all been destroyed? That's what everyone believed.

When it reached out with a key and began to unlock her cell door, Vic took a couple of quick steps back all the way to the wall behind her. As the Sentry stepped inside of her room, her back met the solid wall next to the french doors, not giving her anywhere else to go.

" _My name is Sentry_ ," it told her as it stood by the open door. " _I am here to escort you to breakfast_."

"What?" she asked, now _really_ not understanding what was going on. "Breakfast?"

" _Yes, it is the most important meal of the day_."

She stared dumbfounded at the machine at hearing that ridiculous phrase uttered from it.

" _Now, please come with me. The Baron is waiting_ ," it told her while gesturing to the open door for her to use.

"Who?"

" _The Baron,_ " it dropped its hand back to its side.

"I heard ya the first time. Who is the Baron?" she asked.

" _He is the one in charge of me_ ," Sentry replied, not giving the answer she had wanted.

"That still doesn't tell me anything," she pointed out.

" _Yes, it does. Shall we go?_ " it answered. Sentry then held one arm out, indicating the open door waiting for her again.

 _Now_ she knew how Steve and Bucky felt when she answered some of their _obvious_ questions.

Since it didn't seem like she was going to get any useful answers from it, she cautiously headed for the door, giving Sentry a wide berth. As she stepped into the hallway, she looked to the left and found that the hallway ended at a window far enough away to match the length of her bathroom. Turning to the right, Sentry stepped out of the room and began to lead her through the stone hall. There were seven other doors similar to the wooden one of her bedroom, but none of the other doors had the metal bars on them.

Arriving at the end of the hallway, Victoria was looking down from one side of a long gallery overlooking a great hall. There was a fireplace large enough to stand inside of with a fire going. The center of the room was filled with a massive wooden table with benches on both sides and grand carved chairs at the two ends. It would probably fit about ten people comfortably on each side.

Following Sentry, she saw numerous medieval weapons hanging on the gallery's wall, some of which she had become proficient with, but she knew that they would not work against the robot's metal form. Vic needed more answers before doing anything too impulsive.

Heading down the spiral stairs at the corner of the gallery behind Sentry, she hoped this set didn't end up at an oubliette. They emerged into the great hall where she could see a matching spiral staircase in the other corner. Instead of leading her to the large table, Sentry headed for a wooden door tucked into the opposite corner of the room, off to the side of the fireplace.

Pushing open the swinging door for her, Sentry stood to the side to allow her to enter first. She could see that it was the kitchen area of the castle, and when the door was opened, the scent of food cooking came from the room. Vic hadn't realized that she was hungry until she smelled the wonderful aroma that drew her inside.

"Good morning, fraulein," she heard from her right, the voice sounding almost familiar.

Turning, she saw the back of a man standing at a modern stove while cooking, stirring something in a pot.

"Morning?" she asked, knowing that it had been afternoon the last time she remembered anything clearly. When the man then turned around, Vic could not believe who she saw. "Zemo?"

Taking the pot up, he then stepped over towards her, stopping at the workbench that took up the center of the room where two plates were set up. He divided the thick, yellow substance that looked a lot like the grits she had grown up with onto them.

"Please, have a seat. I'll have these ready in a moment," he said as he put the pot down and then took a skillet from the stove which had thick slices of ham fried in it, placing them onto the grits and pouring the gravy on top of it.

Instead of doing as he asked, Victoria glanced around the kitchen, trying to make sure she was actually awake and that this was not some strange dream, before screaming:

"What the _hell_ is going on!?"

Zemo stopped his work on the meal as he stared at her for a few moments, before he continued to load up their plates.

"I know that you are confused, but please, I will try to explain some as we eat. I know you must be hungry after so many hours," he told her putting the pan down. Picking up the two plates, he brought them over to the other end of the workbench near her, setting them down so they were across from each other. Vic just continued to stare as he then went over to a coffee pot and brought the carafe over along with two mugs. "Please have a seat."

"No, I don't _want_ to sit down! I _want_ to go home!"

"That is not an option right now," he told her while placing silverware at their spots.

" _Right now_? But it will be eventually?" she asked, not sure if he was speaking what he meant.

Instead of answering, she watched him take his own seat.

"Fraulein, your food will get cold."

"I'm not really _caring_ right now, in case ya haven't noticed!"

With that, Vic turned around and took about a step towards the door before Sentry, who had been silently standing behind her to the side, reached out and latched onto her upper arm. Its firm mechanical hold stopped her from leaving the kitchen area. Sentry then took the few steps necessary to drag her towards the stool where Zemo had put her plate.

" _The Baron requested that you have a_ _seat,_ " Sentry stated while Zemo sat cutting up the meat on his plate before taking a bite, letting his machine keep her in line.

Vic yanked her arm free of the grasp, staring Sentry down, which did absolutely nothing. With a loud, frustrating huff, she sat down on the stool, crossing her arms and glaring at the man calmly eating across from her. Sentry then moved back to stand closer to the door.

"Would you like some coffee?" he asked pouring himself some.

"I don't drink _coffee_ ," she grumbled out angrily.

"No?" he said looking over at her, then nodding his head.

Standing up, he went to a large refrigerator, pulled out a carton and moved over to a cabinet. From there, he pulled a glass and began to pour her a serving of orange juice. Bringing it over to the bench, he placed it down in front of her, putting the carton down near him.

Unfortunately, she was too thirsty to care right now. Picking it up, she down the entire thing in a single long gulp. Zemo was staring at her now, as she reached across and grabbed the container to refill her glass again, repeating the gesture.

When she was done, she picked up her knife and fork, cutting into ham and grits that was making her stomach growl with anticipation of receiving the wonderful smelling food. She knew that she must be a sight, angrily eating the meal, but she didn't care.

"Are you feeling alright this morning?" Zemo then asked.

"Why?" she asked between bites.

"I wanted to make sure there were no lasting effects from the drug in your system," he answered, which stopped her in mid-chew.

"Ya _drugged_ me!?" she yelled at him with a mouthful of food.

"Of course. Would I have been able to convince you to come with me otherwise?" he asked still eating.

"Hell no!" she answered.

"And that is why I drugged you," he stated.

" _How_ did ya drug me?" she asked a bit calmer and still not remembering anything past the bookstore.

"I slipped something into your drink in the coffee shop," he told her taking a bite.

"Coffee shop?" she quizzically asked, as flashes started to come back to her finally. She had met a man, not Zemo, and had talked to him for a bit.

"Yes, I see you now remember. I was wearing a disguise. We sat and chatted for a while until I was able to drug you. When it took effect, we then walked out together. The drug put you into a state of being highly susceptible to suggestion before knocking you unconscious for a few hours. I did have to re-dose you during the long flight."

"Well, I'm sorry, but I've already been kidnapped once and have scratched that off of my bucket list, so you'll just have to take me home now!" she informed him with all seriousness.

Zemo looked over at her and she watched as his face slowly began to show the enjoyment he felt from hearing her statement.

"You are _most_ amusing, fraulein," he chuckled and grinned, pointing his fork at her while continuing to eat.

It was worth a shot, she figured, as she began to eat again. They were both most of the way through the meal before she decided to calmly try again.

"Will you at least tell me where I am?" she asked swiping up the grits with a piece of ham.

"We are in Romania," he answered, which stopped her from taking the bite.

"Romania?" she repeated, not quite believing. "But I don't have a passport."

"We did _not_ go through _customs_ to get here," he pointed out, looking once again amused at her comments.

Eating the food, she wondered how the hell she was going to get out of here. She didn't even know the international code to call home. Even if she found a phone, it would be useless. Bucky may be able to speak Romanian, but she had never learned that one. She added learning it to her _To Do List_ for when she got home…as well as getting a damn tracker put in her. Steve and Bucky were getting one too.

"Is there a particular _reason_ that I am here?" she decided to ask.

"Yes," Zemo simply said without going any further.

"Care to tell me?"

"Eventually."

"What…did you just felt like a bit of company and chose me as the lucky winner?" she sarcastically asked.

"Not exactly, fraulein," he grinned at her, finishing his food. "I decided that after our last chat, that no, you are not guilty by association."

Vic gazed worriedly at him at hearing that. Zemo was still angry about what happened to his family, which meant that he still blamed the Avengers for their deaths. But not her.

"So then…there _is_ an _actual_ _reason_ that ya took me away from my soulmates?"

"Yes."

"Well, come on then! Just fucking say it! Why won't ya just tell me!?" she yelled at him, slamming her silverware onto the bench. "That is the _stupidest_ , _vaguest_ answer ya could _possibly_ have given! Are ya enjoying _pissing_ me off?"

Zemo stoically stood across from her, as if trying to decide to finally give her the answers that she wanted, before he finally spoke.

"In just over thirty-six hours, the city of New York will be decimated by numerous bombs going off around the city. At that same time, Avengers Tower will fall under attack, with the death of everyone inside of it, being the ultimate goal."

Victoria could only stare speechless at Zemo as he spoke. The city bombed? An attack? Everyone in the Tower dead? She didn't know how long she was frozen in place before Zemo moved, picking up their empty plates and walking to the sink with them.

Vic barely managed to get her voice above a whisper, "Why would ya do that?"

Zemo turned around, answering, " _I_ am not the one responsible."

"Then how do ya know about it?" she asked, not understanding.

"I was not the only one to escape from Schmidt's castle that day. Max Lohmer, as well as a couple of highly trained agents, were not at the castle that day. When I and the other agents left in the Viperjet, they took me to the location Max was at, namely here. After informing him of Sin's death, he decided to seek vengeance upon the ones he deemed responsible for it."

"The Avengers."

"Yes," Zemo answered, moving to gather the dirty cooking pot and frying pan. "He is planning on assaulting the Avengers Tower at the same time he detonates the bombs that Sin had him place around the city over a month and a half ago."

"The bombs are already there…in place and they _have been_?" she asked.

"Yes. Sin had them placed around the city in public areas and buildings so that it would give Ross incentive to help bring you out of hiding," he told her.

"Ross? Grumpy Secretary Ross? I don't understand," she was trying to put together what he was saying.

"You disappeared for too long. Rumlow wanted to capture you, but when none of their agents could find your location he and Sin changed their plan slightly. Instead of taking you, they decided to capture the Captain instead, giving Sin revenge for her father while at the same time hurting you. But they still needed you to come out of hiding. So, Sin had the bombs placed in the city. We then went to Secretary Ross' house and told him about the bombs. In exchange for them not being detonated, Ross agreed to call for a meeting, bring you all back to the city where Rumlow, who was pretending to be Ross' assistant during the meetings, was able to learn about you going to the opera that night with Rogers. Ross believed that he was helping them to capture _you_ , _not_ the Captain."

Victoria's entire body felt cold all of a sudden. _Secretary Ross_ had tried to give her to Rumlow, _knowing_ what he would have intended to do to her. _Ross_ had helped Rumlow and Sin learn where she and Steve were going to be that night. _Ross_ had been willing to _sacrifice_ her. It was _Ross'_ fault that they had been able to find them and take Steve from her and Bucky. Every time he had contacted Tony or Natasha about Steve's abduction, he had _known_ that it was _his fault_ that he was _missing_ in the first place…and _Ross_ never said _anything_ about it.

She had tortured herself believing it had been her fault…hours on end in the training room trying to block out the guilt, crying herself to sleep in Steve's closet at night so Bucky wouldn't hear, barely able to stand having Bucky hold her since she felt he blamed her for him being missing but would not admit it aloud. Having to hide from everyone, but mostly Bucky, due to the 'abyss' that would overcome her every time Steve had been tortured.

As the anger of the full comprehension of what had been done painfully arose in her, Victoria stood up from the stool, backing a few feet away from where Sentry stood at the door, turning to place her hands on the cold stone countertop. Her hands balled into fist, her head hung low, and she closed her eyes. Seconds later she took a deep breath.

With all the strength in her, she raised her fists into the air over her head before slamming them down on the hard surface as she screamed with all of her might. Pulling from every thrash metal singer she had ever heard, she let the anger flow through her. When she was done with the scream, she took a few moments of calming deep breaths before she even opened her eyes.

Turning back around, she saw that Zemo was wide-eyed staring at her with his hands covering his ears from where he stood in front of the sink, frozen at the spectacle before him. With purpose, she then moved around the workbench to the cabinet where he had pulled the glass from, grabbing a clean one. Heading over towards where he stood, Zemo backed away as she approached the sink. For the next minute, she drank down three glasses of water from the tap to help the pain in her throat from her absolution of no longer feeling at fault for Steve's predicament. she now knew who was _really_ to blame.

When she was done, she put the glass down and turned to Zemo.

"So…any _other_ revelations that ya'd like to share?" she harshly asked, her voice a bit gravelly with some southern accent coming through, really hoping that he didn't have anything else to inform her of.

"I do not believe so, fraulein."

"Then I suggest ya tell me _right now_ why I shouldn't just _kill ya_ where you stand so I can go home?"

Zemo seemed as if he were trying to decide if she was serious or not with the look he was giving her.

"The most logical would be the fact that if I die by your hand, Sentry is programed to kill you."

Glancing over at the robot standing across the room watching her every movement, Victoria answered with a sigh and bobbing of her head, "That's a good reason."

Now she needed to deal with the other part of what Zemo had told her.

"So…just over thirty-six hours until every single friend and all the family that I care about die…" she stared him in the eye for a few seconds before continuing, "…and _you_ are just going to _let_ it happen."

"I told you when we talked before that I felt they were responsible for my family's death and needed to be punished. I may not be the one doing it, but they are getting what they deserve," he told her, and she knew that he probably believed that right now.

"And what about every single innocent person in New York City that those bombs kill? Were _they_ responsible for your family dying also?"

"Sometimes in a war, civilian casualties happen. _My family_ is an _example_ of that," he pointed out.

"So a couple of hundred more casualties will make you feel better?" she asked, then saw a look cross his face. "What?"

"It will not just be a couple of hundred. There are over two thousand people working in Avengers Tower alone," he calmly told her.

"They are going to attack during the day? When people are working?"

"Yes, that is part of Max's plan. A full frontal invasion on the Tower along with all of the bombs going off around the city at the same time to increase confusion and casualties…all in the name of HYDRA and Sin. By their calculations, there should be just over six thousand fatal casualties, not including injured bystanders."

Vic stared at Zemo has he spoke, not believing the devastation that was going to happen. Zemo knew, and now she knew, but nobody else who could _do anything_ about it knew.

"Max fuckin' needs to be stopped! Ya can't just let this fuckin' happen, Zemo!" she angrily yelled at him.

Instead of answering her, Zemo turned and started to head toward the other kitchen door leading back to the great hall. Realizing how heated her words sounded, Vic knew that she needed to calm down to control her temper and accent otherwise Zemo would never listen to her. She had never been so determined as she was right now.

" _You_ don't get to _pick and choose_ who _lives and dies_! That's why you brought me _here_ , right, Helmut? For some reason, you didn't want _me_ to die in the attack. You may say that I am not guilty by association, but I am just as guilty as every other civilian person in the city that you _will_ allow to die!" she pointed out as he pushed the door open to leave the kitchen, while he never looked back at her.

As she went to follow him, Sentry then began to walk toward her. She guessed that he really was her personal guard dog.

Pushing the swinging door open, she stepped into the great hall where Zemo was now standing in front of the large fireplace, silently staring into it. He was not trying to argue back with her. Was that a good thing or bad? He need to see those people as he saw his own family, not just a number. Vic quickly calculated out the dates between the Battle of Sokovia and what Zemo had been a part of down in Argentina. How had she not thought of it weeks ago…

"It was the anniversary of their deaths on the 6th… the day before we showed up at the castle, while you were working with Rumlow and Sin," she calmly stated. That got Zemo to turn towards her as she spoke. "Did they even know?"

He silently turned away from her.

"Did they even care, Helmut?"

"No, and if they did, they did not say anything. You saw how they were. They were _not_ the type of people to offer sympathy," he quietly told her. "What you said to me, as you were being lowered into your cell for the night…that was the only time _anyone_ has ever said anything like that to me."

Victoria took a breath before walking over to stand next to Zemo in front of the warm fireplace. The mantle was just about at the height of her head. She could easily walk inside of it if she wanted.

"Back in your bedroom, I pointed out that instead of preventing something like Novi Grad from happening again, that you had chosen to work with the terrorist. Now, you have _actually been given_ a second chance. For the past three years and sixteen days, you have been living in a purposeless vacuum. Moving around, working for whomever paid you the most money for your services. Not really caring what the _outcomes_ of those services were."

From the corner of her eye, she saw a small drop in Zemo's shoulders.

"Helmut, _you_ have been given the opportunity to _prevent_ Novi Grad from happening a second time. _You_ have the chance to _save_ numerous _families_ from having to go through the _exact_ same horrible thing that you have. Did you know that Tony has a nursery and daycare on the 10th floor of Stark Tower?"

Zemo's head quickly turned to glare at her when he heard that.

"Every weekday, there are almost a hundred infants and preschoolers being cared for while a parent works only a few floors away, where they can visit them during the day...have lunch with them, play for a bit during their breaks. Do you think that Max will care that the people running in fear during his invasion has their child in their arms trying to get them to safety and not kill them?"

Vic waited patiently for a very long time before Zemo finally spoke, "No, he won't."

"Because of you taking me, I know for a fact that not only are Steve and Bucky at the Tower, but probably so is every other Avenger at this very moment. The one person you perhaps don't know about is Wade. He will be there also. When I was nineteen, I was homeless and living in a tent in the woods," she decided to tell him staring into the fire, getting Zemo to once again look at her curiously. "Wade found me and offered me a home. A real home. Not like the one my birth parents gave me. Where I was despised for having a multiple-person soulmark. Where they padlocked me in my bedroom at night for not being normal. Where I was kicked out of the house with only a few scraps of clothes, no food, and no money to fend for myself at eighteen."

She had not even told most of the group about her history, only Nat knew since she was with Wade.

"Wade took me in. Wade taught me how to fight, to defend myself from people like the bullies I had during school who liked to beat me up for being weird. Wade has watched over me for the past seven years, eight months and ten days."

Victoria glanced over and saw the strange look Zemo was giving her for revealing the exact time, but what was the point of hiding it from him.

"Yes, I have a strange habit when it comes to dates," she informed him with a small smile before getting back to her speech. "Wade has been more of a _parent_ to me than _either_ of my real ones ever were. And he will _not_ leave that Tower until I am found. He will be there when Max attacks. Wade will not stand by and do nothing. And he will die fighting, because he was a soldier and that is what he knows. He will protect every single person in that Tower with his life. Even if he has never met them. I will lose _everyone_ that I love when Max attacks, because they are _all_ fighters and not _one_ of them will _back down_."

Even just telling Zemo about the possibility of it, make a cold chill pass over her, as if speaking it would make it happen.

"So now, you have a decision, Helmut…what would Heike and Carl want you to do? Let Max destroy all those families along with my own when you could have stopped him…or help the Avengers to take down a madman?"

They stood silently watching the flames for a while longer as she hoped Zemo came to the correct decision. There was only one other thing that she decided he needed to be warned about.

"Helmut, do you remember in Sin's castle when you were taking me from the room that Bucky wanted me to remember a promise?"

"Yes," Zemo quietly said.

"When Rumlow kidnapped me, to try and keep Bucky and Steve from turning themselves over to Rumlow to keep me safe, I tried to get Rumlow to kill me. I knew that they would want proof of life before they turned themselves over, and if I was dead, then they would be safe. Luckily, they managed to save me, but Steve and Bucky made me promise to always keep myself alive at all cost."

"You would have had Rumlow kill you? For them?" he asked her.

"Of course. I would have done anything to stop that ugly naked mole-rat from hurting them. You know _exactly_ what Rumlow wanted to use them for," she finished, hoping this would work.

They both stood, watching the large logs burn that Sentry must have put into the hearth due to their size.

"So while the clock ticks away as you make a decision, as you decide whether or not to continue to live in a purposeless vacuum, remember this: if that happens, if I lose all of them, then there is no reason for me to keep that promise. I will take out Sentry, and then I will move on to you. From there, I will hunt down Max Lohmer to the ends of this earth. And after I put a bullet in his head with a smile, I will shortly join my soulmates and Wade."

Even from the corner of her eye, she could feel his glare at hearing that. Vic took one final deep breath.

"Come on, Sentry. I'm going back to my cell."

Vic knew that he needed some alone time to consider his options. She didn't know what else to say to try and convince Zemo to try and stop Max. Taking a few steps, she watched as Sentry looked between her and Helmut as if needing instruction. Helmut nodded his head so Sentry began to follow her lead, heading for the spiral staircase that she had come down earlier. As the two of them walked up, she heard nothing but the sound of the fire from the room below.

Vic knew that if Steve and Bucky had heard that last part of her speech, that she would be on the receiving end of about twenty hard spanks each for it, but she needed Helmut to consider his actions very carefully. Because she meant every word of it.

Reaching the bedroom, she went inside as Sentry closed the steel door behind her, locking it. She had a little bit of time before the attack was to take place, but hopefully Zemo wasn't the type to wait until a countdown clock was at the one second mark before reaching the off button.

"Sentry, can you tell me what time it is right now?" she decided to ask.

" _It is 8:06am, local time_."

"What time is it in New York City then?" she asked.

" _It is seven hours behind, so local time there is 1:06am_."

"Thanks," she said reaching over to close the wooden door, but leaving it just partially cracked. Given the other locked door, she knew it was foolish, but it made her feel better.

Walking over to the bed and collapsing onto it, Vic rolled over to resume staring up at the beautiful crystals dangling above her. There was a good chance that her warriors were still awake, but they would eventually need to sleep. She could almost picture them lying in their bed together…but without her. Just how they looked when she was the last one to get ready for the night. For over a year, they had all slept together. Would they still sleep in the bed without her? Vic smiled knowing that they would, but they would not like it as much. She wished that she could remind them that it would be just like when they did sleepovers as kids.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The grits substance would be Polenta in Europe. They are similar but made from different varieties of corn.
> 
> So now you know what is going on and who is responsible for it. Ready to see if Vic managed to convince Helmut to help?


	102. Decision Time

**New York City  
The Same Time As Vic Screams**

There is a faint line between awareness and sleep. It's during this semi-conscious moment that the human body will sometimes feel a hypnic jerk, causing the body to feel as if its falling. The person will suddenly wake with a rapid heartbeat and maybe a quickened breath.

At first, this is what Bucky thought he was experiencing. His eyes shot open as his body twitched for a few seconds as a foreign sensation passed through him. There was nothing in the room to alarm him and he had no idea what was causing it. Then, with as quickly as it came, the overpowering feeling subsided as if it had never happened.

"What the hell was that?" he heard Steve ask into the dark room.

"You felt that too?" he turned to look at his soulmate. There was just enough light from the city outside to illuminate Steve's face, and he looked as wide awake as Bucky now felt.

"Did you feel a crushing anger all of a sudden before feeling an overwhelming calm?" Steve sat up a bit on his left arm to look at him.

Thinking about the emotions, "That's exactly how I would describe it."

"Victoria?"

Bucky lifted his metal arm to cover his eyes, his teeth grinding down in anger. He could already feel the worry from missing Vic getting to him again. He had barely managed to calm down enough to almost fall asleep. Now, he knew for a fact that she was upset which really did not help.

"Do you think he's hurting her?" he tried to keep his emotions in check.

Steve seemed to consider his answer for too long, but finally said, "I don't think so."

"Why the hell not?" he sat up on the bed to look at him. "What the fuck else could that have been?"

"Think about it, Buck," Steve sat up to join him. "Rumlow and Sin both _physically_ hurt Victoria in some way. Rumlow abused her and Sin dropped her in that damn well. They both caused her physical pain and we never felt a thing beyond her fear of heights. That is _not_ what we just felt."

Bucky closed his eyes, rubbing his hands over them trying to feel calm again. He pulled his legs up so that he now formed a ball on the bed, his forehead resting on his knees. He felt like getting up and punching something while pretending it was Zemo.

"Do you think that Zemo just did something to cause Vic _emotional_ pain?"

"Maybe," Steve said dropping back onto the bed. "For all we know, Victoria just realized what her situation is and became upset."

"Maybe Zemo told her that he planned to kill her."

"Buck, stop thinking like that," Steve demanded, but now his mind was racing with the worst possibilities he could imagine.

Bucky felt the bed move and then Steve's arms were wrapping around him, pulling him into an embrace. He allowed his body to form against Steve's, trying to stop his mind from the horrible thoughts of Vic dead.

"Victoria is going to be fine and we are going to get her back."

"What if this time is when we are both too late?" his voice managed to crack at the end. "What if this becomes Vic's train fall?"

Steve's grip tightened just enough to hold him together as he said, "What we just felt was anger but don't forget that at the _end_ of it was _calm_. Whatever Victoria learned about, she managed to get over it at the end. It was _not fear_ that we felt, so I believe that she is _physically_ fine. She is waiting for us to find her and that is exactly what we, and the entire team, are going to do tomorrow."

Steve's head came to rest on top of his own, and it took him back to as they were growing up. There had been many times when Steve had been sick, or hurt, and Bucky had held him in the exact same way. Earlier he had agreed with Tony that Zemo didn't seem to want to hurt Vic, but feeling such raw emotions like they never have before made him start to doubt himself.

"Buck, just trust me with this one. Even if you don't trust yourself."

Nodding his head in response, Steve released his grip enough so that he could uncurl himself. They sat next to each other for a few moments, just glad to have each other after everything they had gone through in their lives.

"Come on," Steve told him laying down in Vic's spot, "Let's get some sleep so that we'll be rested when Tony's program finally finds Victoria in the morning."

Bucky laid back down right next to Steve, feeling his body heat already. How could Vic stand to sleep between them?

A few minutes later, he was still partially awake listening to Steve's steady breathing when he felt the bed move. As Steve rolled onto his side, his right arm found a home over Bucky's chest, holding onto him as they both did with Vic as she slept. Looking over, he knew that Steve was fully asleep so Bucky just lifted his left hand to grasp onto his soulmate's arm as he finally calmed all the way down to fall asleep himself.

* * *

**Romania  
About 8:00 a.m. **

Helmut stood in front of the fire watching the strange woman making her way upstairs, willingly going back to her room to be locked inside. He had quietly listened as she talked…but even with her gone, everything Victoria had said _still_ haunted him.

He had indeed lived with the hate inside of him for three years…angry at the Avengers…hell, angry at the entire world for what he had loss. When he had originally agreed to work with Rumlow and Sin, the idea of making the Avengers suffer as he had suffered so they felt the same pain and loss he felt, had been his motivation.

But starting with the moment of watching Rogers punching Victoria at Rumlow's command…that was the first time he had questioned what he was truly doing there. The entire time that Rumlow and Sin had been conditioning the Operative to perform the task without question, Victoria had just been a name that Rumlow would utter with hatred. Almost as if she were not real…but then she had been captured.

Not once during his months there had he really considered how he would _feel_ while watching her being tortured.

And it had _sickened_ him.

Helmut had been most shocked the next day when Victoria had drawn Rumlow's attention away from him as he pointed a gun at his chest. He had wanted to kill him for nothing more than _not raping and beating_ Victoria. He knew that Rumlow was unstable and would not hesitate to fire if he felt the slightest compulsion to. He had seen Rumlow's finger gently starting to pull the trigger. With the comments she gave, she had drawn Rumlow's anger away from him and onto herself, on purpose.

What Victoria had done was save his life…of that he was sure.

He just didn't understand _why_ she would do that for him. She could just have easily told Rumlow that he'd left her alone, giving Rumlow ample reason to fire, eliminating at least one enemy at the castle. But Victoria had not.

Then there had been the talk that he and Victoria had in his bedroom the night before that incident. And listening to her, some part of Victoria reminded him of Heike. She was nice to him, even if she had been a bit blunt. He'd not had that since his wife died. Even when he led EKO Scorpion, it was when he came home to Heike that she helped to keep him grounded…to deal with what he had to do to keep his country safe.

And now, he was wondering if it had all been for nothing.

He did not feel like the same man that Heike had fallen in love with. He had not been him since the day they died. Could he put his hate to the side? If he did not, then Victoria would indeed feel the exact same thing that he was. The loss of not only a soulmate, but two, as well as a father figure. She would lose the three most important people in her life, just as he had.

And from what Victoria said as she had left, he had no reason to doubt the sincerity of her words when it came to emotions, even if he believed her to be a bit inadequate in the area of combat. The actions she wanted to take due to her loss, it sounded exactly like what he had been trying to do.

Seeking vengeance on the ones she deemed responsible for her pain.

Helmut would be turning Victoria into him.

But did he really want that?

* * *

**Just Outside of New York City  
2:00 a.m. Wednesday**

Max Lohmer sat in the HYDRA safe-house that he had established months ago when he had first come to New York City. He had never been here before, so it had taken him a few days to select the perfect locations for the five bombs that Sin had Zemo produce for them to use.

After Ross had given into their threat and helped unknowingly with the capture of the Operative, and not Victoria, Sin had decided to leave the bombs in place. She had said that it would always be useful in case they needed something else from Ross.

And now, he was going to make sure that this city suffered for her death. His family had been loyal to Schmidt, Sin as well as Johann, for three generations. His great-uncle had worked directly with Red Skull at the base where Project Valkyrie was created. He had been born and raised with the HYDRA principals. There was nobody else he deemed fit to run it without the name Schmidt.

Behind him, in the large living room, his men were cleaning weapons and getting prepared for their assault in two days. By tomorrow afternoon, the final HYDRA agents he had been able to call in from the cells he knew of would be arriving into the city to help with the assault on Avengers Tower. And then the next day, when everyone in the city was hurriedly running around after getting back from lunch, they would begin their assault.

"Sir," an agent came up from behind him. "We just received confirmation from six more agents responding to the call. If everyone whom we have heard from arrives in time, the contingent will be up to a total of fifty-three agents."

"That's better than I had hoped for," Max responded with a smile. He was willing to go in when he only knew of forty. "Let me know if you receive any more."

"Yes, Sir."

That would take the ground troop moving in through the lobby up to forty-three. With him and the nine that the Viperjet could hold moving in and landing on the Quinjet's platform, there was no way the handful of Avengers stood a chance against them.

He would paint the Avengers Tower red with blood in honor of Sin.

* * *

**Romania  
After 8:00 a.m. till lunchtime**

Since it was there, Victoria decided to take advantage of the sauna in the bathroom. She had to do something to keep herself occupied while she waited for Zemo to hopefully make the right decision. Remembering the clean clothes that were very close to her size in the wardrobe, along with her missing shoes, she grabbed a set of linen pants and a blouse, along with underwear, to eventually change into. Vic grinned at thinking of Zemo having to go out and get such intimate apparel for her. Steve still turned a lovely shade of rosy when he did. Bucky had absolutely no problem at all.

Stripping down naked, she gave a quick rinse under the shower, and wrapped a towel around herself before she stepped into the sauna's nice humid heat. Sitting down on the bench, she started imagining the devastation that Max's plan would wreak on the city. Depending on where he had planted the bombs for Sin, given the time of day they wanted to attack, they had worked it out so that thousands of people were going to be injured and killed. They had probably chosen a few of the most popular tourist attractions and high-rise offices.

Then she thought about all of the workers in the Tower. She had not lied when she told Zemo about the nursery and daycare that Tony and Pepper had as a perk for all employees to use if they needed it. She had gone down there a few times to watch the children having fun playing together, something that she had never done growing up. At first, it had only brought back angry memories of the farm and school. But after a few visits, she began to realize that this is how a child of hers would be raised…with friends and a loving family. If their lives calmed down, and they would stop getting kidnapped, maybe it would be time for them to have another grown-up talk. Rumlow had already made her cancel the one she wanted to have on Christmas morning.

After lying down for probably too long, Vic got out of the sauna and headed back to the tub shower to bathe. Turning on the shower-head, she rinsed the sweat off as she used some of the bath products that were available to her. The new, large bar of soap smelled like honeysuckle, while the shampoo and conditioner was scented with roses. Zemo seemed to have gone all out. She had to admit, this was a much better prison than the one in Argentina.

Hearing a noise from behind her, Vic turned to see Sentry bringing in a tray and walking over to the small table where the books were. Placing it down, he then proceeded to head back out of the bedroom without a word to her. Turning the water off, she dried off with a nice oversized towel before getting dressed. Using a smaller hand towel, she wrapped it around her head until she could do something about her hair.

Walking into the bedroom, she saw that Zemo had sent up a small tray with a snack consisting of hot tea with biscuits, jam, and butter. Looking down on it reminded her of the time she had trapped her warriors and Tony in the room to get them to work out the animosity about Tony's parents' deaths. Sitting down in the chair, she squeezed the slice of lemon into the drink, along with three spoonfuls of sugar. At least by receiving this, she didn't think that Helmut was actually mad at her. That was at least a good sign. An actual answer would have been better.

Looking out of the window, she watched as the clouds in the distance crossed in front of the far mountains. Romania. If she remembered her geography correctly, then they would be the Carpathian Mountains. The view itself was lovely, Vic just wished that she was seeing it for a different reason.

After she was done with the snack, she went back into the bathroom to see about her hair. Inside of small recessed shelves surrounding the sink, she found a new brush to use. Unfortunately there was no hairdryer to use, but there was a fire going. Sitting down in front of it with her back to it, Vic then began to brush her hair smooth. In a matter of minutes, it was dry enough for her to do something with. Vic realized that she had not found any more hair holders than the one she already had in her hair.

That was when she began to wonder about the room itself, and why it was like the way it was. Zemo had said that Max had been at this location for some reason when they had gotten free at Sin's castle. The bathroom was very nice…too nice for an actual prison cell. Judging by the overall size of it, as well as it being the furthest from any invading party, the began to realized that this would be what passed for a master bedroom in the castle. It was decorated with a more feminine touch, considering the delicate chair and table, crystal chandelier, wall color and bed linens. If that was so, then...

This was supposed to have been Sin's room.

Looking over at the bed, she _really_ began to hope that Rumlow and Sin had never come here and had _sex_ in it. She felt a horribly gross shiver cross over her at the thought.

Going back to the sink, she pulled out one of the two new toothbrushes, opening it from the wrapper. Putting some of the mint toothpaste onto it, she began to try and get rid of the small raspberry seeds that were stuck between her teeth from the jam she had eaten. There was no dental floss that she could find. She wondered, with a smile, if she could put together a grocery request list for her jailer.

Heading back out the bedroom, she decided to read one of her new books. Grabbing a spare blanket that she had found in one of the side nightstands, Vic picked up the top book and headed outside to the balcony. Sitting down on the lounge chair, she draped the blanket over her and began to read. Between the blanket and the warm sun, she found it very peaceful lying there overlooking the mountains.

After a few short hours and probably close to lunchtime, the French door on the opposite side of the balcony opened and Zemo stepped out, closing it behind him, keeping the heat in her bedroom. He admired the view for a few moments while she ear-marked her page and then turned to place her feet on the ground facing him. Hopefully he was here with good news. Vic waited patiently for Helmut to speak first, not wanting to spook him, before he finally turned to face her.

"I will agree to contacting the Avengers and informing them of Max's plan," he finally told her, bringing a smile to her face as she sighed with relief, but then he continued, "With one condition."

Hoping that it wasn't too bad, she asked, "What condition?"

"That you have to agree to _willingly_ stay here with me, to live here," he informed her, giving her a slight sinking feeling in her gut.

"What? Why?"

"I brought you here to keep you safe, and that is what I intend to keep doing. Willingly agreeing to stay means that you will make no attempts at escaping or trying to communicate your situation with anyone else in hopes of a rescue. Therefore, to send the warning you _must_ agree to this condition."

Victoria could hardly believe what she was hearing and could see from his expression that Zemo was absolutely serious about this.

"For how long do I have to stay?" she asked, a bit worried about his answer.

"Indefinitely."

Now the slight sinking feeling was more like a whirlpool into the Mariana Trench. Indefinitely? That could be anywhere from a week to a year or even longer.

But _if_ she agreed, then _a lot_ of people would live, including Steve, Bucky, and Wade. Everyone in the Tower would be safe. All of those people in New York would be safe. How could she _not_ agree?

"You want me to voluntarily give up my freedom," she flatly stated.

"One life staying here," Zemo said sweeping his hand over the magnificent view before them, "compared to the permanent end of so many other lives…"

Closing her eyes, she dropped her head as she placed her arms onto her knees. He was right though…what was her freedom compared to all of the lives that it would save. Bucky and Steve would not be happy with her agreeing to this, but how could she not agree? At least her warriors would be _alive_ to do so.

Considering the overall situation, Vic had to point out…

"You are blackmailing _me_ into _making you_ do the right thing. You understand that, right?" she asked with a slight chuckle.

"Semantics."

Standing up, she walked over to where Helmut was standing at the railing, her eyes never leaving his, partially due to the height, but Victoria wanted to see his expression clearly as she gave into his demand.

"If I do this, agree to this, _you promise_ that a _detailed warning_ will go to the Avengers so that they will be able to _stop_ Max?"

"Yes, I promise. You will even be allowed to create the message to be sent, as a guarantee," he told her, making her feel better about this. It did not seem that he was trying to trick her. That was the best that she could have hoped for.

Bucky and Steve were going to be _very_ _not happy_ with her.

"Then, I guess you are my new landlord," she told him with as much of a smile as she could muster.

"I can send an encrypted message with a map showing and describing the bombs' detailed locations, but it cannot go directly to the Avengers through the Tower's more sophisticated computer system, where there is the possibility that they could trace it back to here," he told her as she put her backside on the railing of the balcony, staring through the French door to where Sentry was waiting at the steel door to her new home. "Is there someone in the city that you trust to deliver the message to them?"

Hearing that instantly brought a smile to her face, even with considering the situation.

"I know the perfect person, but I'll have to be able to make a phone call."

* * *

 **New York City**  
**Mercury's Messenger Service (Victoria's Former Boss's Office)**  
 **6:55 a.m. Wednesday**

Richard was sitting at his desk, grumbling as he looked over the pile of complaints from yesterday's clients, saying how a package or letter was a few minutes late from when they had expected it to be delivered. Even cyclist had to deal with traffic, he had tried to explain numerous times. When his private desk phone rang, he just _knew_ that it was going to be Austin saying he couldn't come into work again today.

"Hello?" he answered the phone.

" _Hi there, Richard. It's Vic_."

"Vic? Oh, please tell me that you're calling to say that you're coming back to work for me. You wouldn't believe the group of slackers that I'm dealing with."

He heard her give a slight laugh at that while sounding like she was on a speaker phone.

" _No. Sorry to tell you, but I'm not. Actually, I'm calling about something_ _ **extremely**_ _important. I need to have a message sent somewhere_ _ **urgently**_ _, and I can only trust you to do it_ _ **personally**_."

"Me? You _know_ that I don't ride anymore," he pointed out.

" _Richard, I need you to listen very carefully, and try to not freak out. I've been kidnapped_."

He listened to the words but wasn't sure if he had heard correctly.

"Kidnapped?" he asked, but then it dawned on him. Her soulmates were Avengers. "Shit, Vic!"

" _It's alright, I'm fine but I need you calm and able to listen to me. Do you still have the same email from when I worked there_?"

"Yes, I do," he said as his mind began to race with possible ransom demands.

" _I'm sending you a message from an email set up with my name. It's only going to work this one time before it's gone. I need you to print out the attached three letters along with the map and instructions in the email. Take it to Avengers Tower. You will_ _ **have**_ _to tell the receptionist that it must be_ _ **personally signed for**_ _by_ _ **Wade Garrett**_ _for delivery using the_ _ **sender name**_ _I have on_ _ **his**_ _letter. That will let him know that it is_ _ **from me**_ _, and that you being there is_ _ **not**_ _a joke. You'll know Wade when you see him since he looks like a scary father figure. Do you have his name_?"

"Yeah," he said writing the name down, "Wade Garrett," before he heard a ding from his computer indicating that he had a new email message. Clicking on it, he saw Victoria's name in the address. She had given "Hey Former Bossman" as the subject line, as if it were just a friendly email.

"I just got your email. Let me make sure it opens," he told her as he clicked the PDF link. Glancing quickly at the three letters, it was the last one addressed to the Avengers that got his attention. "Holy fuck, Vic! Do you know what this says? Of course you do but..."

" _Richard, please…listen to me! The Avengers will take care of **everything** , but you __**cannot**_ _let_ _ **anyone**_ _else know! If the terrorist get wind of this, they may set them off early, **before** they are **disarmed**_."

Taking a deep breath, he calmed down enough to tell her, "I understand. But, Vic…are you really alright?"

" _Yes, I am. Can you get this to them_ _ **immediately**_?"

"I'm already printing them out. I'll grab my bike and be at the Avengers Tower about ten minutes or so."

" _Thanks, Richard_ …" then the line went dead.

"Vic? Victoria?" he yelled into the phone, but there was nothing but dial tone.

Looking over at the printer, he just realized that he was now the only person to stop the worse terrorist attack ever from happening in New York City.

Grabbing up three envelopes, he folded the letters and put them in, putting the strange names on the outsides. Glancing at the map, he saw the five indicated locations on it…all of them open public or important places with lots of people around. Folding it and putting it inside, he walked out of his office, and grabbed his bike off of the wall, swiping away the dust from the seat as he got curious looks from all of his riders as he headed out the large door.


	103. Receiving A Warning and Goodbye Letters

**New York City – Avengers Tower's common room**  
**7:13 a.m. on Wednesday**

Breakfast was extremely quite this morning as everyone ate the morning meal but none of them were really feeling good about the start of this day.

Wade knew that he had barely slept five hours, and even that had been turbulent. During the night, none of Tony's or Tasha's damn algorithms had found anything on where Vic had been taken and there had not been a single hit with facial recognition on that Zemo bastard.

Maybe he _should_ let Bucky put that damn tracker in his girl.

As he picked at the eggs on his plate, FRIDAY informed him, " _Wade, you have a letter by special delivery that must be personally signed for at the reception desk_."

"I'm not expecting anything. Who is it from?" he asked as everyone was now staring at him.

A few moments later, FRIDAY responded with, " _The sender's name is: Virgin Church Mouse_."

"Holy flying fuck!" he exclaimed jumping up from the table, the chair falling to the floor behind him as he made a run for the elevator. He heard the sound of heavy footsteps from behind him, knowing that it was Steve and Bucky. They knew that name just as well as he did.

"What the hell is going on?" Tony yelled at the three of them as the elevator doors opened with Pietro already standing there already having hit the button.

"That letter is from Vic, you damn idiot!" he told them as they stepped onto the elevator.

Just as the doors closed, he realized that Pietro was now casually leaning on the wall next to them. "I'm curious by nature," Pietro grinned.

"FRIDAY, to the lobby immediately and hurry!" Steve requested of the AI.

When the doors opened, being so early in the morning, they spotted the bike messenger standing with his bike right next to the receptionist desk. Stomping across the lobby, he saw the man's eyes get wide as their group hurriedly approached him.

"You really _are_ a scary father figure," the man in his early forties said with a smile as he was then startled by Pietro suddenly appearing right next to him.

"You have a letter for me?" he asked, wondering about the familiar phrase he had used. Vic loved to use that to describe him.

"Yes," he said pulling a couple of letters out of his bag, and handing them over to him, while staring at Pietro.

Wanting to rip the one with his name open, he heard Steve and Bucky starting to question the man.

"I'm Richard. Vic used to work for me at the messenger service. She called me a little while ago and told me a bit about what happened. She sent me here with the letters."

"She _called_ you?" Steve asked.

"Letters?" Bucky then asked.

"Yes, three letters and a map," the man then looked around at the others in the lobby before dropping his voice. "Something _very bad_ is about to happen here."

"You can leave your bike here," Steve said telling the receptionist and Richard. "But let's get upstairs where we can talk," making the group head to the elevator.

Pietro ran and hit the button, so it was already open by the time they got there.

"You wouldn't by chance be looking for a job?" Richard asked Pietro as they all stepped inside.

Staring at the envelopes in his hands, he wanted to rip into them but knew that whatever they contained needed to be shared with the entire group. They were as much of a family to Vic as he was.

When the doors to the common room opened back up, they saw the rest of the group had left at the breakfast table moving to the couch area, and Wade could see the large monitor was on while showing the lobby. Tony must have put on the surveillance camera to watch what happened. They escorted Richard up to where everyone was eagerly waiting.

"Alright, now can you please start at the beginning?" Steve requested, as Wade now opened the envelope addressed personally to him, pulling out a sheet of folded paper, seeing Vic's handwriting, but Richard's next statement pulled his attention before he could ready any of it.

"Vic called me a little while ago at the office. She told me that she has been kidnapped," he started.

"Yes, yesterday afternoon," Bucky confirmed.

"She said that she was sending an email to me. At first I thought that it would be a ransom demand, but when I opened the attachment, I saw what it really is," Richard told them.

"Which is?" Clint asked.

"Information on a terrorist attack," he said, shocking the entire group.

"What!?" at least five people simultaneously responded.

"The letter addressed to the Avengers tells about the locations of bombs that have been planted around the city. It also tells of an attack that is supposed to happen here, at the Tower, tomorrow."

Wade then placed his own private letter down on his lap before ripping open the envelope containing the subject that the entire group was now very interested in.

Pulling the letter from it, he began to read it out for the assembly to hear.

 _"Hey Avengers,_  
_Sin's favorite HYDRA meanie Max Lohmer is planning a terrorist attack for Thursday, May 22, just after lunchtime in New York City. There are five bombs that are already placed around the city at the locations shown on the map. He will also be doing a head-on assault of Avengers Tower at the same time of their detonation – ground troops and the Viperjet from above. Expect no less than thirty HYDRA agents, maybe more. The map shows the detailed locations of the bombs as well as the frequency that will set them off and instructions on disarming them. Be careful. If he suspects you know, he may not follow through with his plan and escape. You have to stop him. Don't let my sacrifice be in vain._  
_Victoria or Vic, Never Vikki"_

"What the _fuck_ does she mean by sacrifice?" Wade felt cold as he asked, as if the group would know any more than he did.

"Let's see the other letters," Steve then calmly requested, not sounding happy.

Wade picked up the one that was address to him as he saw the other was to 'My Warriors'. He passed that one over for the two of them to read. Opening up his, he felt Tasha's hand on his back, offering him a bit of comfort as he began to read it to himself.

 _Wade,_  
_I am safe, and will continue to be, but I'm not able to come home. I don't know when that will change._  
_I know that this is a lot to ask, but I need you to look after Steve and Bucky. They are not going to be happy very soon…as in when they read their letter._  
_They are a handful, but I know that you can keep them in line._  
_Don't let them eat too much junk food. Steve works too much, so have Pepper take him to museums often. Bucky needs a hobby not involving weapons, so make him go dancing with Nat._  
_I know that no matter what I ask, that you will help them stop Max, so you better not get hurt or killed! I'm serious!_  
_Thanks for looking out for me. I know it wasn't always easy._  
_You don't know how much it meant to have you as my dad._  
_Virgin Church Mouse_

Wade could feel his eyes swelling with tears as he got to the end of the letter, crumbling it in his hand. He could feel Tasha's hands on his shoulders as he sat there trying to not cry in front of the group.

"Wade," he heard Tasha say, "What did the letter say?"

It took him a moment before he could simply answer, "Vic's not coming home," then he passed her the paper so that she could read it.

That was when he heard the scream. He didn't bother looking up. Wade knew it was Bucky. He may not know the contents of their letter, but he was sure that it was not going to be too different than his own.

"Nat, what does it say?" Clint then asked for the rest of the group.

"All Victoria says is that she's safe but not able to come home, everything else is personal. But she doesn't say why? Steve, does your letter?" Tasha asked.

Wade lifted his head wondering if the other letter had that answer. Steve looked exactly like how he felt himself.

"Victoria made an agreement with Zemo. In exchange for getting the information about the attacks to us, she has agreed to stay with Zemo as a willing prisoner…indefinitely."

"You can't be serious?" Pepper than asked. "Why would she do that?"

"To keep a couple of thousand people from possibly getting killed. As well as all of us," Steve calmly told the group.

Wade dropped his head as he started to chuckle a bit.

"That sounds just like something she would do," he said out loud.

"What about the terrorist attack?" Richard then spoke up. "Can you stop it?"

"Of course," Tony answered with full certainty in his voice. "But, just like Vic said, if Max gets wind of our knowing, he'll disappear…or worse, he'll set those bombs off before we have a chance to disarm them."

"Richard, we need you to _not_ tell _anyone_. Can you do that?" Pepper then requested of the man.

"I don't like the idea of the public being in danger, but if you can assure me that it will be handled, then yes, I'll keep my mouth shut," he told everyone.

"The bombs will be disarmed by lunchtime today," Tony then assured him.

Tony, Clint, and Tasha then escorted Richard up to Tony's workroom, probably to get more information about how Vic had contacted him, while he looked over at the guys. Steve was sitting on the couch still, but Bucky had moved over to the window, staring down at the city. Vic had definitely called it when she said they would not be happy. They both looked ready to kill something.

And as of tomorrow after lunch, they would be getting their chance.

* * *

All Steve could do was glower at the message in his hand. He had read it three times now, and it never got any easier. Victoria was essentially gone. To make sure that a lot of people, as well as he, Bucky, and Wade, were safe. Wade had been right…that's exactly what she would agree to.

But why did she have to, he still wondered? Why would Zemo have taken her to begin with? What series of events had led to all of this happening?

Victoria explained that she was safe, but that they could not know where. Their agreement stipulated that she could not try to escape or contact anyone for help, and knowing how seriously Victoria took promises, he had no doubt that she would follow this request.

He was only slightly happy when they read that she was not locked in a cell, but had a real bedroom to stay in, knowing that they would fear about that. She had even joked that she had her own personal sauna. It seemed that Zemo, aside from kidnapping her, was treating Victoria much better than they both originally believed.

By the end of the letter she had told them she knew that they were angry, but that saving all of those lives was worth what she was having to do. Then she had pointed out that they _knew_ that it was the right call to make. Unfortunately, Steve _did_ agree with her…even if to do so broke him a bit inside. The worst was when she told them that she _hoped_ to eventually see them again.

Standing up, he walked over to where Bucky was standing next to the piano, looking out over the morning traffic below. He didn't bother talking. There was not much to say. Bucky then spoke after a few minutes.

"Vic was nice to him."

"What?" he asked, not understanding his line of thought.

"Maybe that's why he took her. She was nice and cordial to him. At Sin's castle, and even at the coffee shop. That night Vic spoke with him, she was trying to be sympathetic for what he went through," Bucky pointed out. "We were worried that she had somehow made him mad, like Rumlow, but what if it was the exact opposite. He's not treating her like a real prisoner, not by giving her a nice bedroom and sauna. There's something going on. Zemo could have taken her kindness to be some form of fondness from her, even if she wasn't his soulmate."

Taking his assumption, Steve began to apply it to what they had experienced and knew about Zemo. Victoria had talked with him, trying to point out the folly of his ways, she had tried to get him to feel bad about what was happening, and she had apologized about his family.

"There may be that possibility," he finally, reluctantly agreed. "But right now, we need to focus on the attack and the bombs."

There was no mistaking the heavy, angry tone, "If you _think_ that I'm…"

"Buck!" he practically yelled. "We are _Avengers_ , and we are going to do _our job_! No matter what _personal cost_ it may have! We are going to _defuse_ those bombs, we are going to _stop_ those HYDRA agents from killing everyone in this Tower, and we are going to _prevent_ Max Lohmer from _ever_ doing anything like this again!"

Bucky had narrowed his eyes and only glared at him as he spoke.

"And when we have done all of _that_ , _then_ we are going to find our Victoria and bring her _home_ ," he bluntly explained to him, which finally brought a small bit of a smile to Bucky's face. So he then finished with saying, "Besides, do you realize how _mad_ Victoria would be with us if we _didn't_ stop this attack from happening?"

"We'd _never_ hear the end of it," Bucky relented, then he gave a chuckle, saying in a funny voice to mock Victoria, " _No kisses for a year_!"

Smiling, Steve knew that was _exactly_ what Victoria would say to them.

Bucky then continued, "You know, that also happens to be the exact same reasoning that the team gave for heading to stop that terrorist group the day before Vic figured out where you were. They agreed that it would be what _you_ wanted."

"And they were _right_. _Just_ like I am _right_ about this," he pointed out with a smile, glad that the group had in fact stopped innocent people from getting hurt.

Turning around, he saw Clint and Pietro escorting Richard to the elevator. Tony must have gotten all that he could from him. He gave a smile as Richard handed Pietro a business card, remembering his comment about a job.

"Steve, there's something else," Bucky sounded a bit hesitant to speak.

"What?"

"When I first heard his name back on the Raft, I thought that it was just a coincidence. But now, I think that there is more to it. I know the name Lohmer," he told him.

"From where?" Steve asked.

"The HYDRA Austrian factory you got me out of after we were captured at Azzano," Bucky answered. He paused but Steve waited until he continued, "There was a Colonel Lohmer there. He was in charge of the facility…before the other prisoners, specifically the ones who would become the Commandos, took him out. For me."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I had contracted pneumonia after Azzano but Lohmer didn't care. After one particularly severe beating of me by his hands, the guys worked out a plan to kill him, preventing him from literally working me to death the next day."

"Why didn't you ever mention this before?" Steve wondered how none of the team he had spent a year with would not mention this.

"Because it wasn't but days after his death that I was transferred to Zola's section. It was one of his experimental injections that cured me of my injuries and the pneumonia," Bucky told him. "The guys had not expected me to live, so when you got us out, and I was 'fine', they knew that something had happened. They kept it quiet since even they didn't know what had really been done to me."

Steve felt his shoulders slump as he absorbed this new information. The Commandos may not have known _why_ Bucky had not died, but they had known _something_ was not right. Neither one of them had mentioned the experiments that Zola had performed on Bucky. The only other person who really knew had been Peggy, when she had questioned in for the report about what he had seen and worked on at the factory.

"I don't think that it is just a coincidence anymore that Max Lohmer has the same last name," Bucky said looking over at him. "Nothing in our lives is just a coincidence."

"You sound like a Hallmark card," Steve stated, earning him a simple punch to the shoulder. "Do you want to let the team know?"

"Do you think that it really matters seventy-something years later?" he asked.

"Maybe not," Steve sighed. "Let's go see what Tony has, then we will gather everyone, see about getting those bombs disarmed as quickly as possible, and formulate a plan for tomorrow."

As they walked to the workroom, Bucky joked, "I guess the one good thing is that Vic isn't here for us to worry about her getting hurt or killed, or at worst, trying to volunteer to fight. Can you imagine the tirade she would throw? "

Hearing that, Steve stopped in his tracks, getting Bucky's attention.

"Do you think _that_ may be _why_ Zemo took Victoria? To keep her from getting _hurt_?" he asked.

Bucky seemed to think about it for a few moments, "You think in his own twisted way, he was trying to prevent what happened to his wife from happening to Vic?"

"In a strange way, it _could_ make sense. If nothing else, he may feel a debt thanks to her stopping Rumlow from shooting him. Maybe with what he witness with Rumlow and Sin, plus with Victoria talking with him, being nice to him, it could have been enough to at least touch his conscious. Remember, he used to have a family. Victoria was only able to send that message because Zemo let her. She would want to know why she was taken, and if she found out about the attack, she may have been able to talk him into sending the warning by agreeing to stay with him."

"What about why she signed her letter the way she did: Rapunzel, as opposed to 'not Rapunzel'. We know that it would be something we recognize, like Virgin Church Mouse, but do you think that it mean something more? That she twisted her mantra to give us a clue?" Bucky brought up a couple of good points. "Steve…that may be what she was testing last night. She may be somewhere high, like a real tower."

"That does sound a bit like the type of bread crumb that she may have been able to leave for us," Steve smiled, knowing that Victoria may have agreed to stay, but didn't want them to give up looking.

They headed up the stairs to Tony's workroom where he and Nat were both working on different computers, with Wade off to the side hovering with a scowl on his face.

"Anything?" Bucky asked.

"No…not yet. Zemo covered his tracks pretty good. The email address that Vic used was only active the one time before being erased. It was set up using a hacked email account by an encrypted system," Tony told them.

"The line for the phone call was routed through no less than fifteen countries before just disappearing," Nat said. "I'm not even sure how he managed that yet."

"Can FRIDAY keep what you are working on going? We need to get everyone together in the war room and figure out what to do about those bombs and tomorrow's attack," he told them, getting a sharp eye from Wade. Steve knew that he was going to take the delay in finding Victoria about as well as Bucky had.

Nat looked over at Wade before answering, "Sure, come on Tony," and grabbing the man's arm as he started to argue as she forcibly dragged him from his own workroom and down the stairs.

"Why the _fuck_ are you _stopping_ them from finding _my girl_!?" the man then yelled at him once they were alone.

He noticed that Bucky actually took a few steps to the side, getting out of the line of fire, which he found slightly amusing.

"Victoria put her _freedom_ on the line to prevent tomorrow's attack from happening, and that is _exactly_ what we are going to do. We are _not_ going to stop looking for her, _ever_ , but we _need_ to solve the _immediate problem_."

"There is no telling what that asshole is _doing_ to her right now!" Wade yelled.

"We," indicating the scaredy-cat Bucky with his thumb, "believe that one possibility for Zemo taking Victoria was to _prevent her_ from getting hurt tomorrow."

Wade seemed to calm just a hair at hearing that. "He's trying to _protect_ her?"

"From the limited interactions they had, Victoria was always open, honest, and friendly with Zemo. She also stopped Rumlow from shooting him. If you take all of that into account, then yes. He _may_ be trying to protect her, to stop her from getting killed like his wife and family did."

"Fuck," the man who cared for Victoria as much as they did said, letting him know that Wade did see the strange logic in it.

"Vic would _never_ willing agree to stay with Zemo if he was hurting her, _or_ if she felt he would force himself on her," Bucky then pointed out. "Besides, if he does try anything, Vic will probably kick him in the balls."

"She _does_ like that move," Wade agreed with a nod. Giving a heavy sigh, he started to cross the room, saying, "Well, get your asses down to the war room with everyone else. We've got an attack to stop."

As they followed the man down the steps, Steve whispered, "Thanks for having my back from across the room."

"Listen, Punk. You're the one who keeps pointing out that you can take care of yourself now. I was just letting you…at a safe distance," Bucky commented with a grin, earning him a punch in the right shoulder. "Stop that."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...Recall the line where Richard asks Pietro if he was looking for a job? I have 25% of an idea for a short love story for him using this. But I'm not fully committed to working out the details and writing it. That is...unless I hear from some of you out there and tell me that you would be interested in it. I would even like to hear a few suggestions for date nights and scenes that you would like to see. That might be the motivation I need to get back to work on it. So let me hear what you think.


	104. Making A Friend

**New York City – Avengers Tower  
8:23 a.m. **

Fury had first been contacted a little while ago and told of the situation. He agreed to send the Helicarrier to the city, but it would take a few days since it was still in Argentina over Sin's castle. He was also going to contact the World Security Council and let them know about the situation and that the Avengers would be handling it.

Bucky watched on the large screen as Tony had FRIDAY mark off the detailed locations of the five bombs that they needed to disarm. All of them were in heavy civilian traffic sites, as well as being important locations for different reasons. Between everyone now sitting at the new larger conference table that they had to get, thanks to Vic smashing the last one, there would be at least two people for each bomb.

Clint and Wanda decided to head to the United Nations to disarm the one located under the building. Clint claimed that he knew of a passageway in that would not disrupt security or the members inside. He wondered why Clint always seemed to have secret passageways into buildings, but once again it was coming in useful.

Tony and Pepper, with her own suit, were going to the Stock Exchange to deal with that one. Tony had pointed out that he stood the most to lose if it went off, but then Pepper reminded him that it was _her_ company, which had gotten the only laugh at the serious discussion. Tony had then started to quote some cheesy movie lines from when a similar situation was shown, and he informed them to get Vic to show _Die Hard_ movies to them when she got back. It had actually brought a smile to his and Steve's face knowing that everyone knew that Vic would be returning.

Scott, Sam, and Pietro were going to Rockefeller Plaza to deal with another underground location. It had been placed under the building's outside wall next to the iconic plaza which would be filled with tourist. If they had calculated correctly, the placement of the bomb would be enough to start the collapse of the building onto its side, taking out other numerous nearby structures as it fell. With all the tourist, the two of them moving through the area together would not be spotted. Scott would be shrunk down and carried in unnoticed. That way, if they couldn't get to the access door, Scott could.

Natasha and Wade were heading to the Empire State Building. That bomb was located a couple of floors up and if it went off, also had the chance of possibly bringing the entire building down. Not only was it now a popular tourist location due to the architecture, there were numerous important businesses inside of it. It was inside of a storage room, only having minimal security for Nat to deal with.

The same could be said for the one that he and Steve were going to take care, practically across the street at the Chrysler Building. They had come into the city while it was being built and seen the construction crews crawling around it like ants, trying to outdo the guys working on the Empire State Building, rushing to be the tallest in New York. And it had…for eleven months.

For the five of them who were actively disarming the bomb (himself included), FRIDAY then displayed a virtual simulation of it over the war room table. Using the instructions provided by Vic and Zemo (whom he still wanted to inflict bodily harm to), they ran the steps that needed to be taken to safely deactivate them numerous times. Tony was putting together five devices that would also jam the frequency to set them off in case Max decided to move a day early. Each of them used the hologram to deactivate the device, giving them a bit of familiarity with it. By the time they were ready to move out, he felt confident that he and Steve would be successful.

"Do you think that there is a chance that Max will check on the devices before he strikes tomorrow?" Wanda then asked, bringing the table to a stop. They all seemed to consider her question carefully.

"Maybe," Natasha said, "But we have no other choice than to take them out now. We can't disarm them and leave them. He would just be able to reactive them."

"But if he spots them missing," Pietro said, "he may either attack earlier or change his plans altogether."

The rest of the group then seemed to all quietly glance over at the Punk, who was still thinking it over. Would they be so confident in him if he told them about how he used to go to the movies to watch himself on screen in those horrible propaganda films? But it was nice to see that Steve had finally become the respected leader and hero that he knew had been hidden behind a brave ninety-five pound weakling. Steve leaned back in his chair, tapping his fingers on the tabletop as he considered his answer.

"It's a risk we are going to have to take. If he's been in town planning this, hopefully he's already had his agents check on them and will expect them to work when he needs them to," Steve finally told the group. "If just one of these bombs go off, Max will know something is wrong. He may set the others off at that time. Keep a safe distance until the previous group has disarmed the bomb before moving into the location. That way, if there is an incident, the entire team will not be taken out. As long as everything goes as planned, and I expect it to, then we will meet back here after lunch to discuss the Tower invasion, so keep focus on the task at hand."

As the group started to split up to head out, he heard the sound of Tony whistling the song _Star Spangled Man with a Plan_ from Steve's on-stage days. He heard the groan from his right side.

Everyone was going in quietly to the different locations, but Tony and Pepper were going to have a harder time with their suits. Tony had insisted that at least Pepper wear hers…just in case. The compromise was that their suits would be located in the SUV they were using to get to Wall Street discreetly. Being so close, he and Steve had already agreed to just walk to the location.

There was no way that any of them were going in unarmed in case the bombs were guarded but hopefully Max had not gone that far. Tony had pointed out that Max would probably prefer the manpower for the frontal assault. Steve wanted to take his shield, but there was no way to get it into the building without being noticed. So instead, they were both having to go with specialty weapons that any metal detectors would not pick up. Luckily some of the group would not have that problem. For everyone else, there was a collection of ceramic blades as well as polymer Glocks, thanks to him and Nat.

Scott was able to go with his full suit, while Wanda and Pietro's abilities were not noticeable. Clint could take a gun, as well as Tony, Clint, and Wade. Pepper had not really trained and refused anything beyond her suit. He and Steve loaded a pair of guns each, as well a few stashed knives. Earcoms were to be put into place and activated before anyone left the Tower on an open channel at all times until everyone made it back.

"You seemed to be fairly well versed with the information that FRIDAY was giving concerning the bomb," Steve casually said as they headed down the hall towards the prep room.

"Yeah," he simply said, but the Punk turned his head to look at him, so he may as well tell him. "I've placed a few bombs myself."

"Any as high-tech as these are?" he asked.

"No, but the idea behind them stays the same. Don't worry, I can handle it, old man," he grinned.

"You're the one who is one year, three months, twenty-four days older than me," Steve threw out at him, earning him a punch in the shoulder. "Stop that."

"Steve," he stopped in the hallway so his soulmate did also, letting the rest of the group move on ahead without them, "should we split up?"

The question earned him a curious look, but he was almost worried about speaking his fear aloud.

"That way, in case I do mess up, then at least you will be here for Vic."

Steve looked over at him, placing his hand on his shoulder, then saying, "'Till the end of the line…"

Bucky knew that he could not hide the expression of content happiness that came over him at hearing that before Steve continued...

"…Just make sure that _this_ isn't it."

"Punk."

* * *

**Romania  
After lunchtime on Wednesday**

Vic sat back in the chair in the communications room in one of the lower rooms of the castle after Helmut had disconnected her call from Richard. At least she knew that he understood the severity of the situation and would make sure that her warriors got the letters. It had taken about three drafts before she had been happy with the one for her warriors. She knew what they needed to hear, and pointing out that this was the right call. She remembered hearing about the conversation that the group had while Steve was missing. Hopefully, the same logic would work on the three of them. The group would do its job. And she unfortunately was sure Wade would help.

They had finalized their agreement over lunch, with her being able to also send the two different letters to Wade and her warriors. Helmut had been reluctant at first, but then she pointed out that they would basically be 'Dear John' letters in a way. Hearing that, he considered it for only a few moments before finally relenting.

Helmut had carefully inspected all three letters, checking for any type of hints as to her location or any other clues. She had explained all three signature lines for the different letters. The only one slightly changed was Rapunzel. She said that it became a nickname for her because they lived in a Tower, not telling him about how it was actually used, but considering where she now lived, it was an appropriate signature. But he seemed happy with the explanation and allowed it. Vic knew that no matter what, they would keep looking for her.

"Are you satisfied that I have upheld my end of our agreement?" Helmut asked her as he began to lock-down the computers he had used to send the message and scramble her call.

"Yes. Richard read what was going to happen, and he will make sure they all know," she told him, spinning in the office chair to look at Sentry near the doorway. Nodding with her head towards him, "What's his story?"

Helmut finished what he was doing and saw where she was looking at the robot.

"He was one of the Ultron Sentries at the battle. He was severely damaged and inoperable. Using some of the spare parts scattered around from other destroyed machines, I was able to reconstruct him. Ultron must have implanted enough of an AI into his creations so they could take orders without him having to always be actively controlling them. I was able to access his programming and reconfigure it to obey me."

"Why does he…it…call you the Baron?" she asked.

"It is a play on the word. One of my ancestors was a baron. The word baron comes from the Latin word…" he started

"Baro, meaning mercenary or soldier," she finished for him, receiving the strange look she had expected. " _Yes_ …I speak Latin."

"Really? How remarkable," he said giving an amused smile. "So, I used the word for my designation."

"Is there any of Ultron left in there?" she asked hoping that the group had gotten all of him.

"No. None that I was able to find."

"Was my bedroom supposed to have been Sin and Rumlow's?" she then decided to ask.

"Yes. Max was sent here to prepare the castle to be used as their European base. It used to be one of her father's bases, from my understanding. This location has been locked and unused for quite some time. Max was overseeing the final completion of setup when he learned about her death."

"So, Chucky and Tiffany never had sex in my bed?"

Helmut started to laugh at that before finally admitting, "No, fraulein. They never came here."

"Good, because I would hate to have to toss it off of the balcony and sleep on the floor," she stated seriously, spinning around in the chair as she stared at the stone ceiling.

"I tried to make sure that the room had everything you required for your stay," he said.

"Like the solid steel bars," she snidely remarked.

"An unfortunate necessity," he said standing up, so she knew he probably wanted to get her away from the computers now, agreement or not.

They walked out of the room lower in the castle that Max had set up as the communication's area, heading to the stone steps leading back up to the hallway under the gallery. There were other doors down here but she figured that if Helmut wanted to let her know what was behind them, that he would tell her. Since this was her new home, she would ask him about them later.

Earlier, she had not paid attention when she left the kitchen, being so focused on talking with Helmut, that she didn't even notice the large arched hallway opposite of the fireplace under the gallery she had first come to. From it, she could see the front of the castle, leading to the bailey. Unfortunately, as she had glanced out of the glass windows she saw that the portcullis was down, preventing access the road on the other side. Off of the arched hallway, there were a couple of doors, one which led to the lower level. The other doors were closed, so she did not know they purpose, but Helmut knew enough to take her right to the computers. He seemed to have adopted the castle as his own, which made her curious about something.

"What were you planing to do when Max came back here?" she asked him as they reached the great hall.

"Max considers this attack a suicide mission. He never planned on coming back," Helmut told her as they stopped in the open area.

"Hopefully, it really is now," she joked but hoping that none of her friends got hurt trying to make her comment a reality. "So, now what?"

"Is there anywhere you would like to go?" Helmut then asked her.

"Home…" she slowly answered, not understanding why he would be asking that question.

"No, fraulein. Is there somewhere here in Europe you would like to visit?" he then clarified.

"You mean like a tourist attraction?" she asked.

"Yes. Or there is a lovely village down the mountain that we can drive to. We can tour it and have dinner there. Since you mentioned that you have no passport, am I to assume that your soulmates have never brought you to Europe on vacation?" he asked, leaning back on the large wooden table.

"No. Any vacation we take, I have to plan around them working. But when they have time, we like to go camping, or to the beach, and ride our motorcycles together," she told him.

"It is most unfortunate that you have not traveled more," Helmut commented.

"Yeah, well, it's all HYDRA's fault," she huffed. "You would seriously take me sightseeing? Wouldn't you be afraid of me escaping?"

"Even with our agreement, I have devices that would ensure that you do not," he smiled at her. Even though she had not seen it yet, she recalled the collar from the other castle.

Walking around the table to stand in front of the fire that needed more wood, she wondered how to handle this. Helmut had some strange fixation with her (great, a possible real stalker), but she needed to be careful. She needed him to start seeing her differently, not however it was that he now saw her, but as more of a normal friend, like how the guys from the Tower saw her. Then she may be able to get home.

Turning around to face him, she decided to just be very blunt with him.

"No matter what my letter said, you understand that Wade, Steve, and Bucky will never stop looking for me, right?" she asked him. She saw the dark look slightly cross his face at hearing that, not a good sign.

"Yes, fraulein," he coldly said.

"And to get this straight and out of the way…there is no way that I am going to fall in love with you, if that is what you think will happen by keeping me here in this twisted _Beauty and the Beast_ scenario. I was put here for Steve and Bucky, not you. I may have agreed to stay, but I am here for the lives of my friends and family," she informed him. "I _can_ be _your_ friend, but _never_ expect anything _more_ than that. Do you understand?"

Helmut stared over the table at where she was standing, and she could not decipher the expressions that crossed his face. They were not all exactly angry…maybe some disappointment at hearing her words. Had he truly expected her to begin to care about her after a bit of time?

"With all of the guys that I'm friends with, we hang out and do stuff. With Clint, it's construction. With Sam, it talking and playing jazz music. With Tony, it's car repairs...well, he brakes the cars and I fix them would be more accurate. But _none_ of the guys expect anything more, and _neither_ should you."

Helmut seemed to finally be slightly less gloomy after hearing that. She would just have to wait and see if that helped.

"So, then. Since I've only been in one castle previously for a short time, and this one is now my home, how about a tour?" she asked, getting a smile from Helmut.

"We can do that," he said as he began to lead her back towards the large wooden doors under the gallery.

It took about an hour for them to walk around the entire place, as Sentry quietly followed behind like the guard dog he was for her. Helmut allowed her, for the most part, free reign of the areas, dictating where she wanted to see as long as it was inside the castle walls. As they walked around the top of the curtain walls where the castle met ground, Vic realized that the front portcullis was the only way to get out of here on foot. Everywhere else she saw was too high for anyone to deal with without being able to fly. She told Helmut that Sam would probably love to fly around this area.

The bailey was fairly large, especially considering that the areas of it that was supposed to be a vegetable and flower garden had been neglected and were just dirt. It was there that the Viperjet Helmut had told her he had used to get them here was parked, with plenty of remaining space.

Upstairs back in the hallway where her room was, she found that Helmut had taken a room at the opposite end of the hallway from her own, closest to the upper gallery. He admitted that he had heard her this morning when she had woken up, but had headed down to cook breakfast before talking with her, hoping that feeding her would soften the blow of her predicament.

But when they went back to the lower levels set up for working and sleeping in, it was there that she found an interesting room. There was a gym set up for the HYDRA agents who lived here to use. Seeing the heavy punching bag and other equipment she normally used, she informed Helmut that 'it was time to exercise', and without even waiting for him to respond, Vic went to change clothes into some she remembered seeing in the wardrobe. When she got back to the lower level a few minutes later, with Sentry following like a good boy, she found Helmut working at a desk on his computer.

Coming to a stop next to him, she put her hands on her hips and glared at him until he pulled his attention away from the computer screen.

"You are not going to spend the rest of the day goofing off on the computer while I go stir crazy so you are coming to the gym with me," she then informed him. He looked like he was about to complain, so she just told him, "So go get changed...now!"

He stood up looking as if he wanted to complain but instead, he informed Sentry to prevent her from leaving the gym until he returned.

By the time that Helmut had gotten back, she had figured out the strange radio that was in the gym, going through the list of songs that were already on it. When she first found them, Vic found that massive amount of metal music a bit odd, then she remembered Steve, Clint, and Tony telling about how they were forced to listen to it instead of being allowed to sleep. Vic wondered if she should be worried that she already owned most of those songs for fun…

"So, what type of exercise do you normally do?" she asked Helmut as she finished putting together a new playlist.

"I have no regular workout that I follow," he told her, coming over to inspect what she was doing. He seemed satisfied that she was only allowed to access purchased music, or get new songs, since he did not stop her from messing with the dock and device.

"Then you'll use mine," she informed him, heading over to the shelves and grabbing two sets of gloves, tossing one to him, with a smile as thumping bass drums started to pound. "Wade made it up for me."

Three hours later, Helmut was panting heavily while sitting on the weight bench, his bottle of water empty for the fifth time as she kept pushing him to keep up with her. He had followed her around the gym like it was a game of Horse. Every repetition that she did on a machine, he would do. But when she had moved over to the stationary bikes, Vic knew that was when she had won.

"No more," he told her after she informed him that he needed to get back onto the workout bike.

"You've barely gone ten miles," Vic pointed out looking over at his bike's mile counter.

"That was nine more than I should have," he told her as she kept going while taking a drink from her bottle.

"How did you lead EKO Scorpion if you can't even bike fifty miles?" she seriously asked.

"Fifty!?"

"Yeah, that's about how many I used to do every day when I worked for Richard as a bike messenger."

Helmut then shook his head, looking defeated.

"Ready to send me home yet?"

Helmut then raised his head, staring at her as he tried to find out if she was serious, which she partially was, but she only smiled at him. She knew it would take more than three hours to break him.

"No, fraulein," he said standing and heading back over to the bike.

Getting on, she saw he was determined to not let her get the best of him.

* * *

**Romania  
Evening Dinnertime - Wednesday**

Helmut sat his aching body on a stool at the workbench in the kitchen while watching the strange female, who was still technically his prisoner, scurrying around as _she cooked_ the two of them dinner. How she was still moving at all was a wonder to him. He had finally conceded on the bike at thirty miles, resting against a nearby wall as Victoria continued on until she hit fifty miles.

While she worked out, they had continued to talk. She asked him about Heike and about how they had met, Carl's hobbies, what his father had done...learning all about his family. It had not taken too long for him to realize that she was making him remember the good times they'd had together.

Eventually, he had begun to ask about her own soulmates. Beyond what he knew from publicity, he had not much cared to find out about them personally. Rumlow would sometimes speak of the time that he worked with the Captain at SHIELD, but after only a few stories, he saw that those times were slanted from what Victoria told him. And he believed her to be telling the truth more that Rumlow had been. He then asked how they had all met.

"A strip club?" he asked not sure he had heard her correctly.

"Yeah. I've worked as a waitress and bouncer in strip clubs since I was twenty," she told him as she still peddled on the bike. "If I'd never met Wade, then I may never have worked in that one that they walked into. I was five days away from leaving New York City permanently to get away from the coming snow."

"And now, I _have_ taken you away from the city…and them."

"Don't worry…you'll come to your senses," she grinned at him as she continued to peddle, to which he gave a slight chuckle. She was very amusing.

Now, the aroma filling the air reminded him so much of home. Heike would be cooking in the kitchen as he helped Carl with his homework. His father like to work outside in the garden, weather permitting. But thinking of them now, he realized that after spending the past few hours talking with Victoria, he didn't seem as angry as he usually did.

Victoria did not even seem mad at him anymore for stealing her away. Unless you count the torturous workout she had subjected him to.

"Alright, get plates and silverware," she instructed him, so much like how Heike used to do to him. Getting up, he got what they would need from the cabinets and drawers.

Bringing them over to where she was working, he looked into the Dutch oven and realized what she had made.

"Chicken Paprikash?" he asked, not quite believing his eyes.

"Yeah, I got the recipe from Wanda after she made it at Thanksgiving. The guys don't like that much paprika but I do, and I figured you probably would too," she told him, putting some onto their plates. "I have kaiserschmarren for dessert, which reminds me, get the raspberry jam to go with it."

Now he could only stare at the female, really not understanding her motives for creating such a meal.

"Why?"

"To ' _smear'_ on it," she pointed out as if he had never had it before, continuing to work.

"No…why would you make any of this?"

"Because it's dinner time," she answered, shaking her head at his question as if it was silly.

"But I kidnapped you, and you are making me a dinner and dessert I haven't had since Heike…"

When he couldn't finish his sentence, Victoria stopped what she was doing, putting the serving spoon into the pot. Using the dishtowel, she wiped her hands as she looked at him before tossing it over her shoulder. Heike used to do that sometimes.

"Rumlow and Sin were evil. Max is evil…but for only a few more hours. _You_ were just misguided. And a bit lonely," she told him with without any malice in her voice at all. "I told you earlier that I would be your friend. And after you realize that, you will do what needs to be done."

"Letting you go free."

"Letting me go _home_. Granted, I would much prefer to be at the Tower to help take Max out…"

"No!" he informed her with certainty. "That much I will _not_ compromise on! Your safety is my main priority. With Max out of the way and after some time has passed, I _may_ consider re-evaluating the length of your stay in relation to my condition."

Victoria then gave him a smile as she picked up their fixed plates to take them into the great hall to eat in front of the fireplace. As she turned and used her foot to push the swinging door open, she humorously asked, "Getting sick of me already?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kaiserschmarren - a sweet shredded pancake that is served with a sauce (applesauce, jams, etc.) that is then 'smeared' on it (hence part of its name).


	105. Waiting For A Boom

**New York City**  
**Wednesday -** **Late Morning**

Clint took the lead as Wanda followed behind him into the winding tunnels underneath of the U.N. building. There were no lights for them to use, so Wanda was using her magic to spread tendrils across the low roof. Everything he saw had a spooky red glow to it, but overall it was working out nicely. Wanda was able to spread it ahead of them, allowing them to be prepared for when the tunnel split into multiple directions.

"Why do you know of so many tunnels into places?" she asked him as they slowly moved forward, following the directions given to them by Vic and Zemo.

"Working for SHIELD with what I used to do, I would have to follow spies and assassins to take them out. There were numerous times that I followed them into tunnels and passageways," he told her.

"Like Natasha?"

"Yes."

"So, why do you know of the tunnels under Stark's Tower?" she then asked him.

Turning his head just enough so that Wanda could just make out his face, with a cheeky smile he answered, "That's classified."

" _What do you mean ' **classified** '_?" Tony bellowed through the earcoms.

"I'm going to get you a dictionary for your birthday," he responded, taking the right tunnel that they had been approaching.

" _Exactly how **many** secret entrances do you know into my Tower_?" Tony then asked him.

"Zzsht, buzsshh…I'm sorry, I couldn't hear your question," Clint responded by making static noises with his mouth.

" _Alright, people, can we **please** all concentrate on our assignments_?" Steve's voice then sounded in their ears.

" _Fine, but we are going to have a serious discussion at some point in the future, Mole Man_ ," Tony told him before going quiet.

After three minutes and two more tunnel splits, Clint's Stark Pad indicated they were now feet away from the device. He motioned for Wanda to hold as he began to search the immediate area around and leading up to the bomb for any type of trap to set it off if someone got too close. When he was done and satisfied with what he had spotted, as well as not found, he motioned for Wanda to join him.

Sitting on a small concrete ledge was the large toolbox that Zemo's instructions stated the devices were placed inside of for easy carrying. Pulling out the dampening controller Tony had quickly made up for each team, now that they were in range he activated it, neutralizing the frequency that would set it off by Max's remote.

"Alright, Wanda and I have made it to the device," he told the group. "At our location, there are no booby traps to set it off, but you may want to check your locations to be on the safe side. But I did find very recent footprints in the layer of dirt on the tunnel floor as well as very old ones. I would say they were left within the past three to five days. They stop at the bombs location and then head back the way they came, so I would take it to mean that someone from Max's group has already check on the bombs."

" _That's good to know_ ," Natasha told them from wherever she and Wade were holding until his device was deactivated. " _Hopefully they won't be back_."

"I'm going to double check the layout on the device before I start any disarming," Clint informed them, pulling out a specialty arrow and lighting up the end of it where the LED bulbs were attached. He may not be able to carry around a flaming arrow, but this was his modern day take on it. He passed it over to Wanda to hold it up for him.

Carefully, after double checking for a secret trigger, he unlatched the lid and slowly opened the toolbox, stopping after only a few inches when he realized what was inside.

"Um…guys? There is the possibility, in all likelihood, but I'm not sure, that by chance we _may_ have a problem," he told the group as he and Wanda looked inside.

" _Thanks for being **so** clear_," Tony sarcastically commented.

"We never took into account _what_ the explosive material was," Clint said looking back at Wanda to see if she recognized the item, and by the look on her face, she did.

" _What do you have_?" Steve asked.

"They are comprised of Tesseract energy," he solemnly told them.

" _What? How? Are you sure_?" were just some of the questions thrown at him.

"Yes, I'm sure since I was there when Loki used the Tesseract to open his portal. Besides, how many other glowing blue power sources have we run across?" he asked them, studying the item more closely now. The diagram had only shown the location of the detonation material, not what it was.

" _Tony, does this change anything concerning the deactivation instructions_?" Steve asked.

They could hear Tony mumbling to himself as well as him tapping away on probably his pad, checking the information over.

After a minute, he answered, "No. From what FRIDAY and I worked on, the material should be stabilized and harmless as long as the instructions are followed."

" _Alright then_ ," Steve answered, " _Clint, as long as you and Wanda are in agreement, we will follow the plan and let the two of you go first. Wanda, this may change your part of the mission. We all know the power of the Tesseract. If it goes off, we know that there would be no way for you to contain it like we had hoped earlier believing it was a different material_."

"I understand," Wanda answered.

" _If you want to move back to a safe distance, we will agree with your decision_ ," Steve told her, giving Wanda a way to keep herself alive in case it went off.

"Go," he told her, agreeing with Cap.

"No, I will stay with Clint," she informed the rest of the group.

"Are you sure?" he asked wishing that he could actually order her to go.

"I am sure. I am an Avenger, after all," she smiled at him, making him feel a bit better and proud of her. "So how about you do not mess up?"

"Alright then. I'm going to double check its layout," he informed the rest of the team, each waiting with a lot more apprehension than they had been.

The next few minutes, Clint made sure that the bombs matched the design given by Zemo for them, without actually touching it. "Everything seems to match the diagram we were sent. Wanda go ahead and put up a field around me and the bomb. It can't hurt to at least try to contain it just in case."

Wanda secured the light arrow to an overhead pipe then waved her arms in large circles and Clint watched as his immediate area was surrounded by her red magic.

"FRIDAY, I need you to start listing off the steps so that I don't miss anything," he said looking the device over again, hoping that Zemo had not actually set them up without Vic knowing.

For the next three minutes, Clint worked on following the procedural steps as FRIDAY listed them out one at a time. Through the earcom, he could hear multiple teammates breathing, but not speaking even to each other where they would interrupt him. He carefully made sure to keep examining the bomb for any subtle changes that may not have been on the diagram, but as he continued to work, there was nothing out of place. Reaching the final step, the device's detonation hardware went dark as it was shut off and disarmed.

"Guys, I'm done."

" _We take it by the sound of your tremulous voice that everything went ok_?" Tony asked.

"Yes," he told them, starting to gather the few separated pieces into his bag. "Check your own devices to make sure but it looks like the intel was good."

* * *

Steve looked over at Bucky as they stood just outside of the Chrysler Building, trying to casually look like tourist. Of course Bucky looked a lot calmer than Steve knew that he felt. They had both been thinking of Victoria between conversations of their current mission. He really hoped that their assumptions about why Zemo had taken her were correct and that had not somehow missed information that would reveal any type of harmful intention from him directed at her.

Now, Clint was speaking over the earcom, letting them know that everything had gone perfectly on his end.

"Alright, Bucky and I are heading up now," he told them, as they both left their spots and headed for the lobby.

Getting into the elevator, they headed up to the 57th floor where their device was located. As they rode up, Steve wished that there was some way to get all of the people out of the building but an evacuation of any major building nowadays was considered major news and would be all over the television in a matter of minutes. He noticed that Bucky seemed to also be examining the unsuspecting people in the art-deco box.

Stepping out onto the floor, they followed the directions given to the men's bathroom on the level. Pushing open the door, they luckily found it empty for the moment, giving them time to find what they needed to. Heading to the third stall, Bucky pushed open the door and they were able to spot the air conditioner return vent located up the wall about eight feet from the floor. He then pulled out the jamming device, activating it.

"Steve, go out to the janitor's closet and see if they have any signs saying 'restroom closed for cleaning'," Bucky requested as he looked up at the four screws holding the panel on that he would have to remove. "That will give us a few minutes of privacy to disarm it."

"Sure thing," he said heading back out of the door to where they had seen the sign on the closet door. Twisting the handle, he found that it was locked. Looking around to make sure nobody was watching, he gave a hard turn, breaking the inner workings so that it now opened for him. Grabbing up the tall yellow sign, he returned with it, placing it right outside of the door. Hopefully, nobody would only take it as a suggestion and not obey it.

Bucky removed the small tool kit that everyone had been furnished with and found what he would need to remove the panel. A few minutes later, Steve was holding the grill while Bucky, standing on the toilet seat, carefully examine the area inside of the vent shaft for the toolbox with the bomb in it.

"Got it," he said taking a few extra moments before sliding it slowly to the opening where he would be able to remove it. Lifting it up, Bucky, who was standing on the toilet's seat to be able to reach the vent, carefully turned just enough so that he could pass it down to him. Steve accepted the delicate case, stepping backwards into the openness of the bathroom between the stalls and sinks. As Bucky hopped down to the floor, he turned around and took the last few steps over to the counter where the sinks were located.

"Careful, Punk," he heard from behind him, as if he needed reminding.

Bucky then quickly replaced the grate and screws, leaving no trace they had opened it.

"I think I have it, Jerk," he answered him, as he put the toolbox on a larger open space between two sinks before moving back so that Bucky had plenty of room to work with. "I'll stay over near the door to keep anyone out that can't read."

For the next few minutes, he watched as Bucky examined the box for traps, lifted the lid to allow the glowing blue light to escape before finally starting the procedure of deactivation. Watching him skillfully work on the bomb, Steve knew that most, if not all, of this training had been at the hands of HYDRA. He knew that some of the assassinations that Bucky had made were not a simple bullet. What would Zola think of Bucky now using his expertise to help finalize the take-down of HYDRA?

"Alright," Bucky said as the control panel turned off, "That's it. It's deactivated."

" _We are moving to ours then, Runts_ ," Wade voice sounded over the earcom.

Bucky closed the lid, locking it down before reaching up to his earcom. He then signed to Steve to go to private mode, so he reached up and hit his to mute his earpiece also.

"What is it?" Steve asked as Bucky stared at the toolbox.

"I recognize the energy source. This energy cell design was one of the items that we made at the factory," he told him. "They had been working on these for some time before our group even got there. There is no way to know how many were made or where they were shipped to afterwards."

"Red Skull must have either had a stash somewhere that Sin knew about, or she got some for herself back then, taking them with her to Argentina," Steve worked out.

"Probably. Fury would have told us if they had found more, right?" Bucky asked him, which made Steve give a slight chuckle.

"There's no telling with Fury, but we can always ask Natasha. I'd probably trust her answer a bit more than Fury's."

" _Great_ ," Bucky sarcastically answered, picking up the toolbox. "I think that the team deserves to know how Sin may have gotten her hands on these. They are going to be wondering, if they already aren't."

"I have a feeling that once we meet back up at the Tower, it would be the first topic of choice," he said grabbing up the janitorial sign as they passed it. Heading to the elevator, he tossed it back inside of the closet. "Are you alright with them knowing about this part of your past?"

"Yeah. This is from when I was just Bucky."

"You will always be 'just Bucky'," he pointed out to him, "no matter what has happened to you."

" _Now_ who sounds like a Hallmark card," Bucky taunted him, almost earning him a punch before Steve thought better of it since Bucky _was_ carrying a bomb.

* * *

Nat looked over at Wade, knowing that they were the next ones to begin disarming their bomb. She had already told Wade, off of comms, that she wanted him to stay outside, just in case, but Wade only smiled at her. Now, they were walking into the Empire State Building, heading up to the 24th floor.

Stepping out of the elevator, they headed over down the hallway towards where the mechanical room was located stuck between two large occupied suites full of unaware workers. Taking out her lock pick, she had the door open in less than ten seconds. She may have to sic Happy on the security for the building since she had probably just done exactly what HYDRA had done.

Opening the door, they both quickly disappeared inside.

Turning on the overhead fluorescent lights, they looked around the junction boxes containing phone, cable, cat-5, electrical, and other wiring running between offices and floors. Wade pulled out the jamming device, activating it. Searching the room, it only took moments to spot the toolbox shoved in a corner underneath of a pile of broken electrical face-plates that somebody had not bothered to throw away.

"Last chance," she said moving the cardboard box and picking up the toolbox.

"You are adorable," Wade told her as she placed the device in the center of the only open floor area to work in.

" _I'm pretty sure that if anyone else called Nat adorable, they would find themselves with a black eye_ ," Tony's voice came over the earcom.

"Nope, just you, Shellhead," Nat smiled up at Wade, before pulling out the tool kit she had brought with her.

" _So I'm the lucky one_ ," Tony quipped.

"Care to leave my other girl alone so she can do her fucking job?" Wade then reprimanded him but giving Nat a smile at messing with Tony.

" _Yes, Sir_."

There were numerous giggles over the earcom.

When she opened the lid, she heard Wade exclaim, "Holy fuck," at seeing the power from the Tesseract for the first time. Unfortunately Nat vividly remembered the past couple of times she'd had to deal with it and the other infinity stones: Stark's roof, Loki's scepter, Ultron. Hopefully this time would be much more underwhelming.

"I'm starting," she told everyone listening in.

For the next few minutes, everything went just as planned. Following the instruction, she had the device disarmed without anything going wrong. Exactly what she had hoped for.

"Hey, Tic-tac, your go," she told Scott.

" _Aww, man. Did you tell everyone_?" Scott's voice came over.

" _Not everyone_ ," Sam said, making her a bit curious about the comment. She may just have a new piece of information to get out of Sam later…slightly painfully if necessary.

Closing down the lid, she was about to pick it up when Wade stopped her.

"I'll get it, darlin'," he told her grabbing onto the handle.

"Are you sure? If we run into any bad guys…"

"You could take them out easier and quicker than I could," he admitted to her, bringing a smile to her face. They had tried facing off one time on the training room floor, and when Wade had figured out that she was holding back, he had yelled at her. So, she informed him to be prepared and eight seconds later, she had him down and pinned while he laughed his head off.

"Let's get out of here," she told him, giving him a simple peck on the cheek since they were technically still in the middle of a mission. "We still have an invasion to stop."

"Looking forward to it, Camellia," he told her as she opened the door, checked the hallway to make sure it was clear and then led the way to the bank of elevators.

* * *

"You expect us to believe that crazy story?" Sam asked Scott as he and Pietro walked towards Rockefeller Plaza's lower concourse.

"It's true, all of it," Scott answered from Sam's shirt pocket, talking into his earcom.

" _Sure_ , we _believe_ you," Pietro sarcastically replied as they walked down the steps.

Both of them were noticing how crowded it seemed today for some reason. Maybe this is how it was every day, but knowing what could possibly happen, they were counting the number of civilian casualties as they moved through the numerous tourist looking upwards at the monolithic building.

"Honest, look up the picture online. It's not fake I tell you," Scott continued to defend his story of a huge Thomas the Tank Engine toy bursting through the front of a house and landing on top of a cop car. "We fought on a wooden toy train track!"

"So _he_ fought someone the size of an ant to become an Avenger, yet I had to take on _Ultron's army_ _and_ get shot up by a _Quinjet_ to join? How _exactly_ is that fair?" Pietro smiled as they headed down the corridor towards the underground escalators where the device they were looking for should be.

"Trust me, it was a _great_ fight. At one point we were even in a briefcase falling out of a helicopter," Scott told them.

" _ **Now** you are just being **silly**_ ," Clint chimed in through the earcom.

"Aww, come one. Seriously, I'm telling the _truth_ ," he continued to whine.

Arriving at the sloped ceiling underneath the moving escalators, they saw the maintenance access door where the map had indicated the bomb had been stored. Placing his hand into the pocket, Sam felt the slight tickling movement of Scott stepping into his offered palm. Carefully, he moved his hand so that Scott would be able to make it over to the locked door.

"Alright, I'm inside. Give me a moment to unlock the door," Scott told them.

Hearing the clicking sound, Sam waited for the signal that Scott was clear and they could get inside.

"Now."

Turning the handle, he and Pietro stepped inside the small work-space and closed the door behind them. Hopefully, two grown men disappearing into the small room would not raise an alarm.

"Let's do this," Scott's voice could be heard over the earcoms, as Sam reached up and turned on the overhead light. The area was carved into the floor, giving access to the area under the escalator to be able to work on it. In the 'pit' was where he spotted the bomb's box. Suddenly, Scott was crouching right in front of it.

"A little warning," Pietro requested.

"What do you think ' _let's do this_ ' means? Is it different in Sokovian?" Scott asked clicking open his face-mask.

" _Guys, think you can goof off later_ ," Tony requested.

"Alright, who are you and what did you do with the real Tony Stark?" Sam questioned with a smile on his face, receiving two matching ones from his teammates.

" _Very funny, Donald Duck_ ," Tony snarked at him.

"Wow, is it supposed to glow like that?" Scott asked as he looked inside of the box.

"Yes," Pietro answered, "That looks just like the staff that Strucker had."

"I've never seen anything like it," Scott said looking the device over. "Where did it come from?"

" _We'll discuss that when we are back at the Tower_ ," Steve's voice then chimed in. " _Let's get the last two disarmed, please_."

"Yes, sir, Captain America, sir," Scott responded as he pulled out the jamming device and tool kit.

Pietro kept slightly bouncing as he waited for Scott to finish disarming the device, while he kept glancing at the door. Even though FRIDAY had taken the security cameras and put them on a loop, he had noticed that there were a lot of pedestrians in the area so there was a good possibility of having been seen. Taking them out would definitely have raised an alarm. Their location was actually the most publicly located one. All of the others were hidden in more solitary areas that had a lot less foot traffic.

"Done," Scott announced a few minutes later. Closing the lid, he then picked it up and held it out for either one of them to take, which Sam did.

"We're going to head back to the Tower now," he spoke into the earcom.

" _Pepper and I are heading in now_ ," Tony informed them.

Scott shrunk back down and Sam watched as he ran up his arm to the shirt pocket, mumbling praises at himself for a good job. Once he was inside, Pietro gave a nod before opening up the work area door…and then slamming it shut very quickly.

"There _may_ be a _slight_ problem," he turned to tell him.

"About how _many_ problems are there?" Sam asked adjusting the handle to the box.

"Roughly four," he said as…

"Come out with your hands up…" was heard from the other side of the door.

" _Do you have a problem_?" Steve then asked.

"Nothing I can't handle," Pietro supplied with a smile.

"Handle?" Sam asked.

The next thing that he knew, Sam was standing in an alleyway about half a block from where he had been a moment ago. Glancing around, he saw that nobody was in the immediate vicinity and he still held the bomb in his hand. Pietro had carried him, the bomb, and by proxy, Scott out of the area without them begin technically caught, spotted, or even identified.

"So, how do we get out of here?" Scott then asked from his pocket, not realizing that they already had. "Guys?"

* * *

"Maybe I should have come here alone," Pepper told Tony as she and him walked up the steps into the New York Stock Exchange Building.

"Don't want to be seen with me in public?" Tony asked sounding offended and put his hand to his chest.

"No. I'm more worried that you'll cause a scene and our stocks will plummet," she sincerely smiled at him.

"I can't believe that you would think…" was all he managed to say before the look she gave Tony made him stop talking. "Fine. But I would _never_ let you handle something like this without me."

Heading over to the reception and security stations, she explained that they were there for a meeting. FRIDAY had accessed the building's floor plans and found the bombs location in a server room's maintenance closet. So Pepper had FRIDAY hack into their system and place a meeting on the schedule for the person whose office was located right next door, who happened to be an I.T. guy named Hamish Conroy. It was the closest that they could get to the bomb without causing a scene.

"Yes, your appointment is right here. Please take the C elevator to Sub-level 2, turn right, take the third left and Mr. Conroy's office is the fifth door," the receptionist smiled at them. If she thought anything unusual for a meeting between Tony Stark and a low-level (literally) I.T. guy, she didn't say anything.

"Thank you," she told the woman as she took Tony's arm to keep him close, where he could not wander off and get them into trouble...again.

Passing through the security checkpoint, of course Tony set it off. Pulling off his 'watch', he let them do another wand-wave over his body, this time clearing him. She wondered what they would have thought about the arc reactor having been mounted into his chest if this had been a few years ago before he finally had the surgery done to remove the fragments.

"I'm not sure if I'm happy or mad that they didn't recognize my accessory for what it really is," he said slipping the hand armor device back onto his wrist. It was the most that they would be able to get into the building besides the ceramic gun in Tony's pocket, but at least they were not totally unarmed. Luckily there had not been guards at any of the other locations, so she had a good feeling about this one.

"Glad," she informed him. "Now get on the elevator and let's get this over with."

Following the long list of instruction, they finally arrived at the door to Mr. Conroy's small office. Tony took a few steps past it to where the door to the auxiliary server room was located. But as he passed the door, it opened inward to reveal what Pepper considered a typical I.T. nerd. His short blond hair was a mess, his white oxford shirt had a plastic pocket protector with small tools sticking out of it. His pants looked dirty, even though it was not even lunchtime yet. But it was the large black typical nerd glasses that complimented his overall appearance.

"Oh, my golly gee goodness," he said pushing the glasses up on his nose as he reached out to take Tony's hand. Pepper watched the amusing exchange between the two of them for a moment as Hamish got a bit of hero-worship out of the way. She could barely understand all of the lingo that he was throwing out at Tony, who seemed to actually be enjoying the meeting as he began to converse with Hamish.

Reaching into her purse, she went ahead and activated the jamming device Tony had her carry.

"Um, Tony," she said after a minute, trying to get his attention back to the very important reason that they were there.

"Got it," he said looking at her, then turning back to put his hand on Hamish's shoulder. "I would _very much_ like to see _inside_ of _that_ room, right there."

Hamish turned to see where he was pointing, but Pepper saw the expression change from happiness to worry.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Stark, but you don't have authorization to go in there," he worriedly explained.

"Would you be able to give me that authorization if it was relevant to our meeting?" he asked.

"Maybe, but I'm still not sure why you are here to meet with me," he pointed out. "I thought that when saw your name on my calendar that the other guys down here were pulling a prank on me."

"If you give me authorization, then I can tell you," Tony told him which got Pepper's attention. Would Tony really expose what they were doing here?

"Sir, I don't know…"

Tony then put his arm around Hamish's shoulder and moved him a few steps away from where she was standing at the office door. The two men talked in hushed tones, but then Hamish looked over at her with wide eyes and a knowing smile. Seconds later, he was swiping his keycard into the security lock and the door slid open for them.

"Great. We'll be out in a few minutes," Tony informed him with a smile as Hamish went back into his office.

Stepping inside of the room, she followed Tony over to where the closet was.

"Do I want to know what you told him to let us in here?" she decided to ask, a bit worried with the answer.

"Hamish, as of Monday, will be Stark Tower's newest employee, working down in I.T.," Tony smiled at her as he opened the closet door.

"You bribed him with a job?" she rhetorically asked.

"Of course. Do you think that cash would have worked just as well?" Tony then offered up as they both looked on a storage shelf, finding the toolbox exactly where the instruction said it would be. "Oh, I may have also insinuated that you have a thing for having sex in kinky places."

Their earcoms lit up with the sound of laughter from probably the entire rest of the team. Pepper was sure that she even recognized Steve's laugh.

Pepper took a calming deep breath instead of yelling like she wanted to as Tony carefully removed the toolbox and placed it on a stack of broken servers to use as a workbench.

"We are going to have a _serious_ conversation later," she informed him with an angry tone.

"Can we schedule it for after the attack tomorrow? That way, in case I don't make it, we didn't waste our last night together?" Tony smiled at her as he worked.

Glaring at him while his fingers moved over the explosive device, she told him, "Fine, but I want that necklace with the three princess cut emeralds that you have in your ' _forgive me'_ stash."

"You found my stash?" Tony asked as he worked.

"I've _known_ where you stash has been for _years_. Natasha helped me find it," she sweetly informed him.

" ** _Please_** _don't bring me into this_ ," Nat begged over the earcom.

Minutes later, they were done, and walking out of the building with the toolbox. Luckily, security was more worried with items going inside than leaving the building.

" _Alright, everyone meet back at the Tower. Be careful moving through the street with the devices_ ," Steve instructed the teams. " _Tony, can we place them in your workroom until we have a chance to talk about all of this_?"

"Yes, that's as good a place as any to store multiple property annihilating devices," Tony sarcastically responded.

" _Good, I knew that you would agree_ ," Steve told him, sounding a bit happier than he had this morning.


	106. Bucky Shares A Story

**New York City – Avengers Tower Common Room  
After Lunch on Wednesday**

Instead of gathering in the war room, the ensemble took up residence on the raised platform with the couches in the common room, just as they had last night, but the story they were waiting on was not a happy one. Steve could see as everyone slowly chose their spots after they had all finished eating lunch that they were not as loud as they usually could be. They had only been giving the briefest hint that Bucky had information that the group needed to hear while they had been eating. It was not a normal occurrence for him to share stories, even since Victoria came to the Tower.

Sitting in the chair closest to the open area, Steve turned a bit to the side so that he was able to see Bucky still standing over at the piano. Except for last night, and right now, the only usual thing missing would be Victoria playing a song that Tony had requested while trying to test her. She had yet to fail.

Seeing that everyone was now ready, he called, "Buck, we're ready."

Bucky then turned around, and every set of eyes were drawn to him, causing him to hesitate a moment. He was not used to being the center of attention for something like this. Briefings were not as personal as this was about to get.

"Before we all left to go disarm the bombs, I told Steve about something from my past. At the time, we thought that it may just be coincidental and not really relevant seventy something years later. But when I saw the bomb, specifically the power cells, I knew that the group would have questions and that I may be the only one to really give any answers."

"You've seen the power cells before?" Natasha asked very plainly.

"I probably helped to make them," Bucky then admitted to the group, which earned him a startled group gasp.

"How?" Tony then asked.

"Back in 1943, the 107th was captured and taken to an Austrian HYDRA weapons facility to be used as workers to build their Tesseract powered weapons. All of the men who would later become the Howling Commandos were prisoners there too. The base commander placed personnel from different nationalities into cells together, hoping to prevent cooperation for escape attempts. The officer in charge of the base was a Colonel Lohmer."

There was a muttering through the entire group. It seemed that they agreed with them that it was a strange coincidence.

"Any relation to Max Lohmer?" Sam then asked.

"I don't know. Maybe FRIDAY can run a family tree and see what she can find, if anything. I don't know if there are any records from back then at that base," Bucky told them. "But between his name and then the power cell, there probably _is_ some relation."

"We already knew from the Raft and Victoria's letter, that he was working with Sin, as opposed to Rumlow," Steve offered.

"So, what did you mean that you made the power cells?" Natasha asked, probably trying to get back to the main story.

"All military prisoners there were forced to work on the factory floor making guns, tanks, and parts that were used to build the _Valkyrie_ , as well as the power cells casings used in these items."

"You helped to make the plane that Steve went down in?" Tony then hesitantly asked.

"I was actually put to work with the munitions. But other members of the Howlers did work on parts of the _Valkyrie_ ," Bucky admitted, earning a couple of sympathy looks Steve's way, knowing that the people who later became his friends had unknowing helped to cause his later entombment in the Arctic.

"So then you would have seen Colonel Lohmer while you were there?" Sam asked.

"Up close and personal, unfortunately," Bucky answered, as this was where he had told Steve a bit earlier. "After being captured in Azzano, I later contracted pneumonia. Being weakened by it, while moving munitions, I crashed two carts together, causing a delay. Lohmer personally decided to use me as an example as to what would happen to anyone who failed to perform."

When Bucky hesitated too long, Steve offered, "Don't worry. Just tell them."

"Lohmer was brutal with the beating that he gave me using a shell casing," he told them.

"That doesn't sound too bad, what did he do? Throw the little sucker at you," Tony quipped.

"He used a shell casing for a 100mm waiting to be assembled," which earned him a couple of groans, knowing now what had been used. "Not only did I have multiple contusions everywhere, I had several broken ribs on top of the pneumonia. When they tossed me back into the cell, Gabe Jones tended to me. He informed the other guys, who would later become the Howlers, that if I was forced to work the next day that it would probably kill me. So Falsworth came up with a plan on how to take out Lohmer permanently. Denier, Jones, and Dugan all agreed to work together, for me."

"What did they do?" Natasha then asked, probably hearing how Bucky was still a bit hesitant with sharing for the first time.

"They were all able to sneak ingredients to Denier so that he could make something that would melt through a chain holding up a load of scrap metal. After Lohmer had yelled at his second-in-command about putting me to work, the crane was activated as he passed underneath. The chain broke and the entire payload squashed Lohmer like a bug."

Steve looked around the group at hearing that, but he could see that the entire assembled group agreed with the harsh action taken.

"What happened after that? Is that when Steve got there?" Tony asked.

"No. Days later I had taken a turn for the worse so I was taken across the factory and placed inside of Armin Zola's custody so that he could use me in his experiments…for the first time."

Bucky had been pacing a little as he talked, but now that he was so the part of the story where Zola was involved, his feet really started to wear a path on the rug.

"For the next week or more, I'm still not sure for how long really, Zola used me as his own guinea pig. But some of the injections that he gave me cured the pneumonia and helped my injuries and ribs to heal a lot quicker than they should have."

Seeing his hesitation, Steve then helped with the timeline, saying, "When I freed the prisoners, they told me that he'd been moved to an area that nobody ever came back from. Bucky was strapped to a metal table when I finally found him, with a strange machine aimed right at his chest. I have no idea what it may have done, but he was delirious for a bit once I got him off the table."

"When we all got out of there, they guys ended up sticking together and forming the Howlers, having come together to help keep me alive," Bucky then admitted.

"So, that was the base where these power cells were probably created," Scott then chimed in. "How did they end up here in New York then?"

"Our best guess," Steve started, "is that either Red Skull had them stored somewhere that Sin knew about, or that she ended up taking them with her to Argentina when she went there. We know from what we found that she's been in cold storage for most of the past sixty years, waking up only three years ago."

"Then either Sin or Max probably had one of their guys make the bombs then," Scott commented, which started Steve to thinking about someone else who was good with such creations. Looking over at Tony, he saw him also deep in thought after that statement.

"Tony, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Steve asked getting his attention, which also included a very smug smile.

"I think so, Brain, but what if the hippopotamus won't wear a beach thong?"

With that crazy answer, everyone in the room, except for him, started to laugh, recognizing the silliness thanks to Victoria having shown a couple of episodes of the kids show to those not familiar with it. Wanda and Pietro had enjoyed seeing the cartoon, not having grown up with such a simple pleasure. Since Scott was laughing, Steve guessed that he must already be familiar with it. He waited until the room calmed down before trying to get Tony to take anything seriously.

"Had to be done," Tony told him. "You walked right into that one."

"I'll just guess that Victoria would have liked that one," he told him.

"Yes, she will love to hear about it when she gets home," Tony stated with certainty. "Now, what were you asking about?"

"The bombs, and who could have made them," Steve answered. "None of the scientist that we rounded up worked with explosives of any kind. But Zemo has."

That comment sobered up the room very quickly.

"Are you thinking that's how he was able to get us such detailed deactivation plans?" Scott asked.

"It makes sense," Natasha stated since she had read Zemo's file after he'd been taken. "He's worked with that type of device before when he was independent. There's a good chance he made these."

Steve looked over at Bucky. The crease lines over his forehead told Steve that he was not thinking of something good. "Buck, what is it?"

"What if he has more of these? These damn power cells are over seventy years old. If one of these canisters becomes unstable, it would take out a very large area. And Vic would be inside of that area."

With that realization, the room became very silent. Steve could see the pained look on Wade's face at hearing that. They knew exactly how he felt.

"Why would Sin stop at only having Zemo make the five bombs if she had more containers?" Pietro then asked. "Wouldn't she want the most destruction possible?"

After a few moments of people considering this, Clint responded with, "He does have a point, but if Sin held some back and now Max has them, he could use them to terrorize other cities later on."

"Only if we don't take care of him tomorrow," Wade then pointed out.

"Alright," Steve got everyone's attention. "Let's head to the war room and make some plans about how to deal with Lohmer's invasion on the Tower."

The entire group began to head towards the elevator a bit quieter than normal. Steve noticed that not only did Bucky hold back a bit but that Tony also did. Standing just a bit away from them, he was slightly eavesdropping on the talk they were having about what Bucky had just shared.

"…was wondering how they had gotten their hands on Tesseract energy," Tony was telling him. "I'm glad you decided to let us know."

"If it wasn't for the power cells, I probably never would have shared that. Especially with you," Bucky admitted.

"Me…specifically? Why wouldn't you?" Tony asked him confused.

"I know how much you've always admired the Howling Commandos, especially since your dad worked with them. But if it wasn't for them, then I never would have left that factory. And then your parents…"

"No," Tony firmly stopped him. Bucky was watching him, looking a bit worried about what he was going to say. "They made the right call. You may not have been a team at that time, but you were all fighting the same fight…HYDRA. Taking out Lohmer was the right call, and it's one that I know that our team would make if anyone of us were in trouble like that."

Steve could see a bit of relief cross Bucky's face at hearing that, while easing Steve's own worries about sharing that bit of information. He'd talked with Bucky on the way back to the Tower and he'd brought up this fear at that time. Knowing that Tony had not let his anger at his parents deaths take over right now gave him a good feeling as to the overall outcome from this conversation.

"Then, are you ready to figure out how to defend this monstrosity tomorrow?" Bucky asked with a smile.

"There is nothing wrong with my beautiful architectural designs! What is it with everyone being a critic?" Tony defended as they walked towards him and the three of them headed to the elevator to join back up with the others.

* * *

"So, there are three things that we need to deal with," Steve started off standing at the end of the new larger conference table, thanks to Victoria. He did have to admit that the old one was getting a bit crowded with the member additions over the past few years. "I do not believe that having those bombs in the Tower at the time of the invasion tomorrow would be a good thing. So, we either need to get them moved or somehow have them destroyed. Then we need to work out a strategy for dealing with the ground troops coming in through the lobby. Last we need to do the same for the Viperjet assault."

"I would really like to put out there," Tony started, "that I would love to get a chance to study those power cells, minus the bomb components of course."

"Didn't you have enough of that when you made Ultron?" Natasha pointed out, which was exactly what he had been thinking, just unwilling to say. He knew that the scientist in Tony was going to be the first one against destroying them.

"This would be totally different. These are not an actual infinity stone, only the energy derived from one. There is no sentient evil being hiding inside of them," Tony argued back.

"That you know of right now," Clint then chimed in.

"Here we go again…" Tony sighed.

"Team!" Steve firmly yelled, getting the entire table to pay attention to him. "Since it is obvious that this is going to be a _long_ discussion, can we all first agree that nobody in this room actually wants these bombs inside the Tower where they could accidentally be struck and detonated?"

The entire team sitting around the tabled either nodded in agreement or stated as such.

"Great, so the topic of _study or destroy_ is now side-barred until a later time, after the battle. Then, where do they need to be moved to until such time as their fates can be decided?"

"Do bombs really have fates?" Scott then asked. "I mean, technically, their fate is to go boom, so maybe they do…"

"Tic-Tac," Sam then said getting his attention, "Not the time."

"Got it. So, how about the training facility?" Scott offered as a suggestion.

Everyone at the table seemed to be agreeing with that so Steve then offered, "Alright, the bombs will be taken there. So, how do we get them there? The Quinjet would be the fastest. And since the bombs probably traveled from Argentina to New York, hopefully that means they are stable enough to make the trip."

"I will fly them there," Wade then offered, catching everyone attention. "Except for being able to fly the jet, the only other place I would be of any use would be in the lobby with a couple of loaded guns. Everyone else here has a much better skill-set. If something happens, I would not be missed during the fight, but anyone else would be."

"Since the flight does not take long," Nat said, "you would still be back in plenty of time for the fight."

"Then to be more blunt, if Bucky's suggestion of these things being unstable due to their age comes true, then I'm the most expendable."

The table was a bit quiet, almost a bit worried about somehow making that come true by saying anything.

"Alright then. Wade, after sunset tonight, hoping to give a bit of cover to the Quinjet leaving, you'll be in charge of delivering the bombs to the facility," Steve told him, getting a nod from Wade in agreement. "So, should we work on the lobby or the Viperjet problem next?"

"Viperjet," Sam then stated. "There's only so many ways that we will be able to deal with a flying target over the city. All other resources will have to deal with the ground troops."

"He's right," Tony offered. "Pepper, Sam, Wanda, and myself are the most logical to deal with that flying contraption."

"I was actually going to suggest that Wanda needs to be in the lobby," Bucky then offered, getting the table's attention. Looking at her, he replied, "With your powers, you can easily contain a large number of targets. Vic's note indicated at least thirty or more. That's a lot of agents divided up for us to deal with individually."

Steve was pleased to hear from him that even though they were going up against HYDRA that Bucky sounded like he did not want to take any more lives than were necessary. But he knew that the ones that came up against him were not long for this world.

"That's logical," Steve then offered. "So, Wanda, do you think you can do that?"

"Yes," Wanda firmly agreed.

"So that then leave Tony, Pepper, and Sam to deal with the Viperjet. There will be no way to evacuate the streets below before the attack without possibly alerting Lohmer. Do the three of you think that you can possibly draw it away from the Tower and out over the East River or Upper Bay?"

"Depending on how desperate they are to get inside my house," Tony stated with a smile, "then we should be able to give them a painful eviction notice. I'll modify our suits to fire energy shots that should disrupt their systems instead of blowing them up and raining debris downward."

"Good idea. That leaves everyone else in the lobby, on _foot_ patrol," Steve pointed out while looking directly at Pietro with a smile. Turning to the other side of the table, he asked, "Scott, how effective are you going to be against a group of targets?"

"Just like a normal fight except they won't see me coming, Captain America," Scott boldly stated with a smile, earning a snicker from Bucky at being called such a formal title in this setting.

"Hopefully you'll manage to at least knock them out, Tic-tac," Sam then offered.

"I was going easy on you. Besides, I seem to remember winning that fight _without_ knocking you out," Scott said making him wonder if they were talking about a training exercise they had done together.

"Alright. So, that gives eight of us against thirty or more," Steve pointed out, still not liking the odds too much.

"We cannot evacuate the streets," Pietro began, "but I'm sure that we would the lobby. I then have to point out that when HYDRA comes in through the doors, won't they be expecting to see people working?"

Steve realized that he was right. They were expecting the Tower to be operating like normal, which meant security guards, lobby receptionist, and employees moving through the lobby.

Pietro then continued, "If they are watching, waiting for a good time to strike, if they don't see people moving around, they may call off the attack after becoming suspicious."

"I have a suggestion," Clint then said, drawing the table his way, worrying Steve a bit with the devilish smile he had.

* * *

"Are you sure you don't want someone to come with you?" Bucky asked Wade as they watched the bombs being loaded inside of the Quinjet, very carefully. Steve knew that Bucky was still worried about Wade going off alone with such dangerous devices, but he had pointed out to him that nobody knew they had them. Even with them being disabled, Tony had programmed the Quinjet to give off a dampening field on the frequency they were set to detonate at, just to be on the safe side.

"Don't baby me, Runt," was Wade's answer, and this time he looked deadly serious.

"If anything happens to you, Vic is going to take it out on us. It's only for my own bodily protection that I ask," Bucky pointed out with a grin, finally getting one from Wade.

"I'll be fine. It's less than a two hour trip. I'll be back before bedtime," he said with a smile in Natasha's direction. Steve was pretty sure that he noticed a slight pinking of her cheeks with that comment.

"Thanks for doing this, Wade," Steve told him, as they watched the last bomb being secured down by Tony. "We know that you didn't exactly sign up for any of this."

"I took an oath decades ago to serve this country. I only broke it because of Juliette and Kayla. Now I have the chance to fulfill it thanks to taking in a lost little girl."

Steve had to smile at that, knowing that Wade cared for Victoria just as much as they did, and that he always would.

"By tomorrow afternoon, we'll all be working on getting our Vic back," Bucky chimed in with a smile.

Tony exited the Quinjet, giving Wade a quick briefing of how the bombs were secured, but telling him that overall, Wade just had to concentrate on not getting lost, which earned him a scowl. He, Bucky, and Wade then exchanged goodbye handshakes before they moved over near the staircase to give Wade and Nat a bit of privacy. They had already said their real goodbyes in private a few minutes ago, but then Wade did receive a final kiss, giving him a wide smile the entire time the ramp was closing.

Nat then came over to where they were standing as the Quinjet began to roll out onto the ramp.

As it was about to take off, Bucky then spoke up.

"So Natasha, if Vic considers Wade her dad, does that make you our mother-in-law?"

Steve's eyes went wide at hearing that, turning towards his soulmate who looked _extremely_ pleased with himself at the joke. Tony's mouth was as wide open as his eyes, and not a sound coming from him. Nat, on the other hand, wore an expression that sent chills through him.

Without a word as she turned and starting heading towards the cubbies, Steve cautiously asked, "Nat, what are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm just getting that baseball bat."

With that statement, Bucky took off running up the stairs to the sound of Tony's hysterical laughing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If the info from the internet is correct, the 100mm shell casing Bucky was beaten with is roughly 24 in. (0.6m) long and weighs just over 10.5 lbs. (4.7g), the rough size of a large club. Bucky's story was pulled from a MCU comic released around the time of CA:TFA that is movie compliant. I figured most people would not be familiar with it and would find the history interesting.


	107. The Night Before

**Romania  
Thursday – early a.m. (time unknown)**

Victoria lay on the floor in front of her bedroom's fireplace staring up at the dark ceiling. She was not exactly sure what time it was and right now, she really didn't care. She had already been to sleep and woken up without even a hint of light from over the mountains. Since her room face east, she had a built-in alarm clock thanks to the sun, which hopefully would not be as painful to her head as it had been this morning.

But all she could think about was how she was almost sure that she had only gotten about three hours of sleep. There was no electric clock, or any other type of device, but she had put on a couple of logs onto the fire to help with the night chill and when she has woken up, they had not fully burned away to ash. The bed was just as comfortable as she had remembered it being this morning waking up in it…it was just very empty.

So now, after the pitiful sleep, she was lying by the warm fire, a pillow under her head as she watched the firelight dancing on the crystals on the chandelier. A little while ago she had finished the last of the three books she had just bought yesterday…two days ago? She was going to have to get used to dealing with this larger time-zone change. It was a bit more than the one-hour she was used to moving between for years. Her warriors had not probably even been to sleep yet back in New York.

After eating dinner with Helmut, they had gone to one of the parlors that would have been for the family to gather in. Since they still needed to figure out how to deal with their newfound 'friendship', Helmut had granted her use of a laptop…kind of. He had accessed one of the accounts which Max had set up for the guards to use here and allowed her to browse the movie list until she found something for them to watch. Helmut had agreed to watch whatever she chose, so she picked a movie that she had yet to see, _Sucker Punch_. It was on her list to get to since she knew that there was fighting in it, which she could maybe pick up, but it was heavy with effects, making some moves unfeasible in the real world. How she wished she could run across walls like Neo and Trinity but parkour was the closest she could get.

The room had a large television mounted with numerous chairs scattered for the guards, that were no longer here, to use as a breakroom. When Helmut chose a chair off to the side and as far away from her after starting the movie, Vic figured that he was taking her talk about affection a bit too seriously. To prove a point, she had to go over and grab onto his arm to drag him over to the large couch that would easily hold four grown men. They had then sat and watched the movie together just like she did with Sam, Tony, or Clint, without a soulmate buffer zone.

Afterwards, it had been late enough so they had headed upstairs, with Sentry taking a spot where the bedroom hallway connected with the upper gallery to stand watch for the night. Helmut had locked the door behind her, but as with her normal ritual, she had left the interior wooden door slightly open so that it gave the illusion of freedom. Maybe after he had built up some trust from her she could explain her paranoia but it was not something that would change anytime soon, even if Sentry was stationed at her door instead.

Hopefully by now, considering how many hours had passed, the team had dealt with the bombs. If Helmut had known the location of Max's safe house, she would have included it in the message, but unfortunately it had not been information he had been privy to. The only reason he had the bombs' locations was due to the fact that he had been the one to create them for Sin. He had at least scanned the internet news sites for any information about bombs going off in the city a couple of times during the day, and there had been none. Her worst fear would be that Richard had somehow not been able to get the messages to everyone. Best case was they had done their job without being discovered. So that was the scenario that she was going with.

Since she didn't have any FRIDAY to play her something to listen to, Victoria decided to sing some of the remade songs from the movie tonight. By the time she finished the third song, there was a gentle knock on the wooden door.

Rolling over, she could barely make out Helmut's form in the dark hallway.

"Fraulein, are you alright?" he asked her, pushing open the door just slightly.

"I'm fine. Did I wake you? I was trying to not be loud," she told him.

"I do not mind being woken by such lovely singing," he explained, "but why are you on the floor?"

"First, why don't you come on in? It's a lot easier to talk that way," she offered. A few seconds later, Helmut had unlocked the metal door and stepped inside. Pointing up at the bed, she told him, "Grab one of the pillows."

Helmut did, coming to sit down on the floor close to where she was but still a bit away from her. Since she was so close to the fire, she had not bothered to cover herself with a blanket. The nightclothes he had gotten for her reminded her a bit of what Wade would have chosen, long pants with a normal shirt top. Only to her, the plain white socks were a bit boring.

"So, why are you on the floor in the middle of the night singing instead of sleeping?" he asked her as he laid his head down on the pillow. They were now in opposite positions. She was closest to the fireplace, laying lengthwise in front of it, but turned so her back faced it. Helmut moved so he was between her and the bed, facing her, their bodies were now head to feet. "Are you having a hard time falling asleep?"

"Not exactly," she answered wondering how much to explain to him. If they were going to be spending as much time as she suspected they may, he would figure it out after only a few nights anyways. "I've already been to sleep and woken up."

"But we only went to bed about five hours ago," he commented not understanding her explanation. "Sentry informed me that you have been awake for some time already."

"Yeah, I don't sleep for very long without Bucky and Steve near me," she decided to tell him. "Without them next to me, I only sleep three hours a night."

"Why would that happen?" he asked.

"It's a connection due to the soulmark from what we discovered. You know their history, right? About how they were both frozen in different ways over the past decades?" she asked.

"Yes. The story of Captain Rogers is most remarkable. And I knew of the Winter Soldier's own cryo-chamber thanks to Sin explaining his time with HYDRA," he told her.

"Well, when they were both frozen, I only slept for one hour. When Steve was woken up, it increased to two. Then whenever Bucky was freed, it increased again to three until they put him back under. But when they are both with me, I can sleep normally, seven or more hours. Without them here, it has moved back down to three. Even with they go on missions it would usually stay at five or so, but I'm guessing since being here was not initially voluntary, that somehow its effect is altered."

"That is a most remarkable tale, fraulein," he told her, giving a loud yawn.

"Helmut, you know, since we are going to be spending a lot of time together, why don't you just call me Vic or Victoria? Fraulein sounds a bit too formal…considering," she said while raising her hand to indicate the room around them which was her cell.

"I will try, Victoria," he offered. She could see his eyes already starting to close.

"I'll try to find stuff over the next few days to keep me occupied while you sleep, that way I do not disturb you with my singing. It's a habit of mine when I'm bored, like in the oubliette," she told him with a smile as his eyes continued to drop. Remembering one of the songs from the movie, she began to sing very low.

 _"…Sing me to sleep,_  
Sing me to sleep,  
I'm tired and I…  
I want to go to bed…"

As Victoria continued the soft lullaby song, she watched Helmut finally drift off, his eyes closing without a hint of him being awake. Standing up, she pulled an extra blanket from the side dresser's drawer. Spreading it out, she laid it on top of him, knowing that the fire would not help too much with the chill. At least there was a plush oriental rug at the foot of the bed they had been laying on instead of the colder stone floor.

Staring at Helmut peacefully sleeping, her mind quickly raced with at least three ways she could kill him without a single one disturbing Sentry. But that was not her. That was not what she wanted…or promised. That's what she would expect from Sin, Rumlow, and probably Max considering what his miserable ass was planning. No. Instead she was sorry that he had lost his entire family and been driven to such extremes of hate by joining with HYDRA to try and find some kind of comfort. Hopefully over the next few days as they got to know each other better, that he would slowly come around and see that he did not have to kidnap her to have a friend.

* * *

**Avengers' Upstate New York Facility  
Wednesday - 9:51 p.m.**

"That's the last of them, sir," the way too young technician told him as the bombs were unloaded into the truck that was taking them to an auxiliary secured storage building away from the main facility. Tony pointed out that it was the best they could do but if one went off, then they all would. The calculated explosion would demolish the entire compound as well as the wooded buffer zone that surrounded them from prying eyes.

"Make sure that nobody here messes with those damn things until that knucklehead figures out what to do with them," he instructed the kid.

"Knucklehead, sir?"

"Yeah, you probably call him Mr. Stark."

The bug eyes on the smoothed face kid was worth it. Stepping back inside of the Quinjet, he closed the ramp, breathing a bit easier now that the payload had been delivered. Sitting in the pilot's seat, he watched the truck driving away from him wondering if they really understood the danger that those things were putting them in. Having listened to Tony give him a layman's term explanation chilled him to the bones.

Taking off, he almost for a few seconds considered heading east, towards Europe. If he had any possible inkling as to where his girl was, he wouldn't hesitate but instead, he turned south to head home. Ready to defend his home and protect her other girl.

* * *

**New York City  
Thursday - 1:08 a.m.**

"Tony, it's time for you to get some sleep," Bucky's voice informed him from where he was standing in the doorway to his workroom while he tried to make the final adjustments to his armor that he wanted in place for the fight tomorrow.

"I'll eventually get there," he told him, reaching for his tablet to run the thruster improvement numbers again.

"Pepper sent me here with a job for her," he stated, "as a retrieval specialist."

Hearing that phrase, Tony looked over at where the former assassin was standing while glaring at him. There was no mistaking the smirk on Bucky's face as he told him that.

"What are you going to do? Throw me over your shoulder and carry me to bed?" Tony asked, a bit worried.

"Yep, if that's what it takes. So, conscious or unconscious?" Bucky was walking towards him with a deadly serious look on his face.

* * *

**Tony and Pepper's apartment  
Four minutes later**

"Here you go, one overly tired _supposed_ genius," Bucky informed her as he deposited Tony down onto their bed from off of his shoulder with a thump as she stood looking out the window where she had been waiting on the two of them to arrive.

"I could have walked here," her soulmate grumbled as he tried to right himself into a sitting position.

"If you could have _walked_ here, you would have done it _hours ago_ ," she pointed out to him as she turned to Bucky. "Thanks. I'll make sure that he sleeps and is ready for tomorrow."

"See you both at breakfast. And Tony, you better be prepared to figure out how to find Vic once this battle is over and everyone is secured," Bucky pointed his silver finger at him.

"One way or another, we'll find her," Tony solemnly told him, letting them both know that he meant it.

* * *

**Steve, Bucky, and Victoria's apartment  
Two minutes later**

"What did Pepper want at this late hour?" Steve asked as Bucky reappeared, walked around the bed and began to crawl in.

"A soulmate," he chuckled out as he got comfortable, pummeling his pillow a couple of times before putting his head down onto it.

"Tony was still awake?" he asked.

"Of course he was. It's Tony on a night before a _guaranteed_ fight. He was still working on his armor," Bucky told him as they both settled onto their backs. Without Victoria there tonight, it didn't seem as strange as it had last night. That didn't mean that he liked it.

"Why didn't she call me?" Steve asked.

"She said you are too nice and would let Tony talk you into allowing him to keep working," he humorously said.

Steve knew that he was probably right. "You feel ready for tomorrow?" he asked into the darkness.

"Yeah. I'd feel better if we knew for _sure_ that Vic was really fine," Bucky admitted.

"I would too. Let's just hope that her letter and our own assertions are correct and that Zemo is treating her good."

"He better be treating her like a fucking queen! Otherwise, I'll shove my arm so far up his…"

"Alright, alright…I don't need graphic images like that running through my head at bedtime, Jerk," Steve told him, shaking his head. "Put some…hell, put _all_ of that anger into taking out HYDRA tomorrow."

"Trust me, I'm so mad at Zemo, I'll have plenty left over from the fight just for him," Bucky admitted.

A few minutes later, Steve was still awake thinking about Victoria. Rolling over, wishing she was there, he laid his hand onto her spot, finding it already occupied by a silver arm.

"Just checking to see if she suddenly showed up?" Bucky asked him as his hand continued to lay over the familiar cold metal.

"Is that what you were doing?" he asked.

"I admit to nothing," Bucky replied.

After a short time, they were both asleep, their hands joined like they sometimes did when Victoria was with them.

* * *

**Romania  
Early morning**

Rolling onto his back, Helmut pulled the blanket up to his chin to try and keep away the chill that was touching his cheeks. As he began to wonder why his bed seemed so hard this morning, he opened his eyes to see if it was morning yet. He found himself staring up at a ceiling that was not his bedroom's. Glancing around, he quickly remembered coming into here, Victoria's room, in the middle of the night after being woken by her singing. Looking at the floor next to him, he found it empty, the pillow she had been resting on gone.

Sitting upright fast, he saw that the wooden bedroom door, as well as the metal cell door were both open.

"Damn it," he cursed jumping up, knowing that she had tricked him and escaped during the night.

Running into the hallway, he saw that Sentry was no longer at his station in the hallway. Where was he? Going to the balcony overlooking the great hall, he did not see anything out of place. But, turning his head a bit, there was a strange sound. Music? Running down the spiral staircase, he listened again, following the sound towards the closest kitchen door. Pushing it open, he stopped, a bit shocked at what he saw.

Victoria was standing at the stove, waving a spatula in the air like an orchestra conductor as she sang along with a pounding metal song playing from the same radio they had used in the gym yesterday. On the flat griddle, were pancakes and bacon cooking. The smell of coffee was also heavy in the air. Taking the pancakes off of the stove-top, she placed them at the top of a huge pile that was already cooked. Reaching over with her other hand, she took a pair of tongs and began to remove the crispy bacon, placing it onto another plate. When she turned around, she spotted him standing there just staring at her.

"Morning, sleepyhead," she smiled at him, placing the utensils down and picking up the two plates. "I guess that Sentry doesn't have to go get you anymore."

" _Good morning, Baron_ ," Sentry then stated from where he stood off in the corner of the room out of the way.

"You didn't escape?" he blurted out, not sure of what else to say.

"Of course not," she plainly stated as she put the serving plates on the bench they had eaten breakfast at yesterday morning.

"But why not? I don't understand," he told her as she sat down. Empty plates and silverware had already been set for them to use.

"We have an agreement, remember?" she then pointed out to him.

"But you could have escaped," he told her, not that he actually wanted her to. "Agreement or not, why wouldn't you at least try?"

Victoria then gave him a very stern look, as if she were thinking of something intently.

"First, you must not have met a lot of honest people if you think that breaking an agreement at their first chance should be normal," she told him, placing her elbows on the table and resting her head on her clasped hands. "Second, for me to leave here with you _alive_ , that _would_ break our agreement. That would mean that you could call Max and tell him that the Avengers are waiting for him, allowing him to either detonate the bombs or change his plans and escape. If they have not been able to disarm them, then that's a lot of dead innocent people on _my_ conscious, not _yours_. Third, to leave here and to prevent you from contacting Max, that would mean that you would have to be dead. Which, coincidentally, also breaks our agreement. I'm not going to make you kill number seven."

Victoria then calmly started putting some of the food onto her plate as he pondered the strange yet logical explanation. But it was the last part that had him curious.

"Seven?" he asked not understanding.

"At Sin's castle, when we were trying to ' _storm'_ it by sneaking in. I still feel that it should not technically count but Tony said it does but only so that his ' _storming the castle'_ count went up ta' two," she told him, adding a bit of strange conversation while picking up the syrup jug and pouring some all over everything on her plate. "Anyways…in the courtyard, before you set off the EMP device. I kill five guards, I shot more but it hit their armor."

Moving to sit down on the stool, he admitted, "I had forgotten about that."

"Then there was the guard that Rumlow sent after me, when he kidnapped me a year ago."

"You mentioned this in the castle. You used part of a bed's frame," he said reaching over for the food. It all smelled delicious.

"Yeah. But I already explained to you that I'll be your friend. And friends don't kill one another. _Especially_ while they're asleep and defenseless," she informed him starting to eat.

"You are probably the first person that I have known in a long time that would use that logic," he stated taking a bite. "Even at Sin's castle, at night I would secure the extra lock I installed on the inside of my room for protection."

"Well, that's just tells me that you've been hanging around with the wrong crowd. None of the Avengers would ever do that. Bucky used to, but not anymore. Not even Nat would. _Maybe_ she would if you touch her crème brûlée donuts, so consider that a warning," she took a bite with a sly smile at the comment. He had to give a slight chuckle at her funny logic using her friends. "And don't get me started on Clint and coffee. So, what is there to do around here today?"

* * *

**Avengers Tower**  
**Thursday - 5:32 a.m.**

FRIDAY continued to run the possible scenarios that the Avengers War Room Meeting had produced. There was a high possibility that there would be at least 30% structural damage to the lobby area with the percentage dropping by 3.16% with each floor heading up away from the ground floor. Calculating in the higher possible number of agents Victoria had warned them about, she calculated that even with the team delaying them, there stood a high chance of at least the bottom ten floor of the Tower to sustain some form of damage. If any of the agents managed to access a bypassed floor in the stairwell, then her figures would be altered greatly.

One of her subsystems then completed its analysis of all the employee's scheduled meeting which were with people from outside of the building, totaling 24 before noon and 39 scheduled for after. Per Tony's instructions, she sent out an email using the employee's email to the 63 people stating that due to a computer error that their meeting needed to rescheduled for next week. This had been Pepper's suggestion as to how to keep outside individuals from walking into a warzone.

As for the normal Tower employees, there was no way to contact all 2,273 of them and instruct them to not come into work without the media somehow being informed, most like through social networking. Everyone suddenly have the day off from Stark Tower was sure to cause a disturbance that Max Lohmer would hear about.

Therefore, it had been agreed at the meeting that all employees that entered the building in the morning would find themselves redirected to the lower level where Hawkeye's not-so-secret tunnel was located. From there, they would receive a brief explanation as to what was happening as well as instruction to follow the tunnel to where Tony had FRIDAY schedule buses to take all employees to the Balasco Theater.

She had already hacked the theater's systems and cleared it for the day so it could be used for a 'private meeting'. It had a capacity of 2,750 in the main theater and balcony level, a ballroom which would hold another 500 and was out of the immediate danger zone created by the Viperjet attack. Due to the size, there would be plenty of room for the workers to move around in without being crowded. They would be able to house all of the Tower employees in one place away from the fighting, as well as prevent the media from being advised with immediate employment termination as a reprisal for doing so.

Scott had then pointed out that young children from the daycare would not be easily contained or amused by being sequestered in the theater all day, unlike an adult, especially without television, video games or toys to keep them occupied. So, employees with children and babies that would normally go to the nursery on the tenth floor had been sent a text message stating that the air condition unit had gone out and due to the excessive heat on that floor, all employees were receiving the day off to care for the child that would normally be there.

Another subsystem then completed its scheduled program of repairing and reprogramming of all the LMD's in the Tower. Hawkeye's suggestion of having them impersonate the lobby employees was a devious one, that FRIDAY could appreciate. It would give the appearance of workers without any humans being in immediate danger. They had all been reprogrammed to participate in the fight once HYDRA entered the lobby. FRIDAY had been instructed to keep the main and side doors unlocked until all enemy combatants had entered the Tower, preventing anyone on the street from being caught in a firefight. Once all agents were inside, she had been instructed to secure all exits to prevent a single one from leaving.

The Iron Legion was still in the process of becoming fully operational, with only five more needing some form of repair. They were being programmed to specifically guard the street and surround Tower area once the fighting started. Quicksilver had been instructed to do an examination of the vehicles, instructing FRIDAY of his findings. Since it was an unknown, the vehicles were then to be disabled and any drivers left inside were to be contained as enemy combatants. The Iron Legion would escort any onlookers away from the bullet-proof windows so that if an incident occurred that they would not be injured.

FRIDAY then ran a check of all security systems to make sure that the Tower was prepared for the day as the first employees scheduled to arrive would be doing so at 6:00 a.m. Janitorial staff were already making their way to the basement after completing a night's work. They would not be sequestered, instead they would be allowed to head home. Only daytime personnel would be guided by the LMD that she had personally created to be the physical representation of FRIDAY herself.


	108. Assault on Avengers Tower

**Romania – Village near the castle  
Before lunchtime on Thursday**

Using one of the two SUV's from the small motor pool for the castle, Helmut was sitting in the passenger seat regretting allowing Victoria to drive them down to the village so that they could make a supply run to stock up on food. Victoria had also requested a clothing shop so that she could pick up a few items since she would be staying. He still found it strange how honestly accepting she was at being still a prisoner, agreement or not. She had thanked him for the few clothing items he had procured for her but pointed out that she would need a bit warmer items as she didn't like cooler weather.

Now, he was using what Victoria had called the ' _oh, shit_ ' handle as she laughed while twisting the vehicle around the sharp mountain turns. If he'd had any idea that she was this reckless, she would have been denied the ability to drive. _He_ was _most assuredly_ be the one driving them back to the castle.

"This is almost as fun as a roller coaster," she told him as she braked around a particular sharp turn.

"Please slow down. If I'd known you had a death wish, I never would have let you drive," he informed her.

"Death wish? I'm just having fun," Victoria commented, speeding up on the longer straight section now that the higher mountain roads were behind them.

After about half the time that it normally would take to get to the village, they were pulling to a stop in the center square. The city hall was off to one side, while small family owned shops lined the rest of the streets. Around the edge of the mountain was a larger city so if they could not find all that they needed, it would be another short trip to get there…at least with the way Victoria drove.

For the next half hour, he let Victoria walk through the different shops getting any items that she would need to make herself at home. When she had inquired about who was paying for the items, he had informed her that after Max had left, he had ' _acquired'_ access to three of the bank accounts that HYDRA had for securing provisions for the castle. Victoria had then stated that she felt better about spending the money knowing that he personally was not having to do so.

Helmut was now standing just outside of the store where Victoria had found a selection of ' _unmentionable'_. After the second time of the elderly female shop owner glaring at him watching Victoria pick out what she needed, he had informed her that he would wait on the street with her previous purchases. There had been many times that he had done just this with Heike years ago, bringing back a longing sadness. Finally the door opened and his ' _prisoner'_ joined him out on the sidewalk.

"That should be it," she informed him, reaching to take a hold of some of the bags from him.

"Would you like to eat lunch before we start with the grocery shopping?" he asked her as they headed for their vehicle.

"That works," she answered looking all around, taking in the quaint village with a smile.

After loading the bags into the back, they walked around the square to a café where they ate. Victoria told him about some of the places she had lived over the past few years before arriving in New York City. It made him a bit depressed when he took her stories into account with what she had told him about her parents kicking her out at such a young age. But he did notice that for the most part, she seemed to always have something either fun or nice to say about what had happened to her.

Helmut noticed a major change in the way she talked when Victoria began to tell him in more detail about Wade. After only a few stories, he was laughing and enjoying the strange tales of her ' _adventures_ ' as she called them. He knew they received strange looks as she told him about an incident at a large American mall with Wade, which caused the greatest laughter yet. She explained that since the rest of the Avengers already knew that story that he may as well know also. Hearing her talk of such personal information during breakfast about the group he had hated for so long, he had already begun to picture them as the individual people that they really were.

As he drove them back to the castle, after much complaining from Victoria, he had to admit that overall, this had been the best day that he'd had in over three years. All thanks to the very unique female sitting next to him with her hand out the window while she played in the wind.

Victoria disappeared up to her room with the purchases she made today while he put away the groceries. Sentry was still programmed to follow her, and he intended to keep it so, just in case this was all a strange ruse. When she came back down, she was dressed in a set of workout clothes with the ugliest pair of socks he had ever seen. Being Romania and near Castle Bran, the locals used the tale of Count Dracula to their advantage, hence the black socks with white vampire teeth dripping red blood.

"Alright, go get changed while I put dinner on to simmer," Victoria informed him as she began to pull items from the refrigerator.

"No, not again," Helmut told her shaking his head.

Victoria then turned to face him, narrowing her eyes at him.

"Unless you have something else to do around here, I'm not just going to sit around and do nothing. And neither are you," she informed him.

Helmut's mind began to race as he tried to figure a way out of the torturous workout routine that Victoria seemed determined to make him a part of.

"You told me that you repaired cars. Do you know anything about the mechanics behind the Viper?"

For the next three hours, the two of them did a couple of minor upgrades to the Viper that he wanted to make since it was now his to maintain. Victoria commented about how similar some of the systems were to the Quinjet and wondered if it was because of the SHIELD/HYDRA connection. Tony had taken the design for his own modified Quinjet from the ones SHIELD had used. Helmut was impressed at how she worked on the hydraulic ramp, improving the function of it so that it opened and closed much quicker than it previously had.

"Helmut, would it be possible somehow to see what's going on in New York?" Victoria asked him as they ate dinner that evening. With the time zone difference, they had not yet reached noon but Max's attack could really start at any time.

"We can go to the computer room and pull up a couple of news sites," he solemnly told her. "When the attack begins, they will start live broadcasting, more than likely."

"Thanks," she told him with a smile, but he could see that it was more for show. Victoria was indeed worried about the events about to unfold. After seeing her so happy today and having fun spending time with her, he began to hope that the Avengers were able to take Max out without any casualties to her friends and family.

After cleaning up the kitchen, he was at the computers, unlocking them and activating them to see if there was any news of the attack already. So far, there was not anything so Helmut guess that Max had yet to begin.

"Can you look up to see if there are any type of live camera feeds from tourist locations that overlook the city? I know that there are a few out there, but I've never check to see if they are aimed at the Tower," she requested.

A few minutes of searching produced one camera with Avengers Tower off in the distant, a few streets away from it. Victoria sat forward in her chair, pulled her legs up and began to glare intently at the screen. Helmut then noticed that there was a link to another camera but that it was through a secured channel. Working around the code, after a couple of more minutes he pulled up the video feed and tried to understand where it was that he was looking at.

"How did you do that?" Victoria asked, standing up and leaning against his back as she looked over his shoulder at the screen.

"This feed was already in the system, but I'm not sure what it is of," he told her as he watched the people walking on the sidewalk in front of the large glass exterior of a building.

"That's the lobby of Stark Tower," she informed him, as they saw someone entering in through the doors to go inside.

"Max has it under surveillance," he stated, wondering if this would affect the attack.

"If there had been any sign of them preparing, then the warning would have been for nothing," Victoria then stated, sounding very worried.

After watching the feed for a while, they saw that the activity at the Tower seemed to be normal, people entering with a couple of guards lingering along the glass wall where they could see them.

"Is it possible that your friend did not get the message to them?" he hated to ask a couple of minutes later.

"No, Richard would have…he saw…" he could hear Victoria's voice starting to crack with emotion.

Looking up at her, he saw that her eyes were beginning to turn slightly red. He was just about to offer calling her friend to make sure the messages had gotten through...

That was when the large group of black SUV's then swarmed the entire front of the building. Not only were they on the street, but they pulled onto the sidewalk to get even closer to the target.

They watched armed as HYDRA agents poured out of every door and back hatch, numerous guns strapped to them as they headed for the entrances on the front and sides.

* * *

 **Avengers Tower**  
**Street Level**

"We're moving in now…begin your attack," he informed Max Lohmer over the earcom as he stepped foot into the lobby of the Tower.

"Good Afternoon," the pretty red-head with an Irish accent greeted Derek Webber, the HYDRA agent in charge of the ground forces as she watched the remaining ground troops pouring into the doors. She was wearing an sharp white suit and even as he pointed his gun right at her, she pleasantly smiled at him. What he was about to do was almost a shame.

"What floor is Tony Stark on!?" he demanded as the rest of his forces began to take the other lobby occupants hostage. Seeing that none of the guards put of any kind of resistance gave him a good feeling that this attack was going to go even better than they had expected. If the lobby guards didn't even bother to draw weapons at their arrival, then none of the upper level guards probably would not either.

"That's none of your business," she informed him with a lovely smile.

"Oh, how wrong you are, sweetheart!" he informed her as he pulled the trigger.

* * *

**Near Avengers Tower  
Inside the Viper**

_"We're moving in now…begin your attack."_

Hearing that the ground forces were in the lobby, the pilot turn from over the East River into the shadow of the buildings. Max was holding onto the overhead bar as the Viper made the final turn to put them over Park Avenue with Avengers Tower directly before them, looming over Grand Central Station. As the pilot flew them down the street, he began to pull the nose up so that they were aimed at the top levels of the Tower where the personal residences of the Avengers were located. Just as they reached the Quinjet's landing platform, the pilot began to fire at the structure.

"Detonate all the bombs," Max grinned at the agent to his left who was in charge of the triggers for the devices.

* * *

**Avengers Tower Lobby**

Derek watched as the female stumbled back from where she was standing behind the welcome desk. He smiled, waiting for her to fall dead, but as the seconds continued to pass without it happening, his grin slowly faded.

"That was not very nice, but then, HYDRA never has been," she told him with a lovely scowl on her face.

Looking down at where his shot had impacted her, instead of her white suit being stained red with blood, he saw the external skin of a robot behind the cloth. The shot had barely even damaged the outer layer's material.

There was an instantaneous change in the overall sound of the lobby as all of the exterior doors slammed shut all around them, followed immediately by the sound of electronic locks securing them on the inside of the building. Glancing around, he then saw that most of the forty-two agents that had followed him in were already making their way, as previously instructed, towards the two staircase doors so they could ascend to start the killing spree. A third group was at the private elevator, trying to override its security measures to reach as high up as possible, hopefully the floor Max landed on.

"Take them out!" Derek screamed at the rest of his agents holding the guards prisoner. Gunfire sounded from every direction, giving a deafening echo through the large chamber.

* * *

Vic watched in horror as the flashing of multiple guns beginning to go off could be seen through the glass walls on the street. There had been a lot more agents than the thirty or so she had tried to warn them about. But right now, she could only guess that somehow Richard had _not_ been able to get her messages to the group. They were all going to die.

* * *

**Avengers Tower Lobby**

Firing his own weapon at the female again, Derek watched as she moved much quicker than he could ever expect. Giving a side-stepping full spin, she reached out and grabbed a hold of the end of his gun, trying to yank it from his grasp. The motion pulled him into the welcome desk, slamming his chest on the high edge of the item. As he was laying across it, her fist made contact with his face. Struggling with the female robot, he was able to eventually pull her out from behind the desk, onto her back on the open lobby floor.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" he screamed at her, aiming his gun at her face.

"I have been here since JARVIS went away," she informed him with a smile, as the sound of gunfire started to lessen. Glancing around, he saw that the remaining agents not heading up the stairs were being taken out by the guards. But upon inspection of their wounds, he saw they were robots also. The only humans in the lobby were HYDRA.

Derek reached up to reactivated his earcom, "Max! It's a trap!"

There was not a sound from the earcom in response to his warning.

In that lovely Irish accent, the female robot told him, "I'm sorry, but your party is unavailable at this time."

Pulling the trigger, he shot her directly in the chest again.

* * *

Victoria was staring at the screens, her eyes red and swollen with tears that she was holding in. Helmut examined the other screens and found the tourist camera with a view of the Viper firing on the top floors of the Tower. That was when he saw three small shapes streaking across the screen toward the attacking ship.

"Victoria," he got her attention away from the lobby screen so that she could see the other fight. "They're attacking the Viper. That's where Max was planning on being during the attack. He wanted to land on the platform and take out the Avengers personally."

They watched as all three flying outlines were able to draw the fire of the Viper away from the building, directing it at them.

"I recognize Iron Man and Falcon, but who is the other suit?" he asked curious as to who was fighting.

"That's Rescue. You know her as Pepper Potts," she informed him, stunning Helmut for a bit. Stark's own soulmate was in a suit defending her home with him. If he was willing to let her fight, then Victoria's own soulmates would probably have allowed her to join them. He was feeling much better about his decision to remove her from the danger as they watched the battle unfold.

* * *

**Outside Avengers Tower**

Pietro felt that he had the most boring part of the Towers defense. He had already been through every vehicle that HYDRA had arrived in, finding them not only empty of any agents but also free of explosives devices, something that Steve had thought of later as a possibility. Once they were all inside of the Tower, they had worried that they may have more of the bombs ready to detonate, destroying the ground level.

The other part of his assignment was to clear the street and sidewalks surround the Tower of any pedestrians to prevent casualties. The Iron Legion was already on the way down to permanently secure the area until after the battle. Once they were in place, he was to verify that FRIDAY had the lobby secured with the LMD's that had been placed inside to give the appearance of guards and workers.

Satisfied that the street was secured, he went to stand at the main lobby doors which were currently locked to prevent any HYDRA agent from escaping…as if they could outrun him. Looking inside he watched as the fighting began to lessen as the LMD's subdued their opponents. But Pietro noticed that the agent fighting with the receptionist LMD was putting up a much better fight, showing that he was more highly trained than the others.

* * *

"Who is that?" Helmut asked her as he looked back at the lobby screen.

"That's Pietro!" she told him, surprised at seeing him outside of the building in his uniform for some reason, staring through the doors into the lobby. "Why is he outside?"

"Does he normally dress like that?" he then asked.

"No, he's in his uniform," she pointed out. Then the realization started to come to her. "They must have Pietro outside to secure the vehicles and any agents that tried to escape…what he's great at doing. Nobody can outrun him. Every other one of the agents are now inside the Tower…probably trapped with the doors locked. That's why he's just standing there."

Taking a deep calming breath, Vic began to feel much better about what was happening. Tony, Pepper, and Sam had all shown up outside almost immediately as the Viper got into firing range. Pietro was already outside.

"I know we saw workers entering the building, but did you notice anyone actually leaving it?" she asked Helmut, pulling her chair up next to his a bit closer.

"Now that you ask, no. I didn't."

"They _did_ get the message," she sighed with relief. "They _tricked_ them into thinking it was a _normal_ workday."

* * *

 **Avengers Tower**  
**North Stairwell**

"It's like trying to deal with ants," Bucky complained as the agents kept swarming up the staircase at him, Steve, and Scott. Every once in a while an agent would suddenly fall back into others or fall over the railing to the floor below, none of them seeing the strike from a miniaturized Ant-Man headed their way.

Bucky had already gone through three of his guns, taking out countless targets while Steve was dealing with the ones that got past his preferred kill zone.

"I resemble that remark," Scott then joked over the earcom as Bucky watched another target launch over the handrail towards the ground a few floors below for no apparent reason.

"Clint, Wanda, how are you doing?" Steve asked over the open earcom that everyone had for the battle. They had been assigned the other stairwell to protect.

" _Like the man said…ants_ ," Clint commented as they heard a small explosion along with his voice. " _They're everywhere but it looks like they've finally stopped coming in from the ground floor's door_."

" _We have them contained_ ," Wanda's voice was sounding a bit tired. Steve knew that after too long, that the constant use of her powers would put a strain on her.

" _FRIDAY, can you open the lobby door I'm at_?" they all heard Pietro ask. " _Everything outside is secured. I can help finish taking care of the lobby guards and the lower staircase ones_."

" _Certainly, Pietro_ ," FRIDAY commented.

"This is going much better than I could have hoped," Steve said bashing another agent unconscious at his feet, watching him fall back into another, causing him to start to fall backwards. They were the lucky ones. Bucky was permanently taking out as many as he could. These would end up in a cell on Level Red until they could be escorted to the Raft.

"Do you think that one of these guys might know where Helmut took Vic?" Bucky asked swapping for another loaded set of guns.

"We'll be finding out later," Steve then asked, "Nat, Wade, anything on your level?"

" _They're about to be taken care of_ ," Nat informed him, making Steve worry a bit. They had been assigned to the common room and Quinjet level just in case Lohmer was able to actually land somehow.

"Did the Viperjet land?" Bucky then asked.

" _No. Somehow one of the agents was able to hack into the elevator's systems and override FRIDAY's controls to get up here_ ," Nat told him. " _Expected arrival in eleven seconds_."

" _Take care of your part of the mission_ ," Wade instructed them, " _We got this_."

"Yes, sir," Bucky responded as he finally ran out of guns and began a jumping attack on the lower agents trying to make their way up.

Steve started to pull the unconscious agents off of the stairs and onto the floor's platform. Pulling a large collection of long zip-ties from his leg pocket, he began to secure the wrist of the alive agents to the iron hand railing. It would keep them secured as they began the task of clean up in a little while.

* * *

Entering the lobby the only way he knew how, Pietro sped towards the one agent fighting with the receptionist still. They were using a lot of advanced fighting moves, but he was not ready for a speedster. As he went to swing at the female, Pietro gave a simple chop downwards to his forearm. When he came to a stop next to the two of them, he heard the agent screaming in pain at his broken forearm.

"Never hit a lady," he told him, looking over at the redhead, "even a robot one."

"Thanks, Pietro," she said in a very familiar voice.

"FRIDAY?"

"Yes," she smiled at him.

"What are you doing here?" he asked looking around the lobby at the other LMD's securing the agents in zip-ties.

"Someone had to be here to greet HYDRA," she told him, looking down before frowning. "He ruined my outfit."

Pietro had to laugh at that, getting FRIDAY to look at him.

"Less than a day and you already sound just like a real female," he grinned at her, taking a hold of the agent's wrist and lining it up with his broken arm's upper arm, using a zip-tie of his own to secure it in place. It would restrain him while leaving his injury free to prevent more damage to it. "How is everywhere else? Does anyone need help?"

"Wanda and Clint still have a few agents to take care of…" she barely got out before he was heading in his sister's direction.

* * *

 **Outside Avengers Tower**  
**Viper - Near Landing Platform**

"I don't know why they aren't going off, Sir," the damn idiot agent kept repeating as he fiddled with the bombs' detonator. More impacts on the hull sent buzzing sounds throughout the ship.

"Do something!" Max screamed at him again as they continued to take fire from the two Iron Man suits and Falcon. "Get us onto that damn platform and land!"

"I'm trying, but we are taking heavy damage from the electrical charges they are using on us," the pilot informed him. "They are messing with the ship's systems. Normal ammunition would have been stopped by the outer hull."

"Derek, come in!" Max then screamed into an open communications channel. There was nothing but static coming back at him. Even if he was dead, the comm would have indicated an open channel. Instead, he was getting nothing. "Damn it! They're blocking our signals! How the fuck could they know to…"

The understanding finally came to Max. Between their signals being blocked, the specialty ammunition being used to try and disable the jet, but most importantly the bombs not detonating, Max Lohmer knew that he had been set up…and specifically by whom. There was only one person who knew of the attack that was not here. Another large volley of electrical shots rocked them, the panel in front of the pilot going crazy as warning buzzers began to sound.

"Put a fucking _missile_ into the platform's door, blocking that damn jet of theirs from _following_ us and get us the _hell_ out of here!"

"Yes, Sir," the pilot said angling the Viper sideways so that he could get a better shot on the door locking the Quinjet into its hanger.

"What about our ground troops?" one of the agents behind him asked.

"We were set up! They've probably already fucking dead!" he turned to inform them, getting matching scowls from the eight agents he had planned on helping him kill the Avengers.

Watching the missile impact, they could see that it had warped the hanger door so that it would take some time before it could be opened. The pilot then turned and started to head back to the west where the location was that they had been gathering for the past week. He had made it a few streets away from the Tower before Max called out to him.

"No, take us back to the fucking castle!"

Seconds later, the pilot made a lower roll, twisting the ship in a downward U-turn, so they faced the opposite direction. He also maneuvered then between the building to give cover, preventing the heroic trio from firing any more shots at them for fear of hitting passing buildings or pedestrians.

They made the final turn to break free of the Manhattan skyline and the pilot had the Viper turned to face out towards the Atlantic Ocean.

* * *

**Outside and Above Avengers Tower**

"What do we do?" Sam asked over the earcom to Tony and Pepper as they watched the Viperjet maneuvering away from the Tower to make a run for it. "There's no way that we can follow them."

" _Tony_ ," Pepper then responded, " _The hanger door is jammed. We can't get it open to use the Quinjet to follow_."

" _They're not getting away that easily_ ," Tony said as Sam watched him take off after the jet, his thrusters burning hot.

Trying to follow the best that he could, Sam watched as they quickly passed through the city and made it over the East River, Brooklyn, and then Queens. Following behind the two items that were pulling away from him thanks to their speed, Sam landed on the ground at the Long Island State Park, not willing to head out over the open ocean. He could see the Viperjet's rear guns still firing at the Iron Man pursuing them.

" _Tony, you're not going to stop them all on your own_ ," Pepper called out.

He wondered how much she was able to see. Her own suit system probably gave her a heads-up display of whatever Tony was seeing.

" _I'm not trying to_ _ **stop**_ _them_ ," he said over the comm system.

A few minutes later, Sam saw Tony heading back from over the water so he took off to join him in returning to the Tower.

* * *

 **Common Room Level**  
**Minutes Earlier – During Max's Attack Run**

As the melodic ding indicating the elevator's arrival at their floor, Nat took a final calming breath hoping that his plan worked out for her and Wade. Nat cocked the guns in her hands seconds before the doors opened and the HYDRA agents began to pour into the hallway leading to the common room. The eight guards instantly began a run down the darkened hall to the bright room without hesitation. They didn't seem to expect any resistance, and until they reached the right spot, they wouldn't have any.

"Sir, we've reached the top floor! Have you landed?" one of the agents called out. "Sir? Are you receiving? Hello?"

"Cake or death?"

The guards then began to look around for where the voice had come from, but where Wade was hiding gave him full cover.

"Cake or death?" he called out again, but this time two of the guards began to open fire in his general direction, which was above and to the right of them. After they had expended the rounds in their guns, Wade called out, "Death it is."

With that, Natasha popped up from where she had been hiding just behind the door to the women's bathroom. The agents had passed right by her, putting them between her and Wade, leaving them open to attacks from above and behind. Three of the agents fell to the ground dead while the others began to back further into the room, using the pool table as partial cover.

"Now, Tasha."

Ducking back into the bathroom for cover after hearing Wade's signal on her earcom. Seconds later, the flash-bang grenade that he dropped from overhead into the pile of agents went off, stunning and deafening them. Two more quickly dropped their weapons, covering their ears with their hands as they crawled out on their knees from behind the pool table in the most inelegant pose for surrendering. The three remaining agents were taken down by Wade from above before she even had a chance to make it down the hall and into the large open space.

"Couldn't leave me any?" she asked while grabbing the first surrendered agent's wrists and pulling them behind him to zip-tie. She then led him away from the pool table before going back for the other live agent.

"I have a feeling that if I made a joke about leaving the cleanup to a female, I'll be sleeping alone tonight," he quipped while coming down the stairs still watching the agents with his guns aimed at them. He swiftly moved to check the other three he had shot behind the pool table to make sure they were really dead.

Giving him an evil-eye as she stood before him while poking her finger in his chest, Nat told him, "Between that sentence and the cake or death joke, I think I have figured out where Victoria gets her twisted sense of humor."

"Why, thank you, darling!"

With that comment, the upper Tower floor was rocked by a detonation from the floor below where they were. The force of the explosion burst through the glass windows that separated the Quinjet's hanger area from the common room's area. Pulling Natasha against his body, Wade turned her away from the direction of the flying shards, covering her body with his own. Nat heard the sound of multiple screams of pain, and unfortunately she recognized the voice of one of them.

"Wade!" she cried out trying to turn around to face him, but his arms held her tight to his body.

"It's alright, Camellia," his voice sounded much too strained for her to believe that.

Pulling herself free, with the loss of her body helping to support him upright, Wade stumbled the few feet over to the pool table to use the side rail to brace himself. At first, Nat couldn't see anything wrong with him, but then as she moved to look at his back, her entire body shook at the sight before her. Luckily, most of the glass shards had impacted on his bulletproof vest. But the entirety of Wade's head, neck, arms, and legs were littered with bright red dots that were steadily growing in size with each passing second. There were larger chunks of glass visible in areas while most were only accompanied by bloody skin visible through torn material.

"Medical, we need you on the common room floor, immediately," Nat called over the earcom to a secured channel dedicated to medical.

Steve had talked with the medical teams as the individuals arrived, giving them a full accounting of what was about to happen at the Tower. They were given the option of either going to the theater with other employees to be safe, or to remain on the medical level in an interior room in case they were needed.

All of them had agreed to stay.

" _ETA, one minute_ ," she head one of the technicians respond.


	109. The Same Direction

**Avengers Tower**  
**Minutes After The Attack**

"How is everyone?" Steve asked as he finished up securing the last alive agent on his level.

Bucky was going through the pile of bodies and pulling out any agent that was injured and needed medical help. There were not a lot of them. Bucky had no love at all for HYDRA so he had not hesitated at killing the invaders into the home. Scott was securing the ones on the lower level.

" _We're fine_ ," Clint sounded out over the earcom, sounding like he was moving up the stairs by the heavy breathing.

" _We have a bit of a problem_ ," Tony then chimed in, making Steve stop his descent on the stairs. " _The Viperjet kind of got away_."

" _How did they manage that_?" Wanda then asked.

" _The electrical charges we were using damaged them but they weren't enough to take them down. Instead of following us away from the Tower so we could take them down like we hoped, they put a missile into the hanger door before running with their tails between their legs_."

"Does anyone have eyes on Lohmer?" Steve asked everyone, receiving negative responses from everyone except…

" _Max Lohmer was in the Viperjet_ ," FRIDAY informed everyone.

" _How do you know this_?" Tony asked.

" _I heard the HYDRA agent who shot me calling out to him_ ," she then said, getting everyone's attention with the comment.

" _How did he shoot you_?" Pepper then asked.

" _Because I am in control of an LMD in the lobby_ ," the AI informed them. It seemed that even FRIDAY had wanted to get in on the defense of the Tower.

Steve looked over at Bucky who was still dealing with downed agents. That was when he realized that Nat and Wade had never checked in. The last he had heard was that the elevator with agents was about to arrive for them to deal with.

"Wade, Nat, what is your status?"

There was no response for a very long couple of seconds.

"Pietro, can you head to Wade and Nat in the common room? I'm not getting a response," he requested of the speedster.

" _Give me five seconds_ ," Steve heard before there was a pause as he put his shield on his back. " _Cap, medical is here. Wade's been injured_."

"FRIDAY, bring the elevator to my floor. Buck!"

Hearing his name, Bucky headed up the stairs towards him at the fullest run he could manage with all of the bodies knowing that something was wrong. All lower floor doors had been locked to prevent agents from exiting the stairwell. Only small arm explosives would be able to get through the fireproof doors.

By the time Bucky reached the level Steve was already on, he had the door open and waiting for the running man. As they rounded the corner to get to their destination, the elevator was waiting for them. Stepping inside, he requested the common room as he told Bucky about Wade. The next thirty seconds were the longest Steve could remember in quite a while.

Stepping into the room, they first saw two secured HYDRA agents kneeling against the wall. Rounding the corner where the hallway ended, they spotted Wade hunched over the pool table supporting himself on his elbows while three of the medical staff were standing behind him. They could tell that Natasha had been crying, a very rare sight.

Walking over to where they were, he and Bucky saw the damage that had been done to Wade's backside areas. It was the drips of blood steadily coming from his long hair that him Steve the most worried, not knowing how injured his head may be. Seeing the shattered glass everywhere and knowing that Lohmer had fired a missile to prevent the Quinjet from launching, they knew what had happened.

"How is he?" Bucky asked one of the medics.

"There's a lot of glass embedded and it will take time to remove it all. Nothing life threatening that we can find with an initial examination, but Wade needs to be taken to medical so he can get the glass removed," the female tech told them.

Steve then walked around to Wade's left while Bucky stood on his right. They both carefully wrapped their arms around him, putting his own arms over their shoulders to help alleviate the pressure on his injured legs as they started to lead him towards the elevator.

"I'll escort these two down to Level Red," Pietro informed them, walking next to Nat behind them.

"Thanks," they heard her say.

"If _either_ of you _runts_ tells _Vic_ that I got _injured_ , I'll have _both_ your heads," Wade grumbled at them as they, Natasha, and the medics rode the elevator down.

Steve looked over at Bucky, who just shook his head. If they were able to tell Victoria, Wade would be mad at them. If they didn't tell her and she found out, they would be in trouble. For them, it was a no win situation.

"Don't listen to him," Nat said as they headed into the medical bay. "He's just grumpy. You should definitely be more afraid of Vic."

* * *

"What do you mean he got away?" Bucky practically screamed at Tony. He had unfortunately missed that part of the conversation earlier.

"They didn't take the bait," he tried explaining again as the small group stood in the hallway of the medical floor outside of the operating room that Wade had been taken into. He, Bucky, and Nat had been watching the two doctors picking the glass shards out of Wade when Tony showed up to see how he was doing.

"Do you realize what he could possibly do in retaliation for today's failed attempt?" Steve pointed out to the group. Everyone else was still on open earcoms until the final cleanup of the remaining alive HYDRA agents was taken care of. The Iron Legion had been brought inside to gather and escort them to Level Red to be questioned later. "And there is no way to track the Viperjet, just like Zemo's!"

"I wouldn't necessarily say that," Tony then gave them one of those smiles.

"What did you do, Tony?" Nat asked with a strained voice never looking away from the window where she could see Wade.

"I may have been able to shoot one of my trackers onto the hull as they skedaddled away," he grinned at them.

Steve relaxed only a bit at hearing that, knowing that they would be able to follow Lohmer.

" _Tony, we are ready for you up here_ ," Pepper then called over the earcom. She and Scott were working with FRIDAY to work on the problem of removing the damaged hanger door so they could get the Quinjet out. Once that was worked out, Tony and Scott would do the actual work.

"I'm on my way," Tony said walking towards the elevator. "Everyone who's going with us needs to be geared up and ready to leave once we get the door off. If they land and find the tracker, that's it. They could easily give us the slip."

Watching him step onto the elevator, Steve looked back at Wade. The doctor had first requested that he be put fully under for the procedure, but Wade seemed to have a stubborn streak like Victoria and had refused. He had at least relented to having a numbing drug injected over the injured areas but only after Nat had threatened him.

"Nat, why don't you stay here with Wade?" he asked but really it was more of a comment.

"That will be fine," she told him finally turning from the door. "Someone responsible has to hang around for when Fury and SHIELD get here to take our guests off of our hands."

"Steve," Bucky then got his attention, "We need to question any of those agents about Zemo and where he may have taken Vic before SHIELD takes them."

Giving him a nod, Bucky turned back to Nat, asking, "Care to get out of here for a few minutes? Wade's not going anywhere. And it might make you feel better to maybe help extract some good news for when the docs' are finished?"

The sly grin that Nat gave told him that she agreed to accept his offer.

"I'll stay here," Steve told them, wondering how the agents were going to fair with them two working on them.

* * *

**Less Than An Hour Later**

As Tony and Scott worked on cutting away the large hanger door and moving the pieces out of the way, Pepper stood back in the partially destroyed mission prep room.

Hearing the elevator behind her ding, she turned to see a red-head in a white dress step out. The stomach area of her dress was destroyed and Pepper could see the mechanical body of the LMD underneath. She had been talking with FRIDAY through the Tower's systems, but this was the first time seeing her.

"Hello, Pepper," FRIDAY's voice came from the robot which stopped next to her.

"Hello, FRIDAY," she responded, feeling a bit strange at having an actual entity to say that to. "How did everything with the employees go?"

"All Stark Industries employees have been released from the theater and been given transportation to either the nearest subway entrance or ferry, depending on how they travel to work, with the rest of the week off, paid of course, until cleanup and repairs to the lower floors are completed. There were zero casualties of civilians during the attack," she informed her. FRIDAY looked around the damaged room before saying, "My simulations did not calculate any damage to this room."

"We didn't know that Max would put a missile into it. It's hard to judge human nature, especially when their survival is on the line," she pointed out.

"I will have to see if there is a way to try and take that into account for future simulations."

Tony was cutting large sections of the hanger door off as Scott stood out near the edge of the landing platform controlling a small group of large flying ants. Scott had enlarged them so that they could easily carry the scrap pieces of metal from the platform and down to the street level on the closed off sidewalk. The opposite side of the street was filled with onlookers constantly snapping pictures of the creatures working.

" _Tony, how much longer_?" Steve's voices sounded over the earcom. He was still down in medical while Bucky and Natasha were on their own questioning the HYDRA agents about possibly knowing where Zemo was holed up with Victoria. Pepper wondered how much of a chance that any of them knew anything was…probably not much she guessed.

" _Less than ten minutes_ ," Tony told him as another ant grabbed the metal slab and headed down the ramp. Pepper wanted to take her own pictures but she restrained herself.

" _How far can they get before the tracker is useless_?" Steve asked.

" _It's linked to the SI satellites so there's nowhere they could run and hide that I can't find them_ ," Tony sounded very proud with that statement.

Hearing the elevator open up, she and FRIDAY turned to see Natasha and a distraught Bucky exiting.

"Any luck?" Pepper asked but considering how upset Bucky looked…

"No, not really," Nat said coming over to watch the strange workers that were helping. "Most of the agents rounded up were called in by Lohmer from all around the globe. It looked like he was trying for a final suicide run on us, and he wanted as many agents as he could get to help him."

"We did find out that only a handful of agents were known to leave Sin's castle and meet up with Lohmer, but when he sent out his death call, they all gathered at a base over in Hackensack," Bucky informed them.

" _Hackensack? But that's to the west_?" Tony's voice sounded over the earcom. " _Lohmer took off over the Atlantic_."

Steve's strong voice then firmly and seriously asked, " _Are you saying that Lohmer just escaped in the same last know direction as Zemo_?"

Pepper visibly saw a change in Bucky as hearing that question asked. His face ranged from anger to fear and back as probably everyone was considering the possibilities.

"If Lohmer somehow figured out that he was set up by Zemo, then he may be heading to him and Vic right now!" Bucky practically yelled. "Tony, get that damn door out of the way!"

With that, Bucky turned and began to load all of the available weapons still in the locker area, even grabbing guns from Natasha's cubbie. Natasha walked over pulling out extra ammo magazines to help load them while Bucky focused on the ones before him. Pepper unfortunately agreed that there was a very good chance that his statement had a strong possibility of being true.

" _FRIDAY, where is the tracker on the Viperjet showing right now_?" Steve asked over the earcom.

Pepper looked as the LMD next to her as she stated, "Still heading east over the Atlantic. As of right now, they have a fifty-seven minute lead and counting."

"Is there any way to discern where they may be headed?" Pepper asked.

"There are multiple countries that their current flight path will take them over, if they continue on their current route without deviation…France, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, then they would pass over the Black Sea to…"

" _Alright, we get it_ ," Clint then sounded in, " _But there is a good chance that Max did figured out that it was Zemo who betrayed him thanks to the bombs not going off…especially if Zemo was the one who made them_."

" _We need to get after him no matter the reason_!" Steve sounded like he was running, which he may be if he was trying to get here. " _If he tried something this brazen, there's no telling what he may come up with as retaliation for failure_."

" _Two minutes_ ," Tony informed them as he worked on the final piece of twisted metal. " _Who is going and who is staying_?"

"I'm staying," Natasha was the first to respond.

" _Bucky and I are going_ ," Steve firmly stated.

" _Thanks, Captain Obvious_ ," Tony chimed in.

Pepper could hear Steve grumbling over the earcom at the jest.

" _How long have you been waiting to use that one_?" Clint then asked.

" _Months_!"

" _Pietro and I will stay to help with moving the prisoners_ ," Wanda's voice sounded out.

" _I'll stay since I'm still not official_ ," Scott offered. " _That way there's no way I'll get arrested again in case of an incident_."

" _How many times_ _ **have**_ _you been arrested_?" Sam asked.

" _Since I don't know if escaping before being processed counts, I'll just consider that a_ _ **rhetorical**_ _question_ ," Scott answered, earning him a couple of chuckles.

" _I'll go_ ," Clint offered.

" _Me too_ ," they heard Sam say. He was working in Tony's lab repairing some damage that his wings had taken during the fight outside. " _I'm finished with the repairs_."

"Everyone who's going needs to get here now," Bucky said putting a massive amount of guns into a duffle bag.

From the stairwell, Steve emerged still in uniform with his shield already on his back a bit out of breath. Because he could, Sam flew through the now-open window above the Quinjet hanger to land next to her and Nat, giving them a slight bow as he did so.

"Ladies," he said with a cheesy grin.

"Nice trick, Polly," Pepper then patted at her pockets telling him, "Sorry, I'm all out of crackers."

"Yep, you are _definitely_ Tony's soulmate," he shook his head while walking over towards the Quinjet's ramp.

Coming over to Natasha, Steve told her, "They were just moving Wade in a recovery room. They were able to get all of the glass out and only a few of them were large enough to need any stitches."

"Thanks," she told him seeming relieved. "I'll watch over him for Victoria. Fury is scheduled to be here by morning."

"We weren't able to question every single agent but go through the rest of them and see if you can find anything," Bucky requested of Natasha.

"I'll contact you if I learn anything useful," she said looking between the two worried super-soldiers.

Tony came around from the front of the Quinjet, finally finished with the work, stepping out of his suit so that he could wrap his arms around her.

"Sure you don't want to come with us?" he asked with one of his looks. "An aerial chase, hunting down HYDRA bad guys, kicking a bit of ass…it'll make for a great story."

"I'm sure it will, but unfortunately _I'm_ the _responsible_ _one_ in _this_ relationship," she told him with a kiss. "Besides, I can start to work on repairing _my_ Tower."

" _Your_ Tower?" he looked genuinely shocked by her comment.

"Yes, remember that little piece of paper on which you signed _everything_ over to me?"

"But…it's _Stark_ Tower!"

"Make that _Potts_ Tower," she told Tony, giving his cheek a kiss as Natasha smiled at the conversation at her side.

"Only for as long as it takes for me to get back here," Tony was reaching into his pocket. Pepper expected another piece of jewelry from the ' _forgive me'_ stash, but instead a small black velvet pouch sat in his hand. Opening it up as Tony went down to his knee, she saw a beautiful custom made diamond engagement ring formed to match not only the arc reactor, but their matching soulmarks. "Then we can officially make you Pepper Stark…that way the Tower keeps the proper name."

Tony took the ring out of the box, sliding it onto her finger, which it was a perfect fit for.

"So, would you be willing to accept _this merger_ , Miss Potts?" Tony looked up at her expecting an answer. For the next few moments, all she could do was look between him and the ring. "It's been carried around in my pocket for far too long. I think that we need to make it official."

"Tony…I don't know what to say," Pepper responded still in shock.

"That's alright. I say enough _all_ of the time for the _both_ of us," he grinned at her as he stood up.

Wrapping her arms around him, they kissed as all of their friends…no, the most unique family around clapped and congratulated them.

When they finally separated, Tony looked around the room at everyone staring at them, then yelled, "Why am I always waiting on all of you? Get in the jet and let's go catch some bad guys!"

* * *

Watching Tony and Pepper kiss, Bucky's gut had given him a sinking feeling. It not that he wasn't happy for the two of them, but seeing Tony finally proposing to Pepper made him realize that it was something that the three of the could never officially have. Not a single state had ever declared it legal for a three-way soulmark match to ever be recognized as a legally wed couple. The best he and Steve could ever be to Vic would be sworn faithful lovers.

Unless only one of them married her.

Glancing over at Steve smiling while he had been watching the newly engaged couple, Bucky knew that it would have to be Steve who needed to propose to Vic. He was the more honorable one between the two of them, the more well respected, the war hero, the one who had always fought on the side of righteousness…the one who had not been a mindless killing machine at HYDRA's command for decades. Between the two of them, Vic deserved to have a name recognizable that people associated with true heroism.

And once they got her back from wherever Zemo had taken her, he would point that out to Steve.


	110. Late Night Visitors Suck

**Inside the Viper  
Over the Atlantic Ocean**

"When we land," Max Lohmer began to instruct the troops, "I want a group to find Zemo and take him prisoner. A second group is to head to the communications room and search the computers. I want to know if that bastard really did in fact warn the Avengers that we were attacking. It's the only way we were defeated so easily. Is there anyone here who can fix the damage to the Viper?"

One younger agent informed him, "I helped out in the motor pool for a while, and I've done some minor mechanical work."

"See what you can do to fix the Viper in case we need it. Hopefully Zemo is still at the castle and we can use the other one left there if we need, but I'd like to have as much available equipment as possible."

"Yes, Sir."

The nine agents with him then began to talk and group amongst themselves, paring off into the commanded teams. He hoped that Zemo had stayed at the castle since he did not expect them to be returning…unless the attack on Avengers Tower had been completely successful. Right now, he was not about to trust anything that came from his mouth. That's why he wanted the computer geeks to confirm his suspicions that he had been set up. Zemo had been very useful when it had come to creating the device which took out Iron Man and the Winter Soldier's arm, as well as the bombs that should have worked. If the Avengers had found out some other way, he would not toss away a potential ally like that.

But if Zemo _had_ betrayed him…he was in for a world of pain.

* * *

 **The Quinjet**  
**Further Back Over the Atlantic Ocean**

"The tracker is still showing the Viperjet on the same course since leaving New York," Tony informed the rest of them, but since it was on the main screen for everyone to watch, it was a bit obvious without the sideline commentary, Clint thought.

"Any chance that they will find the tracker?" Steve asked from where he was sitting off to the side. Ever since Bucky had brought up the fact that Lohmer could be heading right for Vic, the two of them had been more than a bit on edge the entire flight.

"Only if they land and start crawling around on the hull," Tony pointed out.

"How far behind them are we...time wise?" Sam asked.

"Right now, just under an hour," Tony said, "But I don't want to push the Quinjet too much when it comes to power since we don't know where exactly they are going. I do have her at 85%, but if I jack up the speed to try and catch them, we could run out of fuel if they have a chance to refuel and keep going."

"Let's just hope that they land soon, somewhere not near Victoria, so that we can take them out for good," Steve commented.

"They will just start their flight over land in eight minutes, starting in France," Tony was looking at the two blinking dots, a green one for the Viperjet and a red one for the Quinjet, on the main screen.

* * *

 **Romania**  
**Late At Night**

Victoria was sitting in the office chair staring intently at the three computer screens in front of her. All of them showing, for the most part, the exact same thing…news broadcasts of the day's events at Avengers Tower. For the past four hours, she and Helmut had been watching the different reports of what had happened at the Tower. For the first hour, most of the reports had been nothing but speculation since there was no confirmation from anyone inside of the Tower as to the nature of the attack. That had been the worst hour for her since she had no idea if any of her friends were injured or dead.

But finally, Pepper had emerged with Happy and a strange looking red-headed female who not only stayed in the background but for some reason was wearing a dress she recognized as Pepper's. Pepper confirmed that an attack by HYDRA agents had indeed been attempted, but that they were either killed or captured during their raid. The questions eventually made it to how they were able to have such a quick response and if there were any employees that were injured. Vic then learned that the employees that did show for work that day were removed from the Tower covertly as to not raise suspicions and that there were no civilian casualties, which Vic found the way it was worded to be a bit strange. Did that mean that there were team casualties?

When Pepper answered as to how they knew of the attack, she did not go into detail but only stated that a trusted anonymous source close to the Avengers team had been able to warn them. They both noticed that the additional bombs places around the city were not mentioned. Her and Helmut agreed that it was probably a good thing as people may not believe that all of them were disarmed and it could start a panic.

" _They_ may not right now, but _I_ count you as being part of that _trusted_ source," she told Helmut with a genuine smile and a punch on the arm. "So, how does it feel to now be officially one of the good guys?"

Seeing the slight reddening of his cheeks returning to normal after her praise, Helmut answered, "Rewarding."

Now that the hour was getting late, and there was no more official new information being released, Vic decided that it was at least time for Helmut to go to bed. He had been sitting in his chair yawning for the past hour, and more recently his eyes were starting to drop.

"Come on," she said turning off the computer screens, "Bedtime."

"Maybe by morning there will be news more to your liking," he told her, stretching as he stood.

He knew that she had been specifically hoping to see either Steve or Bucky show on the screen, but they never did, along with any Avenger. She knew that at least Scott was at the Tower thanks to the large ants helping with the cleanup. Turning off the lights in the computer room, they made their way upstairs to the bedroom corridor with Sentry following behind the entire way.

"Helmut, since I don't sleep for long," she decided to ask, "would it be alright to leave the metal door unlocked with Sentry guarding me from the hallway?"

He looked over at her with suspicion at the request.

"In the early morning, after I sleep, I can then go to the gym and work out before you even wake up. Plus I can get breakfast started," she pointed out.

"You had my agreement at _the gym without me_ ," he grinned at her.

"Trust me, you'll be needing to go if I keep cooking for you. Just ask Tony," she joked.

"Sentry," Helmut then turned to the robot, "Continue to guard Victoria, but she will be allowed to leave her room while I sleep as long as you follow her. She still cannot leave the castle walls or access the computers without my presence."

" _Understood, Baron_ ," the silver machine responded, taking up residence on the opposite side of the hallway from her door.

"Thanks," she said heading further down the hallway. "See you in the morning, Helmut."

"Good night, Victoria," he told her with a nod of his head as he opened his bedroom door and went inside, closing it behind him.

Stepping into her own room, she felt a lot better already knowing that at least she was not locked inside of the small chamber anymore. Hopefully after he got used to having someone around that he could trust, she might be able to convince Helmut to drop Sentry's guard dog duty. After sitting in front of the computers for so long, her body going between tense and relief as different information had been released, Vic decided that a trip to her sauna before bed would be perfect.

* * *

**The Quinjet  
Hours Later**

"They've slowed and altered course," Tony informed the rest of the group as he watched the main screen while Clint continued to follow the trail FRIDAY was displaying for him as he flew the Quinjet. "Looks like they are going to land in Romania, somewhere in the southern Carpathian mountains."

"Can you pull up a current satellite image of the immediate area around them?" Steve asked as Tony's fingers began to fly over the screen. Turning around in the chair for a look, they all examined the area it looked like Lohmer was running to. It was mostly wooded mountainous area but there was a small narrow town nestled between the ranges. There was also one noticeably different area not too far away.

"What is this?" Bucky asked pointing at the same area he noticed.

Tony swiped the screen, enlarging and cleaning up the picture as an image appeared.

"Is that a castle?" Clint asked sounding incredulous. "What is it with HYDRA and castles?"

"Rapunzel!" Steve then said, getting everyone attention. Bucky's right fist smashed onto the metal workstation's top, luckily not damaging anything.

"What?" Sam then asked looking between the two of them.

"Victoria signed the message to us using the name Rapunzel. Considering that name and the fact that she was somewhere high, this probably means that Lohmer just found Victoria and Zemo."

"Clint, go ahead and put all extra engine power into play now that we know where they are going," Tony told him.

"Got it," he said turning back around and jacking up their speed.

FRIDAY recalculated their arrival time to the new destination as just about 28 minutes now that they knew where they were going. That was still a lot of time for Lohmer to get to Vic and Zemo, which brought a sinking feeling to his stomach.

* * *

 **The Viper**  
**Romania**

"Sir, two minutes until landing," he heard the pilot telling Lohmer.

Kolt looked over at the other three that were assigned with him to find Zemo. Thanks to the late hour of being past 1:30am in the very early morning, there was a good chance that they would find him asleep in bed when they arrived at the castle. Luckily the stealth system had not been damaged so the Viper would be coming in with its engines in silent mode as to not wake the hopefully sleeping betrayer.

When their jet sat on the ground of the castle's bailey and the ramp lowered, they began their run. Parked not far away, he could see that the other Viper was still here, a good indication that Zemo had not left. Opening up the large wooden doors, they began to move to the great room before heading up the spiral staircase closest to the side where the sleeping chambers were located. Lohmer had mentioned that Zemo had already been staying in the first room on the left and that they should check there first for him. Reaching it, they all saw the glow of firelight from underneath of the bedroom's wooden door.

Looking over his shoulder and seeing the other three agents armed and ready, he threw open the door. There was a fire going which gave the room enough light to see by. The sound of the wood banging onto the wall with the hard force startled the sleeping form on the bed into a sitting position. But he was not unprepared. In Zemo's hand was a gun which he had pulled out from under the pillow under his head.

"Drop it," Kolt demanded as the four of them all returned the favor and pointed their weapons at him. He saw Zemo looking over at them in fear at the four weapons drawn on him before he finally did as they commanded by tossing the gun near the foot of the mattress. "Slowly, get out of the bed. Hands where we can see them."

Zemo's eyes were wide, probably trying to figure a way out of this, but he valued his life and complied with the demands made. When he was standing on the floor, Kolt moved behind him with another agent. His hands were then zip-tied behind his back to secure him. Poking his gun into his spine, he nudged the man towards the open door. Lohmer had instructed them to bring him to the great hall.

But as they entered the hallway, Zemo then began to loudly speak in what Kolt believed was Sokovian, his native language. He did not understand anything being spoken or know who Zemo was talking to. Kolt hit him on the back of the head with the butt of his gun to quiet him. With that, Zemo was ushered forward by the other guards as Kolt heard a sound coming from the other end of the long dark hallway. Turning to face that direction, he was barely able to make out the delicate glow of firelight coming from the bedroom that was supposed to have been Sin's, if she had lived.

"Take the prisoner to Max," he instructed over his shoulder as the three guards began to roughly push the prisoner forward. Glaring down the hallway, his eyes adjusted more to the darkness and Kolt realized that there was something in the hallway.

That was when the Ultron Sentry that Zemo had been working on when they left weeks ago emerged from the darkness into the firelight, his glowing blue eyes watching him. Not taking the chance that Zemo had been instructing it to defend him, Kolt opened fire at the metal monstrosity. The other guards behind them turned to see what was going on and they soon joined in. The robot them fell to the ground destroyed by the numerous bullet holes now perforating the outer shell.

"I'll check to make sure its destroyed," he told the others as they then grabbed Zemo and hauled him away. "Take him to Max."

Walking down the dark hall, he watched as the exposed electronic wires of the robot sparked as it lay on the ground useless. Reaching a few feet away, Kolt saw that it was laying in the line of light that was indeed coming from Sin's room. Why would Zemo have a fire going in her room? Kolt then noticed that a metal bar door had been added to the door's frame so that it could be used as a prison. Why would Zemo need that? Seeing that the metal door was open, he pushed the wooden door open with the tip of his gun.

Inside of the room, the bed was unmade, as if some had been sleeping in it while the fire burned low so that it left numerous dark corners around the room. Not seeing anything immediately as a threat, Kolt stepped inside, his gun searching for a target. Stopping next to the bed, he reached out and found the spot warm...someone had just been here. So where were they now?

* * *

Looking down onto the intruder in her bedroom, Vic knew that the man dressed in tactical black gear was HYDRA, even without being able to clearly see the shoulder patch. The sound of Helmut's bedroom door slamming open had startled her awake so she had jumped out of bed. But when she had heard him yelling down the hallway to Sentry in Sokovian to disregard all previous commands and to guard and protect her, Vic knew that something bad was about to happen.

Just as she had done when she woke up in the room the other day, Vic used the chair to climb on to the top of the wardrobe. And from there she jumped and pulled herself up onto the ceiling's thick wooden crossbeam. Balancing across it, Vic was now perched over the open floor between the bedroom door and the balcony door.

That was when the gun shots had gone off. Vic heard the sound of Sentry's metal body collapsing to the floor. Moments later, the wooden door which she had left cracked, began to slowly open.

Watching the armed HYDRA agent carefully make his way into her room, she waited for just the right moment to make her move, hoping that no others appeared. Stepping right where she needed him to be, Victoria took in a breath and held it before she jumped from the beam onto the back of the agent, knocking him to the ground unconscious as his head hit the stone floor. Her own body did a rolling tuck as she landed on the ground, but she was uninjured from the attack.

Waiting a moment to see if anyone else made a sound from the hall, indicating they had heard the agent being taken out, she was satisfied that they were alone. Stepping over to his body, she pulled the gun free from his limp hand, tossing it onto the bed for now. Searching his body, she grinned as she removed a group of zip-ties from one of his pants pockets.

Thinking quickly, Vic knew that she could get answers from his as to what was happening but it had to be done smartly. Glancing at the balcony's door, she knew what she could do. But first, she needed a change of clothes.

* * *

Kolt was not sure what was happening, but he was cold and he was pretty sure that most of his clothing had been removed. Lifting his head off of his shoulder, he pulled at his arms but found that they were secured to the metal chair that he was sitting in. Only his boxers and a t-shirt had been left on him, his bare feet resting on something hard and cold. And how the hell had he gotten outside? What had happened to him?

"I see that you are awake," he heard a soft, cold feminine voice say from somewhere in front of him. That was when the shadow against the wall began to move towards where he was sitting high up. Wait…why was he off of the ground? "I need some answers, and you are going to give them to me."

"Fuck off, whoever you are," he sneered at her.

The movement of her hands, more specifically his tactical knife in them being twirled deftly through her fingers, caught his attention.

"Oh, that's not a nice attitude to have, considering the situation that you are in," the female stopped before him.

She was close enough to kick, and thanks to being up higher than her it would be a head shot, but when he tried Kolt found that his ankles were also zip-tied to the chair. As he began to struggle to free himself, the chair began to rock a bit more than he liked before the woman's voice caught his attention again.

"Uh-uh, I wouldn't do that unless you _really_ like to free-fall _without_ a parachute," he heard her say, making him stop all movement. Now Kolt really began to assess his surroundings. Looking over his shoulders, he was able to see that there was a balcony railing behind him. He knew the layout of the castle and it dawned on him that he was over the sheer cliff outside of Sin's room. "How many of you are there total?"

"Fuck off!" he now screamed at the female which he saw was wearing _his_ armored tactical vest over a set of all black clothes. She did not look pleased at all with that answer. Shaking her head in disappointment, the twirling knife stopped in a firm grip as she brought it down through the top of his bare left foot, only stopping as it hit the metal table top. His screams echoed into the distance mountains.

"Let's try that again. How _many_ of you are there?"

When he didn't answer right away, she slowly pulled the knife back out, causing just as much pain.

"Ten. There were ten of us," he decided to tell her, not that it would do a single female much good.

"Where did you come from?"

Again, he was hesitant to answer the questions.

That was when she gave the table a bit of wiggle and he realized that it would be no problem for her to deposit him over the edge.

" _Where_ did you come from?" she asked, starting to shake the table a bit more. There was no way she would really toss him over so he did not answer.

Sighing heavily, she plunged the knife into his right foot, wrenching another scream from him.

Not wanting to be permanently impaired by whatever she could do to him, he finally relented, deciding to answer her until he could get free, "New York!"

"Were you part of Max Lohmer's forces that attacked the Avengers Tower?"

"Yes," he said as she seemed to consider this. "I was on the Viper. We managed to get away."

"Max was supposed to be on that Viper," she commented, but sounding like she was speaking more to herself.

"Yes, but how the fuck do you know that?" he asked her angrily. "Who the fuck are you?"

"I'm the reason that your attack failed. Helmut and I contacted the Avengers and informed them of what Max was planning," she smiled up at him. "You may have heard of me. Victoria. Soulmate to the Winter Soldier and Captain America!"

"Fuck you and that traitorous bastard!" Kolt began to struggle fully again, trying to free himself so that he could kill this female himself. "You're the fucking reason Sin is dead!"

"You should be nicer," she reminded him with another wiggle of the table. He'd had enough of this shit!

"When I get down from here, I'm going to beat the shit out of you, fuck you until you bleed, and then pass you around to every other HYDRA agent here before I personally slit your throat!"

"Your momma must be _so_ proud," she sneered up at him.

"Fucking _whore_!" he struggled to try and kick at her. It must have irritated her too much since she stabbed his left foot again, leaving the knife there this time. Giving her an evil grin, he calmly told her, "I'm going to kill you just like we killed your two fucking soulmates!"

Kolt saw a dramatic change in her expression at hearing that. Finally, he had found something to get to her.

"Yeah, bitch! HYDRA shot them dead in the lobby as our forces stormed the place. They were no match for our numbers. They bled out real nice and slow, crying out for you! There are _no prisoners_ with HYDRA!"

He had no idea what had really happened to the two of them, but if she was here with Helmut for some reason, then maybe she had no real idea what had taken place inside the Tower. He watched as her body began to hunch in on itself, hoping that she was about to lose it and start crying. Seeing the bitch weakening like that, it made him start to laugh. He had guess correctly. He could tell her anything and she would believe him.

"Max is downstairs _right now_ probably already having gotten it out of Zemo that _he_ was the one who _betrayed_ us. Once he admits it, he's as _dead_ as your _pathetic_ soulmates! And then, _you're_ _next bitch_!"

It was as he finished speaking then laughing at her again that he saw her finally move. But it was not a move that he had actually been expecting.

"Then there's no point in _me_ taking prisoners _either_. _Fuck_ HYDRA!"

With those final words being screamed at him, Victoria lifted the edge of the table. As the chair he was strapped into began to tilt backward, Kolt realized his mistake in antagonizing her. He would never had guessed that she would _actually_ kill him. She was supposed to be one of the good guys!

For his last few seconds alive, all he could do was scream at the top of his lungs as his body weightlessly fell through the dark, cold night sky towards the waiting rocks below.

* * *

 **On the Quinjet**  
**About The Same Time**

Steve looked over at Bucky as the outside emotions invaded his body once again. But instead of passing through one at a time, they felt slightly different to him. A shattering loss was there at the core, but then it became surrounded by a calm sense of focused anger.

Their eyes met as they both understood that Victoria had just felt something emotionally devastating to her. What could it have been?


	111. Go To War

**Romania**  
**Grand Room**

 _That punch to his face was a lot more jarring than the last_ , Helmut thought as he spit more blood out from his mouth. Testing the zip-ties holding him to one of the large carved wooden chairs in the great hall, he found they still would not give at all. Max had disappeared to the lower rooms, probably to the communications one considering the questions he had been asking.

Max wanted to know if he had been the one to contact the Avengers and to disarm the bombs which he had made. Helmut had refused to answer, trying to buy time to figure a way out of this. Once his men checked the system, they would know the truth. The call and email may not have been able to be traced, but he'd had no reason to erase the evidence of them from these computers.

Since they had forced him out of the hallway, he had no idea what may have happened upstairs with Victoria after they left. There were no more sounds of gun fire, which was good. There were also no screams from her, which _might_ be good. But he couldn't understand why there was nothing else happening upstairs. The agent had never reappeared, and so far, the others had yet to notice his absence.

Had he found Victoria hiding in her room? Capturing and gagging her so that the others would not hear her scream as he violated her? How he hoped this was not true. He had brought Victoria here to protect her from HYDRA. Helmut knew that he had made a grave error with his judgement. When the attack was over, he should have put Victoria on the Viper and taken her home. As the agent's fist hit his face again, Helmut began to realize that he never should have brought her here to begin with. He should have just contacted the Avengers and told them about the attack. Helmut knew that he was paying for his stupidity. He only regretted that Victoria may pay for it too.

"It seems that we _do_ have a traitor in our midst," Max Lohmer called out to the assembled HYDRA agents in the great hall as he emerged from the door leading downstairs. Giving Helmut an evil smile, he knew what was coming, "As well as an extra visitor, it seems."

Hearing Max say that, Helmut began his struggles to try and free himself twice fold. Max crossed over the open floor until he stood between him and the table, peering down at him with hate all over his face.

"Spread out and find Victoria Roth!" he loudly announced to the five men. He could tell by the rumble that went through them that they knew that name. Rumlow had cursed about her enough to make Victoria a celebrity at Sin's castle. "Bring her to me...preferably alive! Three of you upstairs and one of you go check the cells downstairs. Was he alone in his chamber?"

"Yes, Sir," one of the guards who had brought him down stated as the men headed towards the spiral staircase and the door to downstairs.

Leaning over close to him, Max snidely remarked, "What? Couldn't get it up or was the pussy just not that good?"

Helmut formed a fist, wanting to smash his fist in Max's smug face. He could only struggle as he watched the four disappear into the hallway leading towards Victoria's bedroom.

"Once they bring her to me, I intend to find out for myself and finish what Rumlow wanted to do to her so badly," Max told him, giving him another punch to the face. "If it hadn't been for his damn obsession with that Bitch, then Sin would still be alive!"

"Leave her out of this!" he screamed at the man.

"Already getting your own little crush on her?" he asked before taking another swing. "But then you must have already had one to bring her here, right? I heard about you getting the Bitch for your own that night for a while before SHIELD showed up. I'm guessing that she must have been an amazing fuck in bed for you to snatch her away from the Asset and Operative. I read the letters you allowed her to send, warning them about me. So what dirty sex act did little miss goodie two-shoes agree to for that warning to go to the Avengers?"

"Fuck you!" Helmut spit blood towards him, earning another face punch. His wrists were stinging from the raw skin splitting against the tight plastic ties holding him in place. Glancing at them, he could see that they were both bloody from his struggles.

"I'm going to keep you alive just long enough to watch me fuck her while I slit her throat right here on this table," Max patted his hand on the long wooden table behind him.

That was when the gunshots from upstairs began.

* * *

**Minutes Earlier**

Vic made her way from the bedroom with a determination she had not had since Steve had returned. There was no way she was going to let these HYDRA assholes hurt anyone else, starting with Helmut. Silently making her way to the end the hallway, she crouched down behind the knee wall that overlooked the great hall.

Below here were four HYDRA agents milling around while a fifth took his time punching Helmut over and over who was zip-tied to one of the large carved chairs from the massive table. Even with the struggling he was doing she knew that he would not be able to free himself. She found it ironic that they had him secured just like she had the other HYDRA agent, only without the balcony behind him. Placing her back against the wall, Vic tried to figure out a plan of attack. The gun from the agent had been emptied into Sentry, leaving her with nothing.

Peering at the wall across from her, Vic scanned the assortment of medieval weapons that were mounted onto it. She smiled to herself as she remembered all of those long nights of training room practices while everyone else in the Tower slept, specifically the ones that Thor would use. They specialized in the use of archaic weapons against opponents with modern firearms. Now these weapons with which she had gained proficiency presented themselves to her on display, ready to be wielded once again.

Crossing over the gallery, Vic quietly lifted and tested the weight of a morningstar, finding that would thrive in her hand. Next she saw another item that may come in handy…a small target shield. It was about half the side of Steve's but it would easily fit over her left arm to help deflect any blows. She had used a similar one that had been programed to match Lady Sif's shield.

"It seems that we _do_ have a traitor in our midst," came a voice from the great hall below. Peeking over the edge, she saw that the HYDRA agent moving towards Helmut was Max Lohmer, "As well as an extra visitor, it seems."

That was her cue to move. Needing a more strategic location, Vic made her way back down the hallway. She knew they could lock her inside of her own bedroom, so she entered the one opposite of her own. Snatching the light's remote, she tossed it against the far wall - darkness would be her ally. Vic positioned her back against the wall touching her left shoulder to large wardrobe, obscuring her from view. Holding the mace at the ready, Vic was hidden there for less than a minute before she heard the sounds of the HYDRA agents clearing the other bedrooms searching for her.

Finally there was movement into this room. A single armed agent crept his way in as she slowed her breathing to calm and quiet it. She had trained for this and if she failed, not only was she dead but so was Helmut.

Bringing the target shield up to cover her lower face, thanks to the dark, it looked like more of a room decoration with her body hidden in shadow. Naturally thinking of her as a typical frightened girl from any horror movie, the agent crouched down to scan under the bed, facing away from her.

Taking a single large step forward, Vic raised the mace over her head and brought it down in a wide arching blow, striking the side of his head with such force that his body crumpled lifelessly to the floor. He never even had the chance to scream.

They would not hesitate to kill her, so this was all out war.

Steve and Bucky had made her promise to stay alive at all cost. And that was exactly what she meant to do. The price would be paid by HYDRA…with their blood.

"Otto?" another agent called out from the hallway. He must have heard the body's thump onto the floor. Glancing toward the hallway, she saw a shadow growing larger on the stone floor. As she attempted to ready her weapon, she found it resisting her pull. Vic then realized it was due to the morningstar spikes being stuck in his skull. Fuck. Not having enough time to unsling the gun from around him, she spotted a combat knife on his belt. Slipping it from the sheath, she backed up alongside the door. "Otto, answer me."

Slowly making his way into the room, he pushed the door further open, but there was a large enough space for it to rest against the wall without reaching the spot where she was. When he saw the body on the floor, thanks to the light from her own open bedroom door, his attention focused on Otto. Vic planted her feet, gripped her weapon tightly, and angled her body to prepare for her attack.

Once he was full inside of the room, she moved in to grab his throat with her off-hand as she plunged the knife at an upward angle under his exposed side where the armor couldn't protect him. Knowing he was going to shout out a warning, in a fluid motion, Vic used her off-hand to lower his weapon as she thrusted the knife into now his exposed neck.

As bullets then began to pour into the bedroom from the hallway she turned the dead agent in her arms around, using his larger armored body as a shield. The impact from the barrage of shots pushed her backwards towards this room's balcony. She was caught unaware as her foot snagged on the rug, causing her to loose her balance and stumble to the floor pulling the dead agent on top of her. The volley of bullets ceased suddenly as his magazine emptied.

Vic seized the opportunity and reached for the gun still attached to the agent on top of her. She took aim, squeezed the trigger and put three bullets into the head of the other agent before the gun stopped working. Vic listened for a few moments, but there were no other sounds coming from the hallway to indicate that there was anyone else.

"Status?" she heard screamed from somewhere far away, most likely Max in the great hall, trying to figure out what all of the gunfire meant. Rolling the body off of her, she found that his gun had been damaged from the assault. Moving to the agent with the head wound, Vic decoupled the sling to remove his gun. Heading out of the room, she paused only long enough to grab the full magazine that the third one had been trying to reload with.

Crouching as she made her way towards the long gallery again, she hoped that she could get the drop on Max. He was the one that she was looking forward to taking out. And this time, there _were_ bullets in the gun.

Vic turned the corner while staying low, she chanced a quick peek over the wall into the great hall. There were only two agents there, with Max being one of them. Even from where she was Vic could see Helmut still zip-tied to the dining chair, hands and feet. He would not be able to help with what was about to happen.

"Come on out, Bitch!" Max then yelled to her from close to Zemo. The only other agent was that the other end of the large table, closer to her. "I know you're there!"

Grasping the gun in her hand, Vic took a deep calming breath as she readied her stance to protect her new friend. Popping up suddenly, Vic began unloading her gun in a straight line between Helmut and Max across the wooden table. Seeing the pattern coming towards him, Max sidestepped away from Helmut as he began to open fire along with the other agent. Vic ducked back behind the knee wall as the bullets struck it and the ceiling over her head, small pieces of chipped stone raining down onto her. Waiting for the pause in gunfire she knew was coming, Vic took her next volley of shots.

As the three of them engaged in a firefight, Vic had to quickly reload with her only spare magazine. Finally hearing the other agent's gun click empty, she knew he would be the target for her few remaining bullets. She stood and fired her last rounds at his exposed head as he was drawing his sidearm, unfortunately while also exposing herself to fire from Max. When the agent's body hit the floor, she tracked the gun as it slid a few feet away from him. Before she could duck back to cover, she felt an explosion of pain to her right side, the same weak point that she had exploited earlier using the knife.

Victoria pushed through the pain as she began to move into the spiral staircase and headed down as quickly as she could. She need to get to the only gun now available to her.

"You fucking bitch!" Max's voice echoed in the massive room. "I'm going to enjoy killing you!"

Reaching the bottom of the steps, Vic knew that she had to take Max out or her and Helmut were both going to die.

"Let's go to war!" Victoria called out after she launched from the cover of the spiral staircase's walls toward the direction of the gun lying on the floor. Somehow she managed to avoid all of Max's shots as she grabbed the gun into her hand. Without stopping, she continued to keep her body moving, now heading to her right.

They both were now firing at the same time, not hesitating any further, each determined to take the other out. Max stood his ground in front of the fireplace as she continued to move sideways towards the lower hall's entrance. Vic felt the effect as his shots impacted onto the armored tactical vest she wore. Unfortunately Max's armor was receiving the same.

Almost simultaneously, their two guns emptied of the final rounds they held as evident by the slides locking back. Glaring at each others guns, they knew the situation they were both in. They were both directly across from each other with the table between them, the hallway closer to her back, and the fireplace to Max's.

"Looks like you're out of ammo, Bitch," Max smirked at her.

"So are you, motherfucker!"

With that, she watched as he reached behind him to remove a spare clip from a pocket.

"Oh, what do I have here?"

Making a decision as she watched the empty magazine begin to fall free of the gun, Vic pulled a memory forward of a maneuver Nat had taught her. Sprinting the few remaining feet of floor towards Max, she double hand planted onto the table. Summoning up all her strength, she pushed her body into a backward flip which increased her forward momentum.

With the rotation of her body complete, her feet struck Max in the center of his chest, knocking him from his feet and backwards into the cavernous fireplace. Max landed on the remaining burning wood and large pile of glowing red coals. His screams of pain echoed throughout the great hall as Vic straighten up, looking down on him trying to stand by placing his hands on the coals, which didn't really help him any.

"Sweet merciful mother," Vic heard Helmut whisper off from her right side.

Watching as Max's clothes were beginning to catch fire as he still struggled to get out, she did not want to put him out of his misery, instead letting him suffer would be his payment for helping to take Steve and Bucky from her. His death was payment for their lives.

Turning around, she walked over to where the other agent she had gotten the gun from was lying dead. Seeing a knife attached to the his vest, Vic took it, using it to free Helmut's wrists from the zip-ties. Helmut's entire focus had been watching Max being burned alive. Now he was just staring up at her with disbelief written all over his expression.

"Where are the others?" she asked while examining his face. It looked like a well-worn punching bag, but at least his nose didn't seem broken.

"Downstairs. Max sent a man to check the cells and there's at least one, maybe two, at the computers," he told her as he inspected his injured wrist. Placing the knife into his freed hand, she picked up Max's now loaded gun from where it had fallen on the floor. Releasing the slide lock, there were plenty of bullets for what she needed to do.

"I'll be right back," she calmly told Helmut, then turned towards the doorway leading to the lower levels to finish her job.


	112. The Cavalry Arrives

Helmut didn't know what to do as he watched Victoria walking away from him to go eliminate the last of the HYDRA agents, so he turned back to Max whose screams were finally dying down. Using the knife, he cut the three remaining zip-ties so he was free from the chair. After a few more minutes, there was no more sounds coming from the fireplace. By now he figured that Victoria had reached the communication's room. She had no need for any help from him. He had no doubt after what he had just witnessed that they would soon be dead.

Not having anywhere to go, Helmut continued to sit in the chair, contemplating the amazing event that he had just witnessed. The other morning at breakfast when Victoria had threatened to kill him, he had only taken it as an empty threat. He had assumed that she did not have the real skill, or the mentality, to do something like that. But after seeing the results before him, Helmut was very glad to be on her side.

Movement from the doorway caught the corner of his eye, so he turned to watch Victoria emerge and walk towards him. Getting closer, he could see that she was scowling.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"That was only nine. Where is the tenth?"

Helmut looked around the great hall as he considered her words from _two_ directions. First: there was still at least one HYDRA agent somewhere in the castle. Second: she had taken out _nine_ trained agents all by herself.

"How do you know there were ten?" he asked as he tried to mentally count the bodies he knew of.

"The HYDRA asshole that I questioned upstairs said there were ten," she informed him.

"He could have been _lying_ ," Helmut pointed out as Victoria came over to the table and sat down on top of it before him. Her body began to slowly slump as he guessed the adrenaline rush was now starting to leave her body.

"Maybe," she relented putting the gun in her hand next to her.

With her sitting still, he was able to see the multiple impact marks from bullets on the vest she wore. Taking in her appearance even better, he noticed that there was a small cut sliced area of shirt on her upper left arm.

Standing, he moved so that he could get a better look at it. Ripping the material, he saw that a bullet had just grazed her arm, leaving a small bleeding wound. Victoria didn't even seem to noticed or care what he was doing. She was sitting, seemingly lost in her own thoughts.

"We need to get this cleaned up before it becomes infected," he informed her, indicating the area so that she knew what he was talking about. There was a full medical room below that he wanted to get her to.

"What's the point?" she coldly asked him. "They're dead."

Helmut looked over at the guard's body, not really understanding her logic.

"Not them," she then said getting his attention. "Steve and Bucky. They're dead."

"Why would you think _that_?" he asked her, hoping she was wrong…

"Upstairs. That's what the agent said when I questioned him. That they died in the lobby…"

"Victoria, this is HYDRA we are talking about. Do you actually believe that he told the truth? Besides, they were in the Viper. They never had the chance to land from what I gathered as Max questioned me before he went to the computers," he informed her. "Knowing your soulmates as you do, do you feel as if they are _really_ dead or was it just your own _fear_ that drove you into action?"

Sitting there considering his words, he finally saw a smile begin to creep over her face.

"You better be right, Helmut."

"After seeing what you are capable of, I hope for my own sake that I am too," he grinned at her, to which Victoria finally gave a chuckle.

"I don't shoot friends, remember?"

"Right now, I have _never_ been more glad to be considered _your friend_. Come on, let's head downstairs to medical."

Offering his hand, Victoria took it as she slipped from the table to stand wobbly on the floor. When she cleared the table, that was when Helmut saw the steak of blood leading to a small pool that had formed where she had just been sitting.

"Victoria, were you shot somewhere else?"

Looking back around towards the table, she saw the blood. Touching her right side, where the edge of the vest's armor ended, Victoria pulled her hand away to show him that it was covered in blood.

"Elmer Fudd. I forgot. It happened while I was taking out that other guy," she explained looking at the dead agent on the floor near them.

"Downstairs! Now!" he instructed as he wrapped his arm around her to not only press his hand onto the openly bleeding wound but to offer support to help her walk. How could she forget about being shot?

Helmut cursed at himself a bit. They had been talking the entire time she could have been bleeding out. That was probably why her body had started to slump. He noticed that she was leaning heavily on him for support…not a good sign since he did not know if it was from blood or adrenaline loss. Worrying about how badly she may have had been hit, Helmut knew there was only so much that he could do. Stopping the bleeding was a priority, then he would need to take her somewhere safe to get her help. Then he would have to try contacting the Avengers.

As they entered the arched hallway to head down to the medical room, the two large wooden doors leading outside into the bailey were thrown roughly open. Iron Man was standing there with his arms outstretched while the rest of the opening was occupied by three armed Avengers, all of their weapons now trained on the two of them as they stopped moving to stare at the unexpected group.

Seeing her two soulmates standing before her, alive just as he had predicted, Victoria began to laugh hysterically.

" _Of course_ the cavalry would show up _now_!" Victoria jokingly whined as she began moving forward again towards the stairs, not releasing her hold on him so Helmut _had_ to move with her. Smacking him on the chest with the back of her left hand, she said, "You were right!"

"Let her go!" the Winter Soldier barked out at him, aiming his weapon directly for Helmut's head.

"Oh, stop that!" Victoria told him, waving her bloody hand in a downwards motion, which Helmut was a bit surprised actually worked. Her two angry soulmates started to move towards her, but she stopped them in their tracks by pointing at them and yelling, "The two of you need to back off…right now! Come on, Helmut. Clint, Tony, he'll need your help."

He saw Victoria then make a couple of strange hand gestures before Hawkeye's eyes grew wide and he nodded his head.

"Victoria, what is going on?" the Captain asked as she continued to move the two of them forward and now down the stairs.

Most of the group was throwing out questions to them from behind but Victoria just kept traveling without giving out a single answer so he followed her lead, remaining silent.

Helmut knew he would be lucky to end the day only beaten to a pulp before being tossed in one of the cells and left to rot.

Arriving at the medical room, he opened the door and turned on the light switch. That was when the others realized where they were and the questions became even louder from the Captain and the Soldier.

"Will you two calm down!" Victoria demanded as he helped her up onto a gurney.

Removing the tactical vest, they were able to see that the side of her black shirt was also torn and shiny wet with blood, but the dark color was hiding the severity of the hit. Without a second thought she grabbed the hem of her shirt and slipped it off, revealing her chest underneath, which was luckily covered with a sports bra.

"Vic!"

"What? I'm more covered than my red bikini," she jokingly scoffed as Helmut grabbed a handful of gauze and pressed it over the two wounds until he could gather what he needed. Victoria placed her hand on it to hold it so that he could move back to the workstation.

They were all able to see large bruising areas where five other bullets had hit the armor of the vest and the graze on her left arm. Each of the chest shots probably would have killed her.

Seconds later, Clint was next to him, helping him to gather what they needed to be closer to the bed. He could hear the three of them talking behind him, but Helmut knew that he needed to focus on the task before him.

"Could you tell if the bullets were still in there?" Hawkeye asked him.

"No, I only discovered that she was hit moments before you all opened the doors," he told him turning back towards the bed with a tray full of what they needed to work on the wounds.

"If they are in there, I can get them out," Hawkeye informed her.

"You don't want me to operate on you?" he heard Iron Man then asked her.

"I've seen those butterfingers work on a car so there is _no way_ they are going inside of me," she smiled up at him.

"Tony, can you get FRIDAY to give us a scan so we know what we are dealing with?" Hawkeye then asked interrupting them.

"Already to go, birdie," Helmut heard from his side. As the armored hand of Iron Man appeared on his left, a projection of the scan appeared hovering right above it.

"Amazing," he stated looking at the floating screen.

Hawkeye pointed at the two locations where bullets had entered, saying, "This one passed through, but this one hit a rib and set up shop."

"She didn't even tell me that she had gotten hit," he informed the group as her soulmates looked ready to pummel him. He would deserve it, he knew. "I'm surprised the bullet didn't break the rib."

Helmut noticed a sly smile appear on Hawkeye's face but he didn't say anything.

"How did Victoria get shot?" the Captain asked him moving to the back side of the bed with the Soldier right next to him, looking like he was contemplating where to hide his body later.

"With a gun," Victoria answered sounding like it had been obvious. There was an audible groan from the Soldier at hearing that.

"That's not what the Captain meant," he pointed out as Hawkeye and Iron Man discussed how to get the bullet out.

"Captain? No," she told him shaking her head. Pointing at each of them, she informed him, "That's Steve and that's Bucky. Clint and Tony. Anything else just sounds silly. Not to mention inflating Tony's already obnoxiously high ego."

"I'm standing right here, Vic," Tony then pointed out.

"Vic, we're not worried about what a prisoner calls us," Bucky gruffly told her.

"What prisoner?" she asked, which he didn't understand how she couldn't figure this out.

"Zemo. He's the prisoner," Steve then pointed out.

"No, he's not," she firmly stated.

"Lay on your side," Clint then instructed as he helped her into position. "I'm going to numb the area."

"Does that involve a needle?" she asked looking back at Clint.

"Of course."

"Then the answer is no. Just do what you need to but no needles," he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"You understand that there will be stitches involved?" Helmut pointed out.

"Nope, no stitches."

"Victoria," both he and Steve said at the same time.

"Steve, can you go get me something to eat?" Victoria then requested, and he saw a slight ease in Steve's stance for some reason. "In the great hall through either of the doors next to the fireplace. There's plenty of leftovers in the fridge."

He saw a look pass between her two soulmates, but Steve bent over to give a kiss to her forehead before leaving the room without another word.

Bring the overhead medical light over for Clint to use, he stood silently while he carefully worked to remove the bullet. Helmut was amazed that Victoria never flinched or complained the entire time, instead just holding onto Bucky's metal hand for support.

"You did that very well," he told Clint as he dropped the bullet into a metal bowl.

"With our line of work, you get shot at a lot," he actually grinned at him, making Helmut feel a bit better. "It was still intact, no pieces to go digging for."

"Good," Bucky then said as Steve re-entered the room, carrying a bowl of their left-over dinner and looking very disturbed.

"You made _him_ my Chicken Tortellini?" Tony loudly asked sounding offended for some reason.

"It's _my_ Chicken Tortellini. I only allow _you_ to eat it," Victoria then stuck her tongue out at Tony.

"Zemo," Steve started to say but Victoria interrupted him by saying, "Helmut, Steve," to which he sighed before beginning again. "Helmut, care to explain what happened in the great hall."

He looked down at Victoria who was now sitting up to eat while Clint used a massive amount of adhesive butterfly bandages to close the three wounds and stop them from bleeding. Why wouldn't they…

"Don't they need stitches?" he finally asked, wondering why they didn't seem worried.

"No, I'll be fine," Victoria told him sounding totally unconcerned, which he really didn't understand.

"Helmut, can I talk with you in the hall?" Steve then requested. Without really waiting for an answer, Steve put his hand on his back and guided him from the room. "Now, before I let Bucky beat you to a pulp like he wants to, care to explain what happened here?"

"Max and his men burst in while we were asleep…"

For the next few minutes, he gave as much of an explanation as he could about what he had heard and then seen as Victoria began to take down the HYDRA agents in the castle. When he reached the part of when she did the move to jump over the table, all of the heads in the medical room turned to look at him, letting him realize that Steve was using an earcom and they were all listening to the tale.

"So the body in the fireplace is Max?" Steve plainly asked him. He only nodded in agreement. He then learned, "There _was_ a tenth agent. He was outside working on the Viperjet, trying to repair it. Sam is outside with him now, standing guard."

"I've never seen someone do what she did," he said a bit softly, watching as Victoria went to stand but found herself gathered into the arms of Bucky.

"Steve, we need to get her upstairs. Those bandages won't hold for long," Bucky informed him as they reached the door.

"We'll use my bedroom," Victoria said. Looking over her shoulder, she told Clint and Tony, "Helmut is my friend so treat him as such, not a prisoner. There is a cell that he can show ya'll to for the other guy Sam's guarding. There are more bedrooms upstairs. Do what you need then get some sleep. We'll talk again in the morning, or whenever I wake up."

"Yes, Ma'am," Clint then saluted her to which she flipped him a two-finger bird.

"You're very bossy when you're injured," Tony pointed out.

"Vic is bossy all the time, you just don't see it as often," Bucky informed them as he passed wearing a scowl directed towards him with Steve following close behind.

"Why is nobody worried about Victoria? She could bleed out in the middle of the night," he exasperatedly tried explaining to them throwing his arms up slightly.

"I know it doesn't make sense right now, but trust me when I say that Vic will be fine," Tony told him. "You on the other hand…I'll go with Vic's judgement of you for right now, but I suggest that you be on your best behavior."

"I will not do anything to disrupt the trust she has in me," he told the two of them as they also headed for the stairs.

* * *

"Vic, why are you acting this way towards Zemo?"

"Will you stop calling him that."

"Well I think we have the _right_ to be _angry_ at the man who _kidnapped_ our _soulmate_ ," Bucky pointed out to her, earning him an exhausted sigh of frustration as they headed up a spiral staircase. How were they suddenly the bad guys here?

"We'll talk in the morning after I've had some decent sleep."

Hearing that, Bucky realized that for the past two nights that Vic may have only had very limited sleep.

"Get back!" Steve then moved to position his body and shield between them and the hallway, so Bucky quickly turned them away from whatever danger he had spotted. But after a moment, Steve seemed to ease up.

"What is it?" he finally asked from behind the wall while Vic was straining her neck to see.

"It's an Ultron robot," Steve told them.

"Oh, that just Sentry. The Hydra guys shot him down after Helmut ordered him to defend and protect me from them."

Steve looked back at him, knowing that he probably felt the same at hearing that.

"Don't worry, there was no Ultron in him," Vic then said. "Last door on the left is mine."

Using his earcom, Steve paged Tony, Sam, and Clint to let them know about the machine and that it was destroyed.

Bucky carefully put her down once they reached the door to what she called her bedroom. When he saw the metal bar door that Zemo had used to hold her inside, he almost turned around to go punch him. But instead, he followed Steve and Vic inside of the room knowing that she needed the healing process to begin.

"Victoria, I think that we deserve some answers," Steve pointed out to her as he looked around the place that she called her room. Consider the previous cell she had been in thanks to Rumlow and Sin, he had to admit that this one was a major step up. She instantly began to strip off the remaining ruined clothing that she was wearing.

"And you'll get them, but it would be best to wait until everyone is a bit calmer and I don't have three holes in my side," she was already her stubborn self. At least it seemed like she was overall fine. Hopefully when they got their answers in the morning it would still be that way.

Vic was sitting on the bed and pushing back carefully so that she was in the center. It wasn't a king size, but with how tight he was planning on holding onto her, and knowing that Steve would be doing the same, they wouldn't take up much room.

"Come on, we'll talk in the morning," Steve agreed, starting to take his uniform off.

"Promise that you'll answer everything that we ask about concerning what happened here honestly?" he decided to ask as he shut the door most of the way, leaving the crack that always made Vic feel better.

"Yes, I promise," she agreed slipping under the covers.

When they were both next to her, he leaned in just as she started falling asleep, whispering, "We love you."

"I love you too," she barely managed to yawn out as she quickly fell into her healing coma.

"Is she out?" Steve asked as he ticked her neck as a test. Not a flinch from the touch.

"Yes. So, what do you make of this ' _friendship'_ she's formed with Zemo?" he asked.

"First, I have a feeling we better get used to calling him Helmut. Otherwise, I'm not really sure what to make of it. She's not the least bit mad at him for kidnapping her. And from the story that he gave, it sounded like she was trying to save him."

"What _exactly_ did you find in the great hall?" he asked. As they passed through, he could smell the awful scent of burning flesh, but most of it was probably being drawn up the chimney.

"Max's body was inside of the fireplace. There was another agent shot dead a couple of bullets to the head. Two more were down in the computer room, one in the hall near the cells, all shot. But I'm not sure what happened overall," Steve told him as he swept a piece of hair off of her face.

Looking down at Vic sleeping, he couldn't help but think about all that had happened with her.

"Is it strange that I'm proud and worried about what she did to those agents?" Bucky asked Steve.

"How she managed to take all of them out? I know. It does feel strange to be proud of what she was able to accomplish."

"We turned her into a trained killer, Steve. Just like I mentioned a year ago after we got her back from Rumlow," he sadly stated. He could see the worry on Steve's face as he consider the statement.

"No. HYDRA turned her into a killer. We only taught Victoria how to keep herself alive…at all costs. And that was exactly what she did."

Bucky considered how bad this day could have ended if Vic hadn't been able to defend herself when Lohmer had arrived at the castle. She would have been defenseless except for the little bit of training that Wade had given her. There was no way she could have stood her ground against trained agents. They had seen what Lohmer had done to Zemo…Helmut…by turning him into a punching bag. There's no telling what they would have done to Vic before killing her. And they would have been too late to stop them.

Then, from out in the hallway, Tony's voice exclaimed, "What in the Jason Voorhees happened in here?"

"I'll check it out," he informed Steve, getting up from and walking around the bed.

Stepping into the dark hallway, Tony was standing at the door to the room across from them with his armor illuminating inside. He could not find any way to turn on the overhead light so he relied on Tony's armor's flashlight.

On the floor were three bodies, all HYDRA agents, dead from various injuries. Stepping inside as Tony took a step away back out, he gave a quick examination of the wounds on the bodies. A bashed head with a spiked mace still embedded, a cut throat, a stab through the ribs, bullet holes in the head.

Bucky stepped back out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Turning to Tony, he calmly stated, "You might want to try a different bedroom," before heading back inside of Vic's.

"What was it?" Steve asked as he slipped back into bed.

"Three more bodies," he sighed lying down so that he could wrap his around Vic. What were they going to find out when they finally heard the full story from her?


	113. Nine Little HYDRA Agents All Lying Dead

**Romania**  
**The Next Morning**

Tony was the first one down the next morning to the great hall. He, Clint, and Helmut had moved the other body from there to a spare room on the lower level which was just collecting junk. The two bodies from the computer room and one from the hallway had also been moved there. Lohmer had been the hard one, but he had asked FRIDAY to use his suit to pull the remains from the fire and put them outside in the castle's courtyard under a blanket they had found in a TV room.

After the discovery in the bedroom, they had agreed to just leave the three upstairs until SHIELD could get here to help. There was a lot of cleanup in New York but Fury had already sent a small contingent to secure this place. Thanks to the time change, it was probably close to lunch when the castle began to wake up. He had left FRIDAY in charge of his suit to keep track of Helmut during the rest of the night.

"Good morning," Helmut greeted him as he stepped into the kitchen while Tony sipped a cup of coffee.

"Afternoon, I think," he pointed out, to which Helmut glanced out of the window at the clear blue sky with a high sun.

"I believe you are correct," he said with a small smile while stepping over to get his own coffee. "Have you seen Victoria this morning? Did she do alright during the night?"

"The Three Stooges haven't made an appearance yet," Tony told him, not giving away the secret of Vic's healing ability to him. That would have to be part of this morning's…afternoon's…conversation once they came downstairs.

"Victoria mentioned your prevalence for funny nicknames," he smiled as he drank the coffee from his cup.

"Why did you do it?" he decided to ask, not waiting for the others. "Why did you kidnap her?"

"Because I knew about the attack on the Tower and I couldn't let her be there where she could be hurt or killed," he told him, shocking Tony a bit with the blatant honest admission.

"But it was fine to leave the _rest of us_ to die? Is _that_ it?" he angrily asked thinking of what could have happened to his Pepper.

"No. It wasn't. I see that now, thanks to Victoria."

Tony didn't know how to respond to that admission. He had expected Helmut to start rattling off excuses for his behavior but it seemed that he was not going to go that route.

"Morning, Tin Man, and possibly former evil-doer," Clint greeted them with a major case of bedhead going on.

Holding out is arm, Tony carefully backed Helmut away from the coffee carafe that was still sitting on the workbench since last being used. That was where Clint headed, grabbing the item up and beginning to down the hot drink directly from the carafe. Tony had experience with a morning Clint and knew to stay out of the archer's way when it came to coffee. He and Bucky were demons without the brew.

"So, it's true?" Helmut asked tilting his head into Clint's direction as he continued to drink the hot item.

"Yep. You seem to know a lot about us," he pointed out.

"Victoria talked about all of you the entire time she was here. She said that your group was her family, not just Steve and Bucky," he told the two of them. "Did her birth family really kick her out?"

"Yes, they did," Clint answered as Sam entered the kitchen, stomping his foot at seeing the carafe already in Clint's hand, knowing that he wasn't getting any coffee for himself any time soon. "One of the best things about Vic is that she never lies. Even if you don't _want_ to hear the truth, she'll still _tell_ it to you."

"And don't forget about her promises," Tony pointed out.

"Yes, I found out about those the morning after we send the letters to you," Helmut told them.

"What happened?" Sam asked pulling orange juice from the fridge.

"I heard her singing in the middle of the night in her room. She invited me in and we laid on the floor talking for a bit before her singing put me to sleep. I had left the door unlocked and when I woke up to find the room empty I believed that she had escaped. Instead, she was in here cooking us breakfast. She had to point out to me that she had promised to not escape. I didn't think that she really meant it."

He, Sam, and Clint began to laugh at hearing that, knowing that it sounded just like the Vic they knew.

"What's going on in here?" they heard Vic's voice ask from the doorway.

Looking over, they all saw that Vic looked as good as new. She looked like she had just stepped out of the shower and had put back on a set of pajamas. Tony knew that the healing process had once again done its job.

" _Those_ are the most _hideous_ socks I have ever seen," Sam told her as he looked down to see the vampiric designed woven items she was wearing.

"This coming from a man who dresses like a bird? I'm _not_ taking fashion advice from you," she told him moving through the kitchen.

"Hey!" Clint then had to chime in at the insult that also could include him.

"Victoria, you should be in bed resting," Helmut pointed out, still not understanding. Just how much did Vic trust this man that had kidnapped her?

"I'm fine. See," she said lifting up the edge of her shirt to that he could see the completely healed area. There was not any indication of where the bullet holes had been.

"Well, that answers my question as to if you _really_ trust him," Tony shook his head while sipping more of his coffee.

"I don't understand," Helmut sounded dumbfounded at the revelation of her completely healed side.

"I'll explain later, Helmut. Tony, I told you last night that I trusted him," Vic said heading to a cabinet getting a glass while Sam passed her the orange juice. "Thanks. So, scrambled egg and bacon or…"

"Bacon!" he interrupted.

"Of course," Vic sighed opening the fridge up and pulling out a new pack of bacon, a carton of eggs and a lot of vegetables.

"Where are Steve and Bucky?" Clint asked.

"Still sleeping I guess since I snuck out. Or at least you better hope Bucky's still asleep seeing as how he's going to want coffee soon," she said heading to a cabinet and pulling a large frying pan out. Vic seemed to have made herself very comfortable here in the two days since she had gone missing.

"I'll make a fresh pot," Clint told her before finishing off the remaining coffee in the carafe.

"And when you're done doing that, you're on bacon duty. Tony crack the eggs with those butterfingers while I chop vegetables," Tony couldn't help the smile he was unable to hide at being picked at once again.

The five of them chatted while Vic cooked and oversaw the working group while she had Sam make toast. While Helmut washed and put away dishes as they all worked, Vic pointed out that he needed to do something useful too. By the time that Steve and Bucky showed up, they were all out in the great hall telling the two of them what had happened at the Tower, joining the group at table in the chairs Vic had left empty for them at her sides. There was only one major detail being left out of the story.

"So why didn't Wade and Nat come with ya'll?"

Everyone at the table went quiet, everyone glaring at the other, not wanting to be the person who had to tell Vic what had happened to Wade. But thanks to the long silence, Vic must have gotten her own bad ideas as to what had transpired.

With an angry yell, "Is Wade dead?"

There were numerous 'no's' from around the entire table, which seemed to make her ease up a bit.

"Then what happened? Someone better tell me within the next three seconds or so help me…"

"Wade was minorly injured," Steve decided to be the brave one and speak up. "Lohmer's missile into the hanger door shattered the glass in the common room where they were guarding in case the Viperjet landed. He used the backside of his body to shield Nat, with his limbs taking the brunt of the damage. His vest protected his actual back."

"Is he alright?" she asked.

"Yes. Medical removed the glass and he got a couple of stitches for the larger pieces. He'll be fine," Steve told her.

She seemed to ease up at hearing that he was overall fine, but she knew that he was going to get a stern talking to once Vic got home. Tony would have to get FRIDAY to record that conversation so he could watch it over and over.

"Can I please have an explanation as to how you are healed, Victoria?" Helmut then requested.

"Remember me telling you about the connection we," she said indicating her two bodyguards, "have when it comes to sleeping?"

"You told him about that?" Bucky slightly hissed at her.

"It's not like he wasn't going to figure it out after a few nights," she told him between bites. "Anyways, it's another connection that we have. If I'm injured in any way, sleeping between the two of them completely heals me."

"I've never heard of any soulmark being able to do that before," Helmut said.

"We think it has something to do with the super soldier serums pumped into them," she explained, letting him on one of the best kept secrets around. Vic must really trust him for some reason.

"But you cannot _ever_ tell anyone, understand?" Bucky then threatened him.

"I will not betray any of your trust," he stated before looking directly at Vic.

"So, now that we are all gathered, care to explain why you drugged Victoria and kidnapped her?" Steve asked glaring at Helmut.

"When I escaped with the other agents from Sin's castle, they brought me here. Max was in the final stages of getting it ready for Sin and Rumlow to use. Hearing about Sin's death threw him into a rage. After he'd calmed down and considered his options, he felt that invading the Tower along with detonating the bombs would satisfy his need for vengeance."

"Why would he care about Sin that much?" Sam then asked.

"His family has been loyal to HYDRA for generations," Helmut told them, confirming the theory from the other day.

"So, his relative probably _was_ Colonel Lohmer from the factory during the war," Bucky supplied.

Helmut looked over at him strangely, "Yes, he was killed during an accident at a HYDRA base. He was proud of his relative working directly with Red Skull. But how do you know about that?"

"Because I was there, and it was no accident," Bucky started before giving him the same tale of his past that they had already heard.

"How remarkable that your lives were so connected," Helmut commented afterwards.

Steve then got them back to the original question, "So you knew about the attack, but that doesn't explain about kidnapping Victoria."

"Since Novi Grad, I felt that the Avengers were responsible for my family's deaths. That was why I agreed to work with Sin and Rumlow. But seeing what Rumlow had done to Victoria that night," everyone knew that he meant Steve using her as a punching bag, "it did not sit well with me in any way. But later, when we talked in my bedroom in Sin's castle, Victoria asked me very bluntly if that made her guilty for their deaths by association. I realized later that it did not. Then the next day, what Victoria said to prevent Rumlow from shooting me and drawing his anger towards her…I've didn't understand why someone who should hate me would try to protect me like that. When I found out about what Max was planning, I couldn't stand by and know that she could be injured or killed."

Tony had not really taken into consideration how Helmut must have felt losing his entire family like that. Hearing about it was different that understanding. If he had lost Pepper the way Helmut had lost his family, he would probably blame the ones responsible too. Glancing over at Bucky, he knew that was exactly what he had felt for so long after learning about his parents' deaths thanks to HYDRA. Bucky had only been the weapon. But he personally understood that sometimes it's easier to put the blame on a real face, not the hidden Hydra entity responsible.

"I'm sorry about your family," Steve then started but Tony interrupted with, "We all are," getting a smile from Steve. So he began again. "We are all sorry for the loss of your family. We tried to get everyone out of the city that day, and we are sorry that we failed your family by not doing so."

The entire table was very still for a few moments as they were all able to see Helmut genuinely moved by the statement.

"Thank you," he finally managed to say smiling at everyone in the group.

Bucky then spoke up, "And Steve and I should also thank you."

"For what?" Helmut asked.

"For stepping up that night at Sin's base to look out for Vic. If you hadn't, there was no telling what Rumlow and Sin would have let the guards do to her," he told him.

"I'm just glad that she got out of there without getting hurt," he said which of course made the table silent and looking at each other. Vic must not have told him. Helmut noticed the strange change in mood, "Am I missing something?"

"Victoria was hurt," Steve then said.

"Yes, the injuries that they made you cause to her," he figured.

"No, not that," Bucky continued, "Sin dropped Vic into that pit after you left the room."

Helmut then looked over at Victoria who was calmly putting jam onto a piece of toast. When she finally noticed the table looking at her, she questioned, "What?", having not been paying attention to the conversation.

"There's no way for her to be alive. That pit was over fifty foot down from what Sin told me," he told them.

"Seventy, actually," he informed him. "I used my suit to go down to retrieve her body. Instead, I found her only unconscious with minor injuries."

"How is that possible?" Helmut asked.

"The bottom was sand, which was the best possible ground for her to land on. Another connection due to their soulmarks' that Vic's body has a slightly denser bone structure, which makes her a bit tougher to damage," he decided to tell Helmut since Vic didn't seem to be holding anything else back from him.

"Back on the Helicarrier," Vic supplied while eating her toast. "The doctors put my elbow and shoulder joints back into place, but the healing factor fixed the rest, including two broken ribs and a fractured hip."

"Don't forget the broken ankle," Clint pointed out, to which Vic nodded and saluted with her toast.

"That is most incredible," Helmut said.

"So how long can ya'll stay?" Vic then asked, getting strange unanimous looks from everyone else at the table, him included.

"We're going home today, Victoria," Steve then informed her, which she looked very disappointed about. About the same time that he figured out why she was asking that, Bucky seemed to also figure out.

"Vic, _you're_ coming home _with us_."

"No, I'm not."

"Victoria, why _wouldn't_ you come home with us?" Steve then asked sounding not only serious but upset at the thought of leaving her here.

"I made an agreement with Helmut. I agreed to stay here with him for the message to be sent out. He upheld his part and now I have to uphold mine," Vic informed the group with determination in her voice.

Tony looked over at Clint and Sam, wondering what they thought of that. They seemed as shocked as he did...so he _had_ heard Vic correctly.

"Vic, there's _no way_ that we are leaving you _here_!" Bucky angrily informed her.

Standing up, Vic grabbed her empty glass from the table and stormed off towards the kitchen, yelling back at the table, "Yes, _you are_!"

* * *

"What the _hell_ just happened?" Sam asked after the swinging door closed behind Victoria, but Steve didn't know exactly what to think of her statement. He and Bucky knew that she took promises, and therefore agreements, very seriously but they never would have considered that Victoria would still adhere to it even though they had found her.

Bucky, on the other hand, had other thoughts on the matter.

"What did you do to Vic?" Bucky slammed his right fist on the table, staring down Helmut, who looked genuinely shocked and now scared.

"Nothing," he put his hands up defensively.

Steve reached over the open chair to place his hand on Bucky's shoulder.

"This is all Victoria. In her mind, she's made a promise and you know that she would never break one."

"Really? _That's_ what you think? Then explain to me why Vic decided to take on ten HYDRA agents with minimal guns and medieval weapons. You saw those bullet imprints on her chest. If she hadn't gotten that vest off of one of them, she would have died. That would kind of _break_ the _promise_ that she made to us about keeping herself alive _at all costs_."

Hearing that, Steve knew that Bucky might be right. Victoria had acted extremely rash now that he considered the events clearly.

"But Victoria told me last night, before you showed up, that she believed the two of you were dead," Helmut then told them, getting their full attention.

"What?" Bucky a bit calmer asked.

"There was a single guard upstairs that went to search her room. She somehow questioned him and according to what she told me, he claimed that the two of you were killed during the attack at the Tower."

That explained the emotions they had felt on the Quinjet from Victoria. The loss with anger...she had been told they were dead. And if that were true...Steve then knew what had happened.

"Victoria wasn't breaking her promise," he turned to face Bucky. "If we were dead, then there was no more promise to keep."

They could all see Bucky becoming visibly calmer at hearing that. But that still didn't help with the immediate problem.

Victoria then emerged from the kitchen with more orange juice in her glass, as well as the carafe half-filled with fresh coffee. She began to fill Bucky's cup back up.

"Drink that!" she demanded as she sat down. "You're _way_ too cranky still."

"Vic…" he started but Steve got his attention and shook his head to indicate to not start again, possibly getting her mad at them.

"Victoria," Helmut then called to her, to which she looked over at him. "Steve and Bucky may have been following Max, but they also intended to take you home with them."

"But that's not what _we_ agreed on," she pointed out to him.

Steve could see that Helmut was thinking about something.

"What about if _I_ broke the agreement?" he then asked her, making him wonder where this was going.

"How?" Victoria asked Helmut.

"You know that the reason I brought you here was to keep you safe. But with Max showing up here, you obviously were not. Therefore, from my perspective, the agreement is no longer valid. You fulfilled your part of the bargain, but I was not able to uphold mine."

Steve could see Victoria considering his comment before saying, "If you are sure…"

"Yes," he told him, and Steve could see Bucky already calming further down. With a bit of a smile, "Indefinitely turned out to be much shorter than either of us thought."

"Alright then," she smiled back while reaching for the last piece of bacon that Tony was moving towards, sticking her tongue out at him at snatching it away from him. Steve looked over at Helmut and silently mouthed him a ' _thank you_ ' to which he smiled and gave a single nod of his head. "So now what?"

"I've already talked with Hill and they have a couple of agents already heading here for cleanup," Tony told them grabbing a slice of toast instead. "Once they arrive to secure the place, which should be any time, we can all head out."

"All?" Helmut then asked.

"Yes," he told him. "We'll need to figure _this_ out, as well as giving Fury a detail briefing as to everything that happened here and in New York."

"Is Helmut going to be in trouble for Argentina?" Vic then asked.

Steve could only shake his head, "I'm not sure what's going to happen, considering he did supply the information on the bombs and disarming them. But we are guessing that he made them also."

"Yes, they were Sin's idea. I only had to figure out how to create them," Helmut supplied, not trying to hide the fact, impressing Steve a bit.

"Let's get you home then worry about it," Bucky told her.

"At least my ' _storming the castle_ ' count is now up to three," Tony then happily stated.

"No it's not!" Victoria firmly stated.

"Why not?" Tony asked her.

"You can't storm a castle that's already been taken over by a comrade. If anything, _I_ should get a new castle storming count for taking it all _by myself_ ," she was grinning at Tony.

For the next few minutes, the entire group just happily watched as she and Tony bickered back and forth between each other.

* * *

The two of them were lingering in the grand hall while Vic packed up the bag that Helmut had given her. He was slightly surprised to hear that they had gone to the small village and he had let her have a shopping spree, courtesy of a HYDRA bank account, to get any clothing or items that Vic wanted. He had seen the socks that were so Vic that she had been wearing this morning. Helmut had head for the downstairs computers requesting to copy what he said would be relevant files. Tony headed down with him to check on what he was doing…just to be sure it wasn't something on the sly.

"Captain?" one of the SHIELD agents called out to Steve as he entered from the bailey.

"Yes?" he answered.

"We're not sure, but there seems to be a HYDRA agent not accounted for," he stated a bit hesitantly.

"What do you mean?" Steve asked.

"We were initially told that there were ten agents, one prisoner and nine bodies. But there seems to be a body unaccounted for," he informed them.

Bucky began to go over the locations and the number of bodies in them, and he realized that the agent was right. Both Vic and Helmut had at some point verified the number of agents as ten, so where was the last body?

"Let's go ask Victoria," Steve said so the three of them made their way to her room. After coming back up with her, he had taken the opportunity to remove the steel door from her room. He wasn't about to take any chance.

Vic was just leaving the room with the stuffed bag over her shoulder, smiling when she saw the two of them.

"Victoria, we need to ask you about the locations of the bodies," Steve informed her, making the smile disappear.

"Alright," she said looking past them to the agent. "What exactly to do you need?"

From behind him, the agent told her, "There seems to be one body unaccounted for."

Vic seemed to think about something for only a moment before saying, "Ah, follow me."

Leading them back into the bedroom, Vic pointed to the glass French doors that led to the balcony.

"He's out there," she stated.

The agent then went to the doors and looked out. Next he opened them, looked around again before turning back to Vic and saying, "There is no body out here."

"Yes, there is," she then said grabbing a hold of both of their hands and stepping past him onto the balcony. Leading them all right to the edge, Vic hesitantly looked down but they didn't feel any fear from her. "He's down there."

All four of them then looked over the railing to the rocks far below. From this height, Bucky thought that he may be able to distinguish the form of a mangled human below.

"He's the one who threatened to rape me and then told me the two of you were dead."

Bucky then understood that the HYDRA agent had brought his own fate onto him at hearing that.

Looking over at the agent, he told him, "Have fun," as the three of them headed back inside while the agent looked back over the edge as he tried to figure out how to recover that body.


	114. That Was Unexpected

The flight to the Avengers Tower took close to the same five hour flight time that his and Victoria's trip had taken. Only this time, he spent most of it worrying what he was going to have to face once they arrived. Nick Fury had contacted them saying that he would be personally waiting for their arrival. For the most part, all of the Avengers chatted with Helmut fairly easily, except for Bucky. He could easily tell that he was upset at what he had done…not that he could blame him any.

He and Tony had actually spent a bit of time talking about the bombs that he had created as well as Sentry, which the SHIELD agents had confiscated. He was no longer needed, but Sentry had been a fun project to work on and he had tried to protect Victoria. Reaching the Tower, they were able to see that a lot of the damage to the buildings exterior and hanger door had already been repaired while they were gone.

Landing and unloading, he listened as Bucky and Steve told Victoria about the damage that had been done thanks to Lohmer. But seeing all of the repairs either completed or majorly underway, Helmut marveled at the efficiency behind the work. Tony saw him looking around and began to brag about how Pepper was responsible for all of it.

"Oh, Vic," Tony called over to her, "By the way, don't forget to take a gander at Pepper's left hand when you see her."

He could see the happy expression cross her face, which he was sure he also understood.

"You finally asked her?" she asked him, to which she then smacked Tony's arm. "Took you long enough."

"Ow," he said rubbing the spot. "If I get hit for good news, what happens if I give you bad news?"

"Do you want to find out?" she asked him to which Tony threw his hands up in front of him.

"Absolutely not," he told her with a smile walking off towards a set of stairs that members of the group had been going up.

Following quietly behind them, they emerged into a large open room that looked like a gathering den room to spend time in. Up on one of the upper levels, he saw a new small group sitting on couches chatting. He recognized the other members of the Avengers along with Pepper thanks to her lovely hair. It seemed that all of them wanted to be here to greet them.

Of the men and women rising to greet them, there was only one of whom he was not expecting to see here. He listened as greetings were given, hearing familiar names except for Maria Hill. He didn't remember hearing about her but she had been sitting next to Fury and he could see a SHIELD emblem on her shoulder.

Victoria then took off running up the stairs and watched as she threw herself into the arms of a scary looking older father figured. Helmut knew that this must be Wade. He noticed that she carefully wrapped her arms around him, probably due to his injuries. The rest of the group headed up to join them so he did the same, still unsure what awaited him.

That was when the unexpected guess spoke up.

"It's about damn time you finally showed up. I've been waiting all day for you to get back," Secretary Ross bellowed out, not trying to hide his annoyance at them. Helmut noticed that Victoria's attention was drawn to the man as she stepped away from Wade and towards Ross. "I've got much better things to take care of than to just sit…"

That was when Victoria kicked Ross hard right between the legs.

As he doubled over in pain, she punched him across the cheek, knocking him so hard that he fell back down to the seat behind him.

"Victoria!" Steve then quickly ran across the room and grabbed her around the waist, yanking her back and away from him.

"You clusterfuck, shit-licking, son of a bitch!" Victoria then screamed out at Ross.

He heard the entire room, which had been mumbling after her actions, grow deathly silent at hearing her outburst. She was fighting with Steve, trying to free herself to get back over to Ross to continue the one-sided altercation.

"Victoria, calm down!" Steve requested as she then did a releasing move in his arms allowing her to slip free from him. With her foot heading for Ross' jaw, Bucky was barely able to reach her before it did. Grabbing Victoria around the ankle, he pushed her onto the couch before reaching down to pick her up and tossing her over his shoulder. He was sure that her strike would have probably broken Ross' jaw considering how loud the impact to Bucky's metal hand was.

"Care to explain to me why you just sack wacked then punched the Secretary of State?" Nick Fury's voice then bellowed at her, getting everyone's attention now on him. "That alone is going to get you put into jail for a bit."

"Then make sure I'm in the cell next to his fucking cockthistle ass so that I can _annoy the shit_ out of him!" she yelled staring daggers at Ross who was rubbing his face from the strike.

Clint, standing next to him, asked Natasha, on his other side, "That was unexpected. What did he do to make Vic mad? She's _cursing_ at him."

"What are you talking about, you crazy bitch!?" Ross clumsily stood up, covering his nether region while backing away from where Bucky was struggling to keep Victoria on his shoulder. Hearing that, she then reached down and slipped her tennis shoe off, letting it fly at his unsuspecting face, impacting with a frightening precision. Ross bellowed out in pain as he covered his nose and face.

Helmut then heard Clint proudly say, "Vic gets that from me!", to which Natasha reached behind him to punch the archer's arm.

"Victoria! Will you stop that!" Steve then said grabbing a hold of her arms while Bucky contained her flailing legs.

"And I suggest that _you_ hold your tongue _if_ you know what is good for you!" Bucky growled out staring right at Ross for the derogatory insult he gave her.

At this point, Fury stepped between the two of them, blocking Victoria's view of Ross while glaring at her with a look of curiosity.

"If my memory serves me correctly, Victoria doesn't normally curse unless she's truly mad. Isn't that right, Natasha?" Fury asked.

"Yes, that's right, boss," she answered, which made Helmut a bit more curious hearing that. Victoria had initially cursed when she first woke up, but since their agreement she had not. He didn't know what to do in this situation whereas his own fate had yet to be decided.

But he had an idea as to where this conversation would end up so he pulled out his laptop from the bag slung over his shoulder. Helmut started to pull up a couple of video files and documents, which he was suddenly very glad he had brought with him.

"So," Fury began to glare at the struggling woman, "Care to explain your actions before I have your ass hauled away?"

"That bloody knob fucker was working with Rumlow and Sin!"

With that sentence, the mood of the entire room changed, and not in a good way.

"That's a _lie_ , you bitch!" Ross yelled one hand between his legs, the other on his bleeding nose. The shoe had gotten a direct shot but Helmut didn't think it was actually broken.

"Oh, so accessory to kidnapping is no longer a punishable offense?" she angrily sarcastically asked.

" _Who's_ kidnapping?" Fury then asked.

"Steve's."

Hearing that, Bucky released Victoria so that she was standing on the ground again with his hold on her a lot looser and turning his focus towards Ross. Steve had released her arms while glaring at Ross looking a bit confused but very unhappy.

"That's a _lie_!" Ross then stated again, but Helmut knew better since he had been there.

"So Rumlow and Sin _didn't_ come to you requesting that you help them get the three of us back to the city so they could kidnap Steve? Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot…you _actually_ thought that you were helping them to kidnap _me_!"

That was when both Steve and Bucky physically headed for Ross, leaving Victoria standing free on her own watching her soulmates go after him with a twisted smile. Ross then turned and maneuvered around the couch and chairs to put the items between him and the two angry soulmates.

"That's a _lie_!" Ross screamed out again, not seeming to know any other phrase.

"And then there's the fact that Ross has known since _before_ Steve went missing about the _bombs_ …not telling anybody about them or doing anything to find or disarm them _this entire time_! Wouldn't that be _colluding with terrorists_?"

"Victoria," Fury calmly turned to speak with her, "could you please explain a bit better?"

"Rumlow and Sin went to Ross after we were hiding at home for all those months. They had Ross agree to call a meeting, which he _personally_ requested Steve to attend so that we would come out of hiding. Then, he told them about how Steve and I were going to the opera, where he got taken."

"That's not what happened!" Ross was continually moving trying to stay away from the two soulmates who were not happy with the accusation.

"Then care to explain what _did_ happen?" Fury then requested as Ross moved next to him, putting Fury between him and the super-soldiers.

Ross then glared across the way at Victoria for a few moments, and Helmut could see his mind racing.

"Actually, you are taking nothing but her own _word_ that _any_ of that happened!" Ross then smugly stated. "There's _no proof_ of _any_ of this! She's _crazy_ and I want her _arrested_ for _assault_!"

"Victoria, he may be right…do you have any proof of any of this?" Fury asked her very calmly.

Unfortunately, Helmut could see that Victoria knew that she didn't. She had attacked Ross on nothing more than his story, trusting that he had been telling her the truth. Which he luckily had.

"I may be able to help with that," Helmut spoke up for the first time, all eyes now focusing in on him. Hitting play on the video file he'd already opened, he turned the laptop in his hand around so everyone could see the video. "This is the video that I recorded that night in Ross' kitchen when he was confronted by Rumlow and Sin. They wanted it recorded for possible blackmailing use later on. It shows the two of them informing Ross of the bombs _and_ getting him to agree to help them with the kidnapping to prevent the bombs from being detonated."

Fury stepped over and watched a few moments of the video before turning back to Ross.

"Care to explain?" he simply asked.

"They blackmailed me!" Ross defended himself. "What was I supposed to do? Allow them to detonate the bombs or give them a single female in exchange?"

"But it wasn't a _single female_ that they took," Maria Hill then pointed out. "You helped them kidnap Captain America. How do you think the public is going to respond once they find out?"

"They'll never know!" Ross then smugly said. "What I did is considered a matter of national security! If _any_ of this information ever gets out, I'll have all of you _prosecuted_ for leaking _classified government information_!"

Helmut turned the laptop around and pulled up another file, hitting play, "Then do you care to explain this video? Because they did not blackmail you into this."

The entire group then watched a few moments of Ross and Rumlow sitting together in a private secured chamber on the Raft. The discussion was mostly Ross trying to convince Rumlow to begin working off the record for him doing the ' _odd job_ ' that required someone with a ' _less noble conscious_ '. When it reached the part where Rumlow agreed but then requested his payment, namely Victoria being brought to live with him a his personal ' _fuck toy_ ', that was when the _entire_ group turned towards Ross.

"How the _hell_ did you get that video? That camera was supposed to have been _off_!" Ross screamed at him.

"Max Lohmer informed Sin of _anything_ that happened concerning Rumlow. She instructed him to make sure there were recordings of _any_ conversation you had with him. I made sure to copy _everything_ she had saved on her computer system from the Raft before we headed back here," Helmut then informed him with a smile, wondering if Ross understood what all he really had.

The panicked look that Ross then gave told him that he did.

"And what would ' _everything'_ entail?" Fury then directly requested.

"Not only are there videos where they worked out their agreement for Rumlow to be freed from the Raft to work directly for Ross, I have his personal computer file detailing how he planned on having Victoria kidnapped and placed into an identity-secure cell that only _Rumlow_ would have access to."

The accusations now being thrown towards Ross came from every single person in the large room. But it was Wade, Victoria, Steve, and Bucky that came over to join him.

"Would you tell us what it says?" Steve then politely requested, keeping his emotions well in check, each of them taking a hand of hers in theirs before hearing what was about to come. As he started explaining what he had found, everyone in the room quieted to hear.

"Once Victoria arrived at the Raft, she was to be put into a cell that had a blackout coating on the clear panel so the guards could not see her. Rumlow's cell, next to hers, had an access door so that he could enter whenever he wanted. The speakers have been deactivated so that no verbal communications could happen in her cell. There would be no way for her to request help from the guards. To prevent her from entering his cell where she could be spotted, a chain with a metal neck collar was installed."

Helmut could see the two of them getting angrier with every word, but they needed to know.

"We _saw_ that damn cell!" Bucky growled out angrily turning to face Ross. "This is not a _hypothetical_ event we are talking about. That _damn_ thing was ready to go. You were planning on putting Vic in there where Rumlow could _rape_ and _abuse_ her for his own _fucking_ amusement!?"

"Everything I _did_ , or _planned_ to do, I did for _national security_!" Ross screamed out as the entire group.

"Sanctioning the kidnapping a private citizen…negotiating with a terrorist…releasing said terrorist back into society to perform who-knows-what type of unsanctioned missions…negotiating payment with said terrorist with the life of another citizen…consenting to her repeated rape and physical abuse? I'm pretty sure that those are _not_ in your job description, motherfucker," Fury angrily informed him as he stepped towards Ross, Bucky and Steve flanking him.

"I would have kept Rumlow on a tight leash! Nobody would have been in danger!" Ross defended himself.

"Sin had already planned to free Rumlow if he _did_ go out on a mission," he said pulling up another file. "This is the schematics for the shock collar you planned to use on Rumlow, along with the plans for the deactivation device that Sin had her engineer create. Max got everything Sin would need to free Rumlow from your own files."

Ross was now looking a bit more worried at hearing that.

"After Sin freed him, Rumlow used to joke that if Ross had gone through with the deal, that Victoria would have been Ross' prisoner for life since he could never release her without her divulging where she had been, exposing his connection."

"You may consider what you did national security, but I'm sure that once I have a meeting in a few hours with not only the President, but also the World Security Council, that they will agree with _me_ and you are going be out of a job pretty damn quick," Fury then informed Ross.

Hearing that his prestigious job was on the line, Ross began to argue with Fury, still claiming he did nothing wrong, that any steps he had been planning on taking would be considered national security.

Suddenly, Ross froze up while shaking vigorously before collapsing on the floor unconscious. Everyone in the room then turned to Natasha, who was still standing to the side of Helmut as she lowered her arm. He saw that the Widow's Bite device was secured around her wrist under her sleeve.

"Will you look at that? There seems to be a glitch that made it fire on its own. I'll get Tony to look at that later," she smiled while Wade came over to wrap his arm around her.

Fury then walked over to where Victoria was standing, telling her, "I'll do everything I can to make sure that he's held accountable for his involvement with Steve, as well as what he was planning on doing to you."

"Thanks, Nick," she said giving the feared man a big hug, causing the surrounding group to snicker a bit at the scene. Helmut guessed that Fury didn't normally show or allow such personal actions. When she released him, Victoria looked over at him, then asked, "What's going to happen to Helmut?"

Fury looked at him like he wasn't sure himself.

"Since he was involved with Rumlow and Sin, as well as kidnapping you, he'll have to face some form of punishment," Fury told the group.

"What if it wasn't so much of a kidnapping but an unexpected trip with a partial stranger?" she deviously asked.

Fury then gave her a strange look, as if he wasn't sure that he'd heard correctly.

"Are you saying that you _don't_ want him prosecuted for what he did to you?"

" _See_ , already smarter than Tony," she grinned while smacking the back of her hand gently on his chest, also earning her a "Hey!" from across the way from Tony.

"If you'll agree, Nick," Steve then supplied, "Helmut will stay here at the Tower until the Council can come to a decision. I'll take personal responsibility for him."

Around this time, Ross started to groan as he began waking up on the floor.

"Considering how busy I'm about to be today, that should be fine. I'll be contacting you for a bit more for this full story," Fury told him before he and Maria grabbed Ross' arm and helping him stand, "and I expect a lot more details in the debriefing I expect _all of you_ to give, you too Vic."

"Not a problem," she informed him.

They watched as Fury and Maria escorted a dazed Ross to the elevator and down to their waiting SHIELD vehicles. It had been one of the most interesting afternoons he'd had in a long time.

* * *

Later that night after a very long debriefing for the entire group, they all sat around the table in the common room eating the pizzas which Tony had delivered. At first, Bucky noticed that Helmut had tried to remain practically invisible, not joining in with conversations, probably still worried about his status as a ' _guarded guest_ '. But when Sam had brought up the time he had gone with Vic to work on their house during construction, talking about the wild drive across the property she had given him, Helmut finally chimed in.

"Then you should never let her drive on winding mountain roads either," he told them.

"You didn't?" Sam asked.

"I had no idea that she would try to give me a heart attack," he told them.

"I was not!" Vic defended herself. "It just happened that the curvy roads were fun to drive on."

"We learned after our first road trip vacation together that Victoria can find fun in the scariest of places," Steve pointed out, earning him a poke in the side.

"I refused to let her drive us back up the mountain," Helmut said.

"That was probably the best decision you have made in a while," Bucky then added, a bit too on the nose but he didn't feel like holding back.

The table got quiet while they waited to see how Helmut would take the hard jab.

"It was probably in the best five decisions of my entire life," he replied with a straight face as others around the table started to laugh, bringing out a smile from Helmut.

Once everyone scattered around the room to chat, Bucky managed to corner Helmut over at the bar. He had already talked with Vic and Steve, telling them that he was planning on at least having a private discussion. Even considering how he had helped to prove Ross' involvement with Steve's kidnapping, as well as proving Vic correct with her accusations, there were a few things he needed to get off of his chest.

"So, is this where you casually make it look like I choked on an olive?" Helmut joked with him, finding it funny that he was trying to do so to help ease the tension between them. Maybe it would help.

"It depends on the outcome of this chat," he told him as he grabbed a fresh bottle of beer.

"Then I hope it ends with you hearing what you hope," he stated as he sipped on the single olive martini that Natasha had made for a couple of people.

"You _helped_ to kidnap one of the two most important people in this world to me, then turned right around and _outright_ kidnapped the other one," he bluntly stated. "You were there the _entire_ _time_ that Steve was being tortured and being turned into the Operative, just watching in the background. Then, when we are trying to get back to a semi-normal life, you _drug_ Vic and _take her away_ while leaving all of us here to _die_."

"And beyond telling you that I am sorry and that I now regret some of those decisions, and maybe _how I carried out_ those decisions, I do not know how to prove to you the sincerity of my words," Helmut stated.

"What do you mean ' _how'_ you carried them out?" he asked wanting clarification.

"I regret that I didn't know how to accomplish my task without drugging Victoria to get her out of harm's way, but I do not regret actually taking her where I thought she would be safe," he informed him, making Bucky's feelings a bit mixed at hearing that. "I knew there was a chance that Victoria had just been trying to play me that night in my room at Sin's castle. I used our time talking in the coffee shop to see if she was indeed as nice and sincere as I hoped her to be. And when she was, I went through with my plan of trying to keep her safe."

"If Vic had failed that _test_ of yours, you would have let her die along with the rest of us?" he asked a bit mad at the idea.

"I don't think I actually _believed_ she would fail," he admitted. "I have _no doubt_ that she saved my life by distracting Rumlow that day in the castle when he had the gun pointed at my chest. She continued taunting both of them until he turned his anger onto her. I still do not understand _why_ she would do that for me. She could had just as easily told Rumlow that I indeed had not done what he expected, beating and raping her, and let him kill me."

"That's not who Vic is," he pointed out, looking at her laughing with Scott about something small in his hand. "She's one of the most fun, outgoing people that you will ever meet. There is not a lot that will make her mad or angry, mostly Rumlow or anyone hurting her friends. But when she is mad, you better watch out."

"After what I witnessed in the castle with Max and the other agents, I completely understand your warning," he told him with a bit of a smile. "Victoria would be a great asset…"

Helmut paused with wide eyes as he spoke, realizing the word that he had just used while considering the company he was in.

"Victoria would be a great _benefit_ to any team that she was on. Of that, I have no doubt. I'm actually surprised that Fury hasn't already signed her up to work for him."

"Vic turned him down," he told Helmut, seeing the shock on his face. "She said that she'd rather _hear_ the stories than _make_ then."

"But with her skills, think of all the good that she could accomplish," he tried to point out.

"That's not what she wants. She's happy working in Tony's garage as a mechanic, living a simple life with the two of us," he informed him. "But you have strayed from the topic I started with."

Helmut took a long sip of his drink, finishing it off before he continued, "Victoria very straightforwardly pointed out that since my family died that I had no direction, no purpose in life. That I had let my anger consume me. And she was absolutely correct."

Bucky was a bit surprised at that admission.

"She called it a ' _purposeless vacuum'_. After Victoria pointed out a couple of important facts and she had left to go back up to her bedroom on her own, I sat down for the next few hours and took a hard look at what I have done with my life for the past three years. Victoria saw in a couple of minutes of talking with me weeks ago and then recently at the castle what I had not realized about myself. That I was not the same man that my wife Heike had married, and that she would be very disappointed in me with what I had been doing since losing them."

Bucky calmly listened as he talked. It a strange way, he could see a bit of himself as he spoke. After what he had been through working for HYDRA, he knew that he had not been the same soulmate to Steve that he had been before the war. He had lost himself for a while too. Luckily, he had come back to Steve and they had managed to find Vic, which helped him regain that piece missing from himself. But Helmut would not be getting that chance. His family was never coming back.

"I have not had someone _trust_ me so quickly the way Victoria did since I first met Heike. But she was my soulmate so I know that I have to take that into consideration. But Victoria…she _trusted_ me enough that night to know that I was not going to force myself on her as Rumlow would have. She _trusted_ me enough to agree to live with me, knowing that she may never see the two of you again. She _trusted_ me to be her friend, which I have not had one of in a very long time. With EKO Scorpion, it was _expected_ of them to be there for each other. But with Victoria, with the trust that she showed towards me, I would now trust her with my life. Actually, I believe I already have."

Bucky recognized everything he was saying as being the quintessential Vic that he and Steve, really…everyone in the Tower, had come to know. He didn't think that Vic would just give that trust without some reason, even if he didn't understand it. It sounded like Helmut had lost his way and just needed someone to help start him back on the right path. Maybe that person was Vic…

"Would you be willing to put some of your training to work for us here in the Tower?" he decided to ask. "If you can make restraints strong enough to keep me down, then maybe you can work with Tony on some of his projects…if he'll let you."

"I have been very interested in the bits of technology that I have seen Stark…Tony, using and would enjoy being able to help in any way that I can."

"Then as long as you can also promise that there will be _no more kidnappings_ in the future, then at least the three of us will put in a good word with the World Security Council," Bucky informed him, getting a look of relief and smile at hearing that.

"Thank you. I will strive to find the man that Heike came to love, as well as the one that Victoria believes I can be," Helmut said offering his hand.

Bucky took it, shaking it as he saw Steve and Vic smiling at him from across the room, happy at whatever outcome that he and Helmut had come to.


	115. Epilogue

FRIDAY continued to quietly monitor and guard the occupants of the Tower through the very unusual next couple of weeks.

Fury contacted the Avengers two days later, stating that Secretary Ross would be announcing his retirement from all active government positions due to ' _health reasons_ ' within a week's time. Clint commented that his excuse was technically true since if he hadn't, all of the Avengers would have sought bodily harm on him for his compliance with the bomb threat, helping to kidnap Steve, and nothing would top what he was planning with the abduction of Victoria. Ross would not be facing jail time for his actions to help with the public story as to his resignation. In his own form of retaliation punishment, Tony already had a new protocol running that would disrupt Ross' life by constantly sending hundreds of junk emails daily, dropping cell phone calls, and recording hours of gay porn on his cable DVR.

Helmut Zemo was giving one of the guest rooms as his quarters while the World Security Council decided his fate. They started out by listening to his own testimony of what he had done to help Rumlow and Sin. He then explained how his mindset had dramatically changed before moving on to his abduction of Victoria and his reason behind it. Fury and Victoria testified how he had turned around to help give the information to the Avengers so that they were able to disarm the bombs. By the end of the trial, they had agreed, with assurances from Steve and Tony, to allow Helmut to remain in the Avengers' ' _custody'_ for an undisclosed period of time until he had earned back his full freedom.

Since he was already at the Tower so much, Wade and Natasha decided to go ahead and have him move into her quarters. He continued working with Happy in security as well as with Tony when he didn't feel like running errands to the upstate facility. He also was put in charge of programming new training regiments for every Avenger, as well as Helmut...per Victoria's request.

Wanda and Pietro decided to move from Clint's farm to the Avengers' Upstate New York facility on a permanent basis. They enjoyed living with Clint's family for a few years, but now they felt ready, for the most part, to live on their own for the first time in a long while. Both continued to work with the team to hone the skills. Pietro would occasionally come to New York to take daily jobs from Richard at the bike messenger service stating that since Victoria had found her soulmates while working there, he might as well give it a try too.

Pepper had already begun to plan her and Tony's wedding, stating that if she didn't set him down to an imminent date that he would let their engagement linger for way longer than was necessary. She also made him promise to not bring his Iron Man suit with him on their honeymoon.

Steve, Bucky, and Victoria left a couple of days after Helmut's trial ended to return home for the first time in a long while. They had not been back out to their property since Steve had been taken. They wanted to get the house back in order, as well as spend some time together readjusting to the newfound peace that seemed to have taken over their lives.

* * *

**Koa 'Hale**  
**Weeks Later**

Looking stealthily from the window in the darkened guest room, Bucky knew that Vic would tease him with a Peeping Tom comment if she caught him.

Vic and Steve were sitting at the small table under the evening fall sky. The weather had been perfect today and had stayed that way for their meal. The private table was set with their best china and stemware along with a small vase of roses mixed with wild flowers while numerous candles flickered in the breeze. A simple yet elegant setting that he had planned just right for the two of them.

Steve was wearing one of his nicer suits and they'd told Vic to wear one of her long gowns as if going to a fancy restaurant. She looked beautiful sitting there in the red dress.

Bucky watched as Steve got up from the table for two and moved to stand next to Vic.

Just before bending down onto one knee, he watched him remove the velvet black box from his pocket, flicking it to open just in time with his kneel. The look of surprise on Vic's face was what they had been hoping for.

What neither of them had been expecting was Vic standing up so quickly that her chair toppled over to the ground behind her.

"BUCKY!" she then screamed so loudly that people back in the Tower probably heard her.

Startled, he stood up with wide eyes as he saw her looking back towards the house. The moment their eyes meet each other's, he knew that both him and Steve were in trouble for some reason. Vic glared at him with anger, then decisively pointed her finger at the ground next to where Steve was still kneeling while also looking back at the house.

Knowing a silent command when he saw one, Bucky hastily moved through the house and into the backyard to get to his waiting spot. Vic didn't say anything as she jabbed her finger to indicate for him to bend a knee to match Steve.

"What the hell did I tell the two of you about asking me to choose a favorite?"

He looked over at Steve as a bit of understanding hit the both of them as to why she was mad.

"Vic, we're not asking you to choose between the two of us," he replied.

"We wanted to give you the same type of relationship that every other couple can have," Steve told her.

"We," she was angrily circling her finger to indicate the three of them, "do not have the same type of relationship that everyone else has to begin with."

"But, by marrying Steve, you will officially be his wife…"

"Do you think that I would let a piece of paper mean that much to me?" she asked looking between the two of them. "All that marrying Steve would do is make _everybody else_ ," Vic was waving her hand towards the city, "think that I like Steve more and that you are not worthy of being my husband, which is udder bullshit."

Bucky couldn't believe that Vic would worry about him like that.

"What about if you were to marry Bucky?" Steve then asked.

Vic gave an exasperated sigh before answering, "Then people would just try to say that I felt _sorry_ for him because of his history and that _you_ did the _noble_ thing by letting us get married."

Unfortunately, after hearing Vic's strange logic, he had to agree with her even if he didn't really want to.

"I will not stand for anyone thinking that a decision that I make points to one of you as being better than the other so I don't give a fuck about getting married."

Hearing Vic curse, both of them knew that she was serious with her statement and that she truly meant it. But then something changed with her demeanor, a softness crossed over her face and her shoulders dropped. Stepping forward, she swept her hands around their heads and pulled them into an embrace so that they were resting against her body.

"I didn't think about how ya'll...Does getting married mean that much to the two of you?" she then asked, her voice strained. He knew that she was now worried about their feelings when it came to this.

"We just want you to be happy, to not feel like you are missing out on something that everybody else has due to how our soulmarks were formed," Steve told her.

"I _am_ happy!"

Hearing that, both of them wrapped their arms around her waist as she kissed the tops of their heads.

Maybe that was all that the both of them really needed to know.

"How about at least wearing the engagement ring as being from the both of us?" Steve then asked, holding up the custom ring. It held three stones in a row: a ruby, a diamond, and a sapphire in a platinum setting. He and Steve agreed to have it made to represent the three of them.

"From the both of you," Vic smiled down as she agreed to that term.

Steve took the ring from the box, slid it onto her finger up to the knuckle and then let him push it into place. Looking at the ring, they heard the familiar sound of a zipper. Seconds later, Vic's long gown pooled around her ankles to reveal that she had not been wearing anything underneath of it.

Shaking her head with disappointment towards them, "What is it with the two of you being overdressed all the time?"

They made it as far as one of the cushioned lounge chairs on the back porch.

* * *

**New York City**  
**August 30**

Two months later, Tony and Pepper were to be married at the 620 Loft & Garden. Pepper had been able to book the second to last day of August, and it turned out to be a wonderful day for an outside wedding. If the annoying flying drones controlled by the paparazzi would only quit buzzing around the area.

Watching as the wedding finally started, Vic was sitting between Bucky and Helmut, who sat on her right side. Steve was standing up next to Tony on the altar under the flowered arch. Natasha was standing next to Pepper as her maid of honor.

After an in-house discussion, the entire team / family agreed that they would much rather _watch_ the wedding than be a part of it. So, Steve and Nat were the only _official_ wedding party standing up with them…not that Tony didn't have the largest wedding party table ever waiting inside for _everyone_.

To make the ceremony as private as possible, Helmut had worked on a device that would send out a signal that created a distortion field to any device in the immediate area that warped the signal on its recording mechanism. All of the drones and digital cameras from nearby buildings were busy taking pictures of wavy figures without any facial features being recognizable.

Thanks to this bit of tech, Clint and his entire family were able to attend, as well as a couple of other friends of the Avengers who wanted to keep their identities secret.

The event went off without a hitch and the party went on until well into the next night. The newlyweds took off the next morning heading for a two week honeymoon in Bora Bora since Tony said that the name amused him. Some of the group stayed at the Tower a few more days before heading back to continue whatever they considered normal lives.

Without any immediate missions, the three of them headed home to spend some quiet time together.

* * *

**Koa 'Hale  
Eight Months Later**

"Hey, Vic! You got a package," Bucky called out as he used his foot to close the door to the garage since his arms were full of grocery bags. He had made a run into town for food and to stop at the post office for their mail since they only had a post office box instead of a mailbox thanks to the remoteness of their house. Carefully he placed all the bags on the island before calling out, "Steve, come help with groceries!"

He could hear footsteps from the front office as well as from the spare room above him. Vic had been going in there and sitting down on the bed for the past few days, just seeming to daydream about something. She always looked happy and every time he'd question her if something was wrong, she would tell him no with a smile, and he knew that she was being honest. Maybe it was just one of those strange things that she sometimes did.

With all the down time, Vic had been picking up hobbies for the past few months. Every team and family member now had newly knitted scarves and hats for winter time, his and Steve's were both color appropriate with stars. She had taken up calligraphy before using the paper to learn origami. Vic had even bought woodworking tools, including a lathe, saying that she would eventually be making him a new baseball bat. They now understood Wade warning about hobbies.

"Were you able to find the grape Nehi?" Steve asked stepping into the kitchen.

"Yes, two cases of it," he grinned as they began putting the stuff away as Vic bounded into the room with a grin for some reason. She made a beeline for the plastic packing envelope he'd put on the island.

"What did you get?" Steve asked putting away the cold items while he worked on the pantry ones.

"Oh, it's not for me," she said pulling at one end of the plastic to open it.

"Then what did you get us?" Bucky then asked smiling, wondering if Vic had ordered a new playtime toy.

"Oh, it's not for ya'll either," she had now ripped open the end as was pulling out a small piece of cloth. They saw her face light up even more at looking at the rich red item that seemed to have black letters stitched onto it.

"Then _who's_ it for?" Steve asked now more curious about the item than the softened ice cream.

"I don't know what their name is," she said walking over towards the door where the sun was shining in to get a better look at it.

The two of them glanced at each other with a knowing look. It seemed to be heading into one of _those_ type conversations with her.

"Instead of us going on for another hour and just getting ' _Victoria Answers'_ , how about you tell us _what_ that is and _why_ you got it?" Bucky joking requested but very bluntly.

Vic then looked at them while biting her lower lip, as if considering his request. After a moment, she turned to face them then held the small red cloth right in front of her so that they could read the black lettering. The only reason that he knew what she held in her hands was because they had seen Pepper receiving a couple at her baby shower a few months back. It was a baby's bib. Embroidered on it were the words:

_These fools put my cape on backwards!_

"So you got Tony and Pepper another baby gift?" Steve asked.

"No, it's not for _their_ kid," she informed them, lowering the item so that it rested on top of her belly.

"Then who's…" was about as far as Bucky got before the possible answer dawned on him…and apparently Steve at the same time.

"Victoria! Are you pregnant?"

Instead of initially answering him, she began to do a little boppy dance right there with the bib resting on her front while swinging back and forth with the largest grin on her face they had ever seen.

"Guess who's going to be daddies!?"

* * *

As they sat at the table after having put the numerous bowls of food onto it, Steve wondered if Wade and Nat had put together the strange connection of the food being served at tonight's dinner.

Baby back ribs, baby carrots, baby peas, buns hot from the oven…

Since Wade seemed to be fixing his plate without figuring out Victoria's subtle hints, he could only smile and wonder what she was going to do next. She'd had so much fun looking up ways to announce a pregnancy. After they finished eating, Victoria headed into the kitchen to retrieve the special dessert tray she had prepared…to really give away the secret. Coming back into the dining room, she put the tray on the sideboard, where Wade could see the strange options once he got around to looking at them.

In two bowls were M&M's, one bowl with blue colored peanut ones, and another bowl with pink colored plain ones. Little signs were sticking out of them either saying "nuts" or "no nuts". The other option were cupcakes with either blue or pink icing. She couldn't get any more obvious unless she just came out and told him.

Steve saw the moment that Natasha figured it out with her jaw dropping, but she remained quiet and looked over next to her. But since Wade was talking with Bucky, neither one of them were looking over, and Steve wondered if Bucky was distracting Wade on purpose. Victoria gave Wade a pointed glare from behind, which he also didn't see, and went back for the final item she had purchased for tonight. There was a large smile on her face as she placed the coffee mug down in front of Wade, the writing on it telling him… "World's Best Granddad!"

It wasn't until he had actually taken a sip from it that he finally paid attention to what the mug actually _said_.

By the time Wade looked over at her, Victoria was standing off to the side with a smirk on her face, a hand on her hip, _and_ a finger pointing directly at her belly.

Wade dropped the mug from his hand as he fell out of his chair to hit the ground unconscious.

* * *

**Stark Tower**

"What do you mean you're pregnant?" Tony screamed while throwing his hands up in the air. "How did you get pregnant?"

"I would have thought that FRIDAY would have given you the birds-and-bees talk months ago after finding out what you did to Pepper," Vic smiled up at him from where she was sitting on the couch in the common room between Steve and Bucky who were chucking at the conversation. "I guess that proves that you are _not_ the genius you've been _claiming_ to be."

Tony then tried pointing out."I know _exactly_ how I got Pepper pregnant, and I think I have it on video...but _you_ are on birth control!"

"First, eww, gross. Second, I _used to be_ on birth control!"

Tony's mouth that had opened to spew out his next comment, stayed silent, then snapped shut. Hearing that seemed to make him calm down a bit for some reason. Flopping down onto the couch, he looked between the two soulmates who had agreed to let her be the one to break to the news to him.

"Alright then, which one of them _defiled_ you?" he asked with a scowl.

"Both of them...many times in many ways," she grinned as Tony grimaced at hearing that. "As for who's the daddy, don't know, don't care."

Tony then gave her a hard look, and she could see that his mind was racing.

"You do realized that since they both have some form of super-soldier serum in them, that there is a good chance that it affected their little swimmers. The genetic makeup of the baby could be dramatically influenced," Tony then rationally informed her.

Damn. She hated even thinking it, but _Tony was right_.

"I'll give Dr. Cho a call and see when she's coming to town next. It would be a good idea to have her run a few non-evasive test to see what she can find," Tony said.

"That's not a bad idea," Steve then agreed. "I don't think any of us considered what genetic material might be passed on."

"But, there is a chance that all of it would be good," she pointed out. "The serums keep ya'll healthy, so the baby probably will be also."

"That's the best case scenario," Bucky told her giving the back of her hand a kiss.

"Oh, by the way, Tony…I quit!"

"No!"

They had been talking for a few minutes when the elevator opened up and Pepper stepped out…well, waddled out would be the more appropriate term. At eight months pregnant, she defiantly didn't move as fast as she used to. And of course right next to her was FRIDAY. The AI seemed to have taken a liking to the LMD body after the battle at the Tower.

Once full repairs were done on it, FRIDAY would control the body from time to time, interacting with the team on a more personal level. For the past few months, she carried anything that Pepper needed while stating she didn't need to lift anything possibly heavy. She was still in control of the Tower and a large portion of the corporation, but she seemed to like having a body and face to move around in.

"I'm guessing by the pout," Pepper said carefully lowering herself into the seat next to Tony, "that you told him the news."

"Yeah, but he'll get over it," Vic told her as Tony leaned over to rest his head on Pepper's shoulder while his hand automatically made its way to her belly, looking for any movement. "Besides, this way he can go into his own garage without getting in trouble."

* * *

**Stark Tower**  
**Seven Months Later**

"I hate both of you!" Victoria was screaming from the medical bed she was lying in.

The steady beeping of the monitor next to her showed the wavelengths between contractions and she was at another peek of one. Bucky was on her right side but only because she had clasped onto his metal hand and refused to let go. They were in the medical floor of the Tower instead of a normal hospital since Dr. Cho's early test had determined that that superior genetic material _had been_ passed along to the baby. They had asked her to at least not inform them as to _whose_ it was. It was to be a surprise, as well as the baby's sex, for them to learn at delivery time.

For the past seven months, the baby was in the best possible health it could be for the entire pregnancy but it still worried the two of them. He and Bucky both agreed that bringing in a private obstetrician for Victoria who knew exactly what was going on would be best. They had both been amazed that she had not even argued once with them. They knew she didn't like doctors of any kind.

"We know you don't mean that," Bucky then softly told her, to which Victoria gritted her teeth together and growled angrily at him. He'd never seen Bucky look so scared.

As the door to the room opened up, Dr. Kinkaid walked in with another man right behind him with a rolling car.

"The epidural specialist has arrived," they were informed as the other man instantly began to get his supplies ready.

About twenty minutes later, Victoria was lying on the bed looking as calm as she normally did.

"Why the hell do some people go through labor without an epidural?" she asked as he watched the monitor show another spike of a contraction, which Victoria didn't even feel now that the medicine was in her.

"I don't know. But next time, you're getting one _before_ you turn into a monster again," Bucky told her with a smile.

"If you think I'm doing this again, you're out of your damn mind!"

* * *

Bucky knew that there were a lot of people loitering in the waiting room. Everyone who could had rushed to the city to be here for the big event, same as they had done for Tony and Pepper. Every time he had run out to give a status report, Tony was pacing the floor like an expecting father while Pepper was taking care of Howard Anthony off to the side. At seven months old, there was no mistaking that Tony was his dad…he looked just like him with a full head of dark hair already.

There had not been too much of a shock when Tony and Pepper revealed his soulmark. It was a twist on the familiar sight but with a major change. Instead of the normal arc reactor design, or the modified triangle center design, the center was formed into a star. The outline was shaded in the same blue color as the original arc device but the star was completely void of color. There had been a lot of whispers as to the great possibilities behind Tony's back, who somehow seemed oblivious to the possible meaning.

They had allowed Wade into the delivery room after the baby was finally born. Natasha said that she would wait with the team instead of going back, wanting to feel the excitement as she and everyone learned about the surprises at the same time. In all the years that had now known him, it was the first time they had seen him cry...but they were happy tears.

Now, the doors to the private rooms finally opened to reveal him and Steve walking out of them with large smiles on their faces. In Steve's arms was a very small bundle wrapped in a soft white blanket. Nobody said anything as they rose and quietly stepped over to see the surprise he held.

Protectively held in his arms was a beautiful little girl. On her head was a pink cap and she wore a simple pink onesie. The three of them had decided against finding out the sex of the baby and had brought two sets of clothes to the hospital…prepared for either one. Just at the brim of the hat, very light blond hair could be seen, matching almost perfectly to Victoria's.

"Everyone," Steve began, "we would like to introduce you to Diana Rebecca Barnes."

Bucky found himself crushed in a mass of arms with congratulations being thrown his way as Steve just held their daughter and smiled at him. They had agreed months ago that no matter who the biological father was, that they would both be called 'daddy'.

He told everyone that Vic was fine and resting, after having nursed then holding the baby for most of an hour before giving the two of them a chance to bring her out for introductions. It had been during this time while holding her child for the first time that Vic had informed them that she would not mind ' _doing this again'..._ but with the stipulation that they make sure that the little brother or sister was Steve's. They had both easily agreed to that term.

"So, are you going to let us see?" Natasha was finally the one to ask for the excited group.

Steve looked over at Bucky who just nodded his head.

The moment that Bucky gently pulled the pink collar down to reveal the soulmark, a loud cheer drowned out any other noises nearby.

On little Diana's chest was a matching soulmark to little Howie's, only hers had a full red star surrounded by the colorless arc reactor.

"Are you _kidding_ me?" Tony's voice managed to supersede all the other's as he saw the object for the first time. Pepper just gave a knowing smile, like she expected this result all along…and maybe she had.

Off in the background, Bucky saw Clint pass over one dollar to a very grinning Sam at winning the bet between them.

**_The End!_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to say thank you for taking the time to read my story as well as giving any reviews as to your thoughts on it. It was fun to write, and I'm glad to hear that you all seemed to have just as much fun reading it!  
> I've already had a few request/remarks about a sequel, but unfortunately I don't have a full storyline to do anything with. But that doesn't mean that if you have any suggestions that I wouldn't be opposed to hearing them...so please, even if you have a vague idea as to what you would like to read, please let me know with a comment!  
> Thanks again for reading and reviewing!


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